I was doing a search of the 1851 Anglesey census and found the names of two people whose story really intrigued me.

Two women of  the same age, one of them married the other not, moved together to the island from the same little village in Cornwall.

I wrote this:

Why didn’t they listen?

I tried to tell them all that I didn’t want to marry him.   I told them that I knew I couldn’t make him happy as his wife.   I couldn’t love him,   or indeed any man.

His touch, his very nearness to me,  was unbearable.

I tried to learn how to  live with it but I couldn’t and as time passed he got angrier and more demanding and we both grew unhappy and resentful of each other.

It was Jane’s friendship that kept me from going mad,   She was almost my age and we would talk for hours.  We could discuss  anything and everything and  we would share our thoughts and dreams.

And then one day, as we walked and were fording a stream in the woods  she  gave me her hand to hold for support as I crossed over and it felt steady and I felt safe as I held onto it.

Sometime later she called on me when I was feeling particularly unhappy.  She hugged me and her embrace   was so warm, caring and loving  that I knew I never wanted to let go of her.

One day  she told me she was going to leave the village.  She told me that she needed to start a new life because she loved me and couldn’t cope with seeing me and not being able to be with me.

She cried when  I told her how I felt about her  and that  I wanted her with me always.

We live in North Wales now.

We are seen as two ladies who share a room in a lodging house to save money on rent and who work in a local mill.  If anyone asks me  about  my husband   I tell them he is mining in South Africa,  but they rarely do.

We still  have to be careful;  there are other Cornish folk living here who might know us or my people back at home   but my Jane and I can be with each other.

We are together.

We are happy.