Author Note: This is a first draft of The Girl Who Fell Out of The Ocean and is currently un-edited

The Gregory's Houses- Present Day

Lavinia wept.

There was no more Charlie, her inner voice it was stifled once more. She could feel it, everything she wanted to say pushing its self-right down into the deep dark unholy crevices of her soul.

It wasn't right, him loving her this way, they could never be together, she didn't belong to this world, and despite everything, she would always love another.

Will.

More than ever before she could feel the Ocean calling to her, calling her back and this time she wanted to run back into its deadly grasp. There was nothing for her left here either, just more of what she had been trying to escape from for so long, the endless lie that was Lavinia Gregory, her stolen life.

Lavinia had made a promise, the last promise she would ever make. Anna and George and made her promise to visit Chichester University where Andy and Sam were studying, she would keep her word but after that, she couldn't be sure.

Lavinia felt her body rise from her bed where she had been lying letting her thoughts wash through her, using her like a vessel to command at will. She pulled her suitcase from under her bed and began to pack. As she through her clothes in that suitcase Lavinia made a promise to herself that she would try her hardest to keep.

She would try one. Last . Time.

To be normal.

To forget.

For Sam.

For Andy.

For... Lavinia.

France, Field Hospital-1916

Some days are darker than others and this day was a dark day. Will was leaving for the front and I was leaving France altogether and returning to Marxby Manor and the request of my husband.

We had tried to make the most of our last days together but the time it never seemed enough. I told myself the same things about Will that I told myself about Jimmy, he would be fine.

Somehow if I repeated the words over and over again I almost managed to convince myself they were true and then my brain would gift me a flash of one of the many broken men who had arrived and who I had tended to in France.

Love doesn't protect a man from bombs and gas and guns. It is just love, but it was all I had to give.

A cart was coming for both of us, it felt like we were being ripped apart, torn from each other because of violence and anger. The violence of war and the anger of Niall they both had a hard and heavy pull with the ability to endure.

I had told Will about the baby and more than anything he was angry, angry at the cards that life had dealt us.

"This is why I wanted you to marry me, Dolly, because you, you and that little life you are carrying inside you, you are mine."

I didn't say anything I couldn't say anything, we were his and he was ours and now what would become of us.

To pick back up at Marxby where I left off like nothing had happened that could never be, I wanted to scream and shouted at the frustration of it all but instead I just stood still and watched Will do all my raging for me.

"Our child might never know me, might never know who they really are, they will look to Niall for the love that is mine to give," Will's eyes were bleeding with sorrow and I knew, I knew that I had done this to us with the choices I had made. But how could I regret my decisions? My marriage to Niall would protect Fay and Percy from going through the torment of marrying a man they could never love.

Will knew what I was thinking; he knew I was thinking of my sisters.

"It's not worth it Doll, not to me."

It had to be worth it to me, it had to...

"Is their happiness worth more to you than the happiness of that life growing inside you," my eyes began to brim with tears.

"Stop it Will," I said my voice almost choking.

"Just stop it,"

Will and I had found each other again but the same reasons that had torn us apart in the first place were facing us again now. We looked at each other and deep down we both knew it was too late to go back, there was no going back for us. I was Niall's wife now...

"I'm sorry," he said.

"I always would have married Niall, my father, he would have dragged me down that aisle if it came to it, I married Niall because Papa sold me to the highest bidder, he never would have set me free Will," I said. I hung my head at the memory of my wedding.

Will let out a sigh and moved closer to me, he reached out his hand and put it on my face softly and I looked up at him, my eyes brimming with tears.

"What is to become of us?" I said taking his hand in mine.

"I do not know my love, how can I know what is to become of you, both of you when I don't know what is to become of me?"

Will took me in his arms then, all our bickering it meant nothing, the only thing that meant anything at all was his arms around me and his heart beating fast and full of panic against my chest.

Present day – Manchester, England.

Lavinia was waiting by the front door with her bags, George and Anna could barely believe their eyes, she was going, she was really going to Chichester.

Alright, she wasn't a student yet but Anna had made sure her place at the university had been deferred for a year and if this reunion went well Lavinia could be a student in September.

It was everything Anna had fought for, trying to give Lavinia a normal life, it could really come to pass. Anna was beaming as George reached for the car keys and Lavinia followed him slowly to the car.

He was dropping her to the station and she was meeting and Andy and Sam at the University. George turned and looked at Lavinia, no snide remark or goofy joke about his cardigan he wanted to stop, tell her she didn't have to go but he didn't utter a word. He just opened the car door and watched with fear as she stepped inside.

He could feel something was wrong, her silence, her dead eyes but still George pulled out the drive way, waved at a delighted Anna and drove on, on to the station.

It was only when Lavinia was getting out of the car, heaving her backpack onto her shoulder that George managed to talk to his daughter, before that moment he was just too afraid.

"Love, everything alright?" Said George as he peered from behind the steering wheel.

"Everything's perfect Dad," said Lavinia with a bright smile.

Dad.

The word hit him like slap round the face, yes he had always dreamed of Lavinia calling him Dad and smiling back at him just as she had.

But with everything Lavinia had said to him, he couldn't deny there was a seed of doubt at least a seed of something.

Dad, perhaps not, but he was her father and he knew, he knew something was wrong, he could feel it in every fibre of his being. It told him that something was different about Lavinia. But still he said nothing, he watched his daughter walk away from him and as she disappeared into the station suddenly George's heart felt heavy. He wasn't sure why but he rested his head on the car steering wheel and he started to cry. 

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Hi Guys thank you for all your continued support - updates every Wednesday and Sunday (sometimes in-between) 

This is Book 1 in The Ghostly Saga I am currently working on Book 2 I mentioned at the end of my last post that I would be revealing the title of Book 2 in The Ghostly Saga to you soon...... Book 2 is going to be called The Man Who Jumped Into The Sea!! Exciting stuff :-) More info  on Book 2 to come soon!

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