Why Can’t I Remember?

Fenella Hepworth is injured in a carriage accident and loses her memory. She knows who she is, but the previous four years are wiped away. Recovering in a roadside inn, she only has her maid, Biddy with her as she was traveling to Lancashire to marry the son of her father’s friend. But with her memories lost, Fenella cannot recall why she has given up waiting for the man of her dreams, William Southern, to sweep her off her feet.

Fenella wanted to pound the bedclothes in frustration. What had happened in those lost four years? She tried to clasp her arms over her chest, but pain stopped her. Disappointed, she dismissed the maid.
Why can’t I remember? She believed Biddy. The girl had come to the house only recently. But what happened to Charlotte? She must have married. We had our come-out. We had dreams, our shared dreams about love.
I had dreams. Ones she had never admitted to her bosom friend. Fenella had long dreamed of marrying Lieutenant William Southern. On a visit to Barnsley Cross, he would fall in love with her. Charlotte would help and approve. That was what bosom friends did.
But Charlotte isn’t there anymore. She must have married and moved away. Fenella’s scalp prickled. I need to return home in case William visits Mrs. Southern. She shuffled in bed. But what would my family say? Her father would be devastated since he had negotiated this alliance.
She could recall him mentioning his friend, Mr. Sloan. And a decade ago, the friend had brought his sons and daughter to visit. The two sons had teased her. They couldn’t hold a candle to William Southern. Fenella didn’t want to marry a bully.
I must remain loyal to William. I can’t, I won’t marry Mr. Sloan’s son. If she didn’t waver, Fenella felt assured William would appear and declare his love. But what to do?

Snippet from: Inventing Love: a tantalizing retelling of The Goose Girl Fairy Tale.

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