Author Note: This is a first draft of The Girl Who Fell Out of the Ocean and currently unedited. 

Charlie's Cottage- Present Day

When Charlie turned the key to his cottage the only light was a dim pool being cast down by the moon.

As he opened his door he turned back to the moon, the same moon that had cast it's gaze down on Dolly and Violet all those years ago and he could help but touch his heart.

He felt it ache for the mother that never knew her child and the child who must have always wondered who her mother had truly been.

But most of all his heart ached for Lavinia, yes she was Dolly but she was now also Lavinia, a living breathing woman standing before him.

As he opened his door he wondered where did Dolly end and Lavinia begin or was he just deluding himself? Was Lavinia truly Lady Dolphina Marxby to her very core?

When Charlie stepped through his front door there was a fierce face waiting to greet him, May.

"You know what?" She said not waiting for him to reply, Charlie daren't reply May looked furious.

"I've been here a few days and quite frankly I've had enough,"

Charlie wanted to tell her she could leave if she wanted but was too scared.

"When Mum died...and June," she started.

Charlie did not know where this was going, he knew he hadn't told her he was going out but this didn't really feel like enough to bring their dead Mother and Sister into it.

"I have looked after our eight younger siblings so you and Feb could finish medical school, go, move out be brilliant, be doctors, then you got married..." May's small arms waved all over the place as she spoke.

Charlie stood at her with wide eyes he wasn't expecting this at all.

"March I am younger than both you and Feb, it's my turn now, one of you has to take a turn looking after the kids," she said.

Charlie just gaped at her, but for the first time since he left home he was really being honest with himself.

It was easy to leave it all to May, let it all fall on her small shoulders because if it didn't fall on her it would fall on him.

He had wanted to go to medical school and then get married to Alice, in his own way he made certain he was never coming home, not to live at least.

May began to cry "It's not fair March, I love the kids there my brothers and sisters, of course, I love them but they have trapped me, trapped me in a life I don't want.

When I was growing up I never thought I would have kids and now I mother eight of the little devils," she cried.

Charlie just looked at his strong vibrant sister and he saw the light had gone from her eyes. The sister, who wanted to work in music, could play seven different instruments and wanted to get a degree, maybe teach, yes she was trapped and he and February had allowed it to happen.

He knew that February would never go back not even if May begged him, maybe she already had.

"I know you don't want to be a doctor anymore March, you are so unhappy, couldn't you just come back, just for a bit?" May sniffed.

Charlie was tempted, he loved his brothers and sisters, he missed being in their lives and the thought that May being their soul guardian was hurting her, stopping her from having her own life hurt him all the more.

But he was stopped from saying yes, all he could think of was Lavinia and his ties to her. What would happen to her if he wasn't around? Who would she talk too?

She needs me. He thought.

"I need you, big brother," said May her eyes pleading, Charlie really was torn, if it wasn't for Lavinia he would have got in the car and moved back with May this afternoon.

"Hey," said Charlie suddenly thinking out loud.

May raised her blonde eyebrows.

"Where are you guys living now?" Charlie's siblings moved around a lot, England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales they'd lived in all four... multiple times.

It was partly due to their mother's restlessness and now partly due to the family's inability to stay out of trouble.

May shrugged "We're moving again."

"Why," said Charlie his slightly voice angry.

May didn't want to tell him, you get to know about the family when you actually are part of the family.

"Reasons," she replied with a smirk.

Their moving wasn't so much for a reason but more an idea an idea that would bring Charlie home for good.

France, Field Hospital, 1915

I left the hospital to meet Will early that afternoon. I snuck through the tall whispering trees and felt the fallen leaves crunch under my feet, the sound reminded me of being back at the manor and playing in some of its many gardens.

Running beneath the trees in the winter, wrapped in my hard, stiff coat and scarf with no one to wonder about me, no one to care because I was a child and I was free, at least that's how I felt.

Fay wasn't born, perhaps she was a baby I don't recall, but Jimmy would take my hand and we would run from the manor and to the gardens. Each garden felt like a maze to us, a new adventure.

For a moment while I was walking under those trees towards to the small stretch of beach where I had arranged to meet Will I was back at the manor.

I could almost feel Jimmy's hand in mine, and for a moment I could smell the gardens all but one, our infamous locked garden.

I shook my head as I thought of it, it seemed to matter so much as a child, that over grown ivy, that locked door with no key. But somehow, childhood slips away from you and other matters become more important.

Like marrying a man you will never love, loving a man you can never have and the locked garden was all but forgotten, not just by me but Jimmy, by everyone at the manor.

The gardens at Marxby were almost a showpiece, something to astound guests, to wow, but at the corner of our estate was an old garden covered in ivy and weeds, with a door that had never been opened, not in mine and my parents lifetime at least.

Now that time had passed no one cared about what was inside, not even me. I laughed at myself for thinking about Marxby and the locked garden, it was funny how the mind could draw you into thinking about such things, as I continued to walk through the trees the beach made it's self-visible.

It was a warm day, for December that is and both the sky and the sea were a crisp kind of grey everything seemed so clear, so right.

I knew I was early, I had wanted a few moments alone with the sea before Will has arrived. I tried to tell myself it was stupid, but before I knew it I was leaving my tent and rushing through the trees and found myself looking at the crashing sea shore.

I took off my shoes feeling the wet sand touch my feet and I couldn't resist moving closer to the water, just let your toes touch the waves I thought to myself.

But I knew it was a lie, as soon as my toes touched the waves that was it, I had to follow, I took off my uniform and leapt forward, in nothing but my petty coat.

I belonged here I thought, the sea, is my true home. As soon as the words flashed through my mind I plunged my body under the water letting the water run all over my body, allowing myself to be part of the ocean.

That's when I heard it, the call, my call home I think "Dolly," said the cry, I'm surprised I heard it at all, but maybe I was meant to.

Sometimes, I think you are supposed to hear things, feel things and I was supposed to hear his voice and it brought me back to the surface, it brought me back to the world of the living and away from the watery depths of the sea.

Will had seen my clothes on the sand and ran into the sea after me. It's not like I was drowning, I was just answering the pull, this pull I felt to the water. Will looked at me with both fury and fear in his eyes.

"Don't ever do that," he said.

He held my face he his wet hands and I could see he meant it.

"What?" I said.

"Go where I cannot find you?" He pulled me close to him as if he had just rescued me from a sinking ship.

I just nodded; maybe, just maybe the sea was warning me to stay away from its watery grasp after all. I walked out of the sea and for the first time realising that Will was dripping wet too.

"You're soaking," I said.

Touching his body as if to make sure.

"I don't care, I just want to look at ye," he said.

Will moved closer to me, and softly stroked my face with his thumb, "Dolphina," he said. When Niall said my name it almost sounded like a punishment but when Will said it, well it sounded beautiful almost like a song.

I moved closer to him, I wanted to touch his hard wet chest, so I did. I started to kiss his chest, I started from his torso and worked his way up until I was almost at his neck.

When I reached the crook of his neck he made a groaning noise, a noise that suggested he couldn't take my teasing anymore.

I wasn't expecting him to touch me with such fire, with such passion. He picked me up by my bare thighs like I weighed nothing at all, I was wearing nothing but my white, see through petty coat and he looked at my almost bare form just once, everything he was feeling and had ever felt sat there roaring in his eyes.

His big calloused hands, an artist's hands held my thighs with such passion with such wanting that he dragged me back into the sea.

I was wary of the sea now, wary of my connection to it, but I felt safe with Will. He kissed me hard and fast first on the mouth and then moved to my neck and breast, I knew that we wouldn't be parted not now, not ever. He pulled my soaking petty coat from my body and I let out a noise of pleasure and I knew in that moment that we would be together, together in the sea.

Hi guys, I hoped you enjoyed my latest chapter of The Girl Who Fell Out of the Ocean (Book 1 The Ghostly Saga) 

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