Tears trickled down the eighteen-year-old Elisabeth Handel’s cheeks as she stood by the edge of the moor.
The moor was always so beautiful this time of year. The heather and wildflowers were all in bloom, and a light breeze danced and floated back and forth through the grass. It reminded Elisabeth of herself, much younger, as she had skipped and ran and twirled through the wildflowers.
She longed to return to that time frame, when life had been so simpler to live in, so free.
It was hard to believe that she was a woman now, and that she would soon be a wife, and a mother.
This is all nonsensical, Elisabeth whispered in her mind. There is nothing in my life I have to be unhappy about. Jonathan is a wonderful man, and I should be entirely happy to be engaged to him. He’s the proper choice.
“Proper,” Elisabeth whispered. Her words were lost in the wind, and her heart ached.
Jonathan was truly a nice choice, from a wealthy family. Her father couldn’t have chosen a nicer man.
Elisabeth sighed and leaned against a tree. It wasn’t an action that a lady would do, but her mind was preoccupied at this point.
She closed her eyes as she remembered Jackson Merriam’s face. He had been her playmate as a child, and she missed him terribly.
However, he had been the son of a merchant friend of her father’s, and thus had not been a choice for a suitor. She had not seen him, nor heard from him, for years and years now, but she could easily picture his handsome face in her mind.
“I would give up my life to see him again,” she whispered, the words stolen from her mouth and gone with the wind.

“Elisabeth? Elisabeth, is that you?”
Elisabeth turned around, and lifted her hand to her eyes, although her wide-brimmed hat did a well enough job blocking the sun out. She had simply gone out to purchase some bread, and the stone street was bustling at the noontime hour.
“Who are you?” she asked the handsome stranger.
“Do you not remember your childhood playmate?”
“Jackson?” Elisabeth whispered.
The man smiled, and Elisabeth’s heart swelled.
“It is you!” she smiled, and rushed to embrace him.
“You look well,” he complimented her, once she had stepped back. Elisabeth flushed.
“As do you,” she returned. She studied his face. The years had done nothing to age him, as his face still had a youthful appearance to it. He was well-dressed, wearing the clothes of a proper Englishman.
“Where have you lived?” she questioned.
“My travels have taken me all over the world, Elisabeth. I always said to you I would be a wealthy man, and I have fulfilled my promises. I wish to take you with me, now, such that we can acquaint ourselves with one another once again.”
“Leave with you?” Elisabeth repeated. “Oh, Jackson, I couldn’t possibly.”
“Why not?” he asked petulantly. “Let me see you again. I could visit you tomorrow. We could have tea, and make conversation. We always promised that we would be married.”
“Things have changed, Jackson,” Elisabeth said softly. “I cannot, and will not, marry you now.”
“I do not understand you, Elisabeth,” Jackson said, lifting his hand and caressing her cheek. “We were promised to one another. At least let me see you again.”
“Very well,” Elisabeth replied. “I shall be at home all day tomorrow.”
Jackson nodded and tipped his head. “I shall see you then,” he said.
With one last look into her eyes, he parted, and left Elisabeth alone on the street.
And despite the bustle around her, the women in their corsets and gowns and the men dressed as the proper men they were, Elisabeth suddenly felt very desolate, and very alone.

“What do you expect of me?”
Elisabeth spat the words bitterly in Jackson’s face. “Do you honestly expect to persuade me to leave the man I am betrothed to simply because you decided you desired me as a wife?”
Her chest heaved with anger as she gazed into Jackson’s deep brown eyes, and she briefly reminded herself that she must behave with propriety, as she was a lady.
“No, my dear,” Jackson beseeched her. “I never expected anything of the sort from you. You are forever faithful and loyal to those who love you.”
“You say that as if it were a bad thing,” Elisabeth spoke harshly to Jackson.
“For me, it is, my love.”
Elisabeth’s honey-blonde curls fell across her shoulders as she shook her head. “This whole idea has vexed me. I cannot fathom how you, Jackson, can possibly expect me to run with you and leave Jonathan, who loves me so deeply?”
“Ah, but Elisabeth, you cannot dare say that you love him in return. I have felt you calling for me all these many years.”
“You speak of lies! Lies!” Elisabeth’s eyes welled up with furious tears, and she blinked them back defiantly. “I do not have to tolerate such ignorance in my own house! See yourself out immediately!”
Jackson’s eyes filled with regret and sorrow. “Elisabeth, you will come with me someday,” he predicted. “Our love is far too strong to be stolen away from us, especially by someone such as your Jonathan.”
“You are right about one thing,” she said loftily. “He is my Jonathan, and you have no right to rush home to me and expect me to still be waiting on you after so many years. You left to run amok off the moors and have your playtime, and I tired of waiting for you, Jackson. That is not my fault in any way, and you shall not make it so!”
“I did not say it was your fault, dear. And I have not spent any of my time in playtime! I made myself into a respectable man, Elisabeth, and only for you.”
“But you did it too late, Jackson! Father has already arranged a marriage for me with Jonathan.”
“You have said that, Elisabeth, and I say again: you do not love that man! He is respectable, ‘tis true, but he is not myself, and I am the only one you love.”
“Leave my house!” Elisabeth commanded, holding back the tears that threatened to overflow her eyes. “I say you, leave immediately!”
Jackson stood there and stared at her.
“Leave!” Elisabeth repeated, her voice rising to a quiet shriek.
Jackson shook his head as he stepped away from her once again and walked to the door. “I will be in touch,” he said, closing the door behind him.
Elisabeth shook her head and fled to her room.

Elisabeth, my love. I realize that perhaps my arrival was a bit sudden and possibly jilted your nerves. I am writing this to inform you of my intent to leave town, forever this time. I cannot live my life in this town with the daily realization of what I have lost. I hope you and Jonathan are very happy together, you will have a wonderful marriage. All my love, forever, Jackson.
Elisabeth’s eyes filled with tears as she read the telegram. Oh, how desperately she wanted to run to him, to see if she should find him at the station.
Perhaps I will, Elisabeth thought.
Quickly, she gathered up her skirt and ran through the fields to the horse stables. She quickly swung up on her horse, Raven, and urged him into a gallop.
Through the fields, and across the moor they flew. Elisabeth was a skilled rider, and had been ever since she was a girl. The flowers that decorated the moor blew past as she leaned down over Raven’s withers.
She slowed the horse as they approached the town, avoiding the main roads. It wasn’t proper for a lady to be bareback on a horse.
But Elisabeth didn’t much care about propriety at this point.
She tied Raven up outside the station and ran inside.
“Jackson?” she called, hurrying her way through the crowds. “Jackson?”
“Elisabeth?”
Elisabeth felt a sense of familiarity pass over her as she turned around to face Jackson. She had been in this same place, this same situation before. Only instead of meeting him in the middle of a bustling street, she was now in a station, and he was running toward her.
“Elisabeth!” he said as he picked her up and spun her around. She laughed as her dress flowed out around her.
“Elisabeth,” he whispered.