Hannah's Golden Moment

1804 Hannah accidentally meets Percy in the woods Twenty-nine years old, Amanda Blows, lived in a small two bedroom cottage in Tatham's Fells, near Boston, Lancashire, with her two daughters. All the cottages were primitive in that they had no running water. No toilet or bathroom. Water was obtained from a single pump at the horse trough in the village square. Amanda's eldest daughter Hannah was ten years old, and her youngest daughter Charlotte, six year old. The children's father had long since taken off and not been heard from again. Life had been hard, but the same could be said for hundred's of families who barely scraped a living. They worked long hours in the spinning factories, and the bleach works or in one of the titled gentry mansions. Caring for her two children had fallen to Amanda almost from the time the girls were babies. Fortunately, she had always been able to rely on her mother, Jean Blows, whom the children lovingly called Nanna. Amanda was still very attractive. Her eyes violet in color was brushed by long lashes. Her long blond hair was partly covered by a kerchief to help keep it from falling over her face as she leaned over the scrub board in the small scullery. These days, she always appeared to wear a troubled look on her face, but this did not subdue the brightness in her eyes as she pulled up the corner of her apron to wipe the perspiration from her forehead. After all, the children were happy even though they were very poor and daily barely able to make ends meet. The cottage, situated on a lane adjacent to a large wooded area, was owned by Lord Hauntmont as was almost all the property around that area. The Hauntmont family had owned the land at Tatham Fells for four generations. They also owned two of the largest cotton mills. The nearest neighbor to the Hauntmont estate was Wilfred Ainsworth of Smithhill Hall. The hall had been built of sand coloured bricks and consisted of twenty eight rooms. The house was Tee shaped and had two tall ridiculously large chimney stacks. There was a stable large enough for six horses Wilfred Ainsworth also owned the Bleach Works in the picturesque area known as The Small Valleys at the bottom of which there was fast flowing water and overlooked an area known as the Turton Fields. During medieval times, Bolton was a center of the woolen trade. Spinning factories were now being built. Fine muslins and calicoes were being produced. Girls as young as eight and nine years of age were employed in many of the factories. The girls worked very long hours for pitifully low wages. Amanda had worked in one such factory until the owners of the factory installed modern machinery that replaced much of the need for human labor. Men and women were laid off and this caused wide spread discontent. It also led to a crisis time when the machinery was deliberately smashed by enraged mill workers. These were known as the Luddies. The Luddies were led by a man from Sherwood Forest called Ned Ludd. Troops were brought in and many arrests made. These circumstances also necessitated Amanda's mother, Jean Blows, to move out of the general area, to the outskirts of Bolton, to a one bedroom cottage quarter mile from Amanda. Amanda called out to Hannah, who was playing with friends, 'Hannah, go to the edge of the woods, and collect more wood for the fire under the copper boiler, it has burned very low. Do be quick, because I still have a lot of washing to do and when you get back, you will have to go to the pump for more water!' Hannah was a healthy if somewhat thin ten years old. Her curly blonde hair hung down her back in braids. Her eyes were a hazel color. Her skin matched the finest Dresden china, with cheeks brushed by nature, a soft coral pink. Hannah was enjoying the brief time she had to spend with her friends who worked in one or the other factories, or were too young to go to work. She wistfully said to her mother, 'I wish us didn't have to take in other people's washing, ironing, and mending!' Her mother quickly retorted, 'If us didn't, us would have no food, and I would not be able to pay the rent, so be off girl, and get the wood: Things be now so hard for us lass, that soon I will have to send you off to work in one of the factories or in one of the rich... Mehr