Author Note: This is a first draft of The Girl Who Fell Out of the Ocean and is still raw and unedited, all critiques welcome. 

Sheiks, Bognor Regis, England- Present Day

The dark night seemed to weigh down on Lavinia as she ran from the club, she could hear the sea and its violent thrashings like it was calling out to her, an acknowledgement of all she had remembered as if it was not just her who had remembered but the universe had remembered as well. 

She jumped in the nearest taxi and asked to be taken back to Sam and Andy's campus at the university she wanted a change of clothes, all of a sudden she was desperate to separate herself from the clothes she had arrived in, the feel of them on her skin was so unwelcome now they felt so foreign.

She reached the university, threw some money at the taxi driver and ran towards the halls; luckily Andy had asked Lavinia to keep her keys in her handbag as there wasn't a lot of room in hers. Andy prioritised extra foundation, mascara and lipstick over keys and had foolishly handed them over to her sister. 

She ran up the stairs towards Andy's room as fast as she could as if running to something, finally using Andy's key to swipe into her section of the building. The lights in Andy room were still on, with the darkness of the night the room seemed so much brighter than it had before they left. Lavinia stripped from her clothes before she was barely over the threshold, rubbing her skin as if they burned her somehow, she dug through the small holdall she had arrived with and found Sam's familiar grey hoody, her skinny jeans and her red Converse, her hood went up immediately. 

Now slightly calmer and feeling more in control Lavinia reached for her phone that had haplessly tumbled out of her open handbag, she set it up to record a video balancing it onto window-sill that faced the bed, she sat down, legs crossed and began to speak.

Marxby Manor- August – 1918

It's funny what time changes and what it doesn't, for me time had made me used to war, it had made it this stagnant thing that always surrounded me. Time made me used to being without my brother although never would I be okay with his loss, it was something that I became used to which was even more tragic somehow.

Time also made me used to being a mother, my daughter was the great light in this dark world I called home, her name was Violet, her name was about the only thing Niall and I agreed on these days.

But the days had long gone since we were fighting what to call the little baby girl that had once lay so small and peachy and new in my arms. Violet was two years old yesterday not that we would have known it the only people who celebrated her birthday were Fay and I. Niall disappeared into Marxby's gardens, something he often did when he didn't want to see or feel the world around him, when he didn't want to look and Violet or  look at me. He had never bonded with her and I never tried to force it he wasn't her father and I wanted Niall to have as little to do with Violet as possible.

Since the birth of my daughter I had less and less to do with my husband and honestly it was a relief, he left me to raise my little girl and had almost disappeared from my life altogether. Sometimes I saw him with Percy I didn't care what either of them were doing with their time, I just wanted to spend my days with my beautiful child and protect her from a world that sometimes seemed to be crashing in all around us.

I was sitting with Violet on my lap when Fay came bounding into the drawing room, "hello gorgeous," she said scooping up Violet and twirling her around in her arms.

"Where have you been?" I said.

"Nowhere really, just talking with Mama, she said Papa wants to talk to me about something?" Violet was resting on Fay's hip contented with gathering Fay's blonde curls in her chubby hands.

"What do you mean?" I said getting slightly agitated.

"What's the matter with you? Why are you getting cross?"

My little eighteen-year-old sister was  quite a beauty, Papa wouldn't betray the promise he made me? Would he? Flashes of my past played in my head like a stage play, my refusing to marry Lord Niall, Papa promising that Percy and Fay could make their own choices if I agreed. 

My heart began to pound, surely not, Papa wouldn't would he? I ran from the room "Dolly, Doll, where are you going come back?" I heard my sisters voice like she was miles away I knew she wouldn't follow me not when I had left her holding Violet. I stood for a moment, heart racing outside Papa's office door, then I just walked in, he was sat behind his desk organising some papers with his back to me. When I entered he turned his chair, seeing me he made a grumble under his breath.

"Dolphina, I have been wondering when you would appear,"

I gaped at him, "You mean it's true then, you plan to match Fay? And break the promise you made to me after you married me to that... that, monster,"

Papa sighed, in a tone that could have only meant exasperation.

"What I plan to do with my daughter is my own concern," said Papa.

"I won't allow it , Fay is too good, to bright and brilliant to be forced into a marriage like mine,  look at the bastard I am married to," I cried.

Papa stood from his chair and walked towards me.

"I don't have to answer to you Dolly," said Papa.

I screamed, I don't know where it came from, somewhere deep inside, somewhere visceral, and filled with every frustration I had, but I knew as I glared at my father I wouldn't let him lead my sister down the same road he had dragged me. She would laugh and love and have all her heart desired if it was the last thing I would ever do.

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