This is not how she had envisioned it – life. It wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t great either. Never would she have imagined suffering such a fate alone. She felt a wave of self-pity wash over her as she sucked in the stale, damp air that clung to the back of her throat like a cobweb. She coughed before immediately taking a desperate inhale and coughing once more. The fever sweats dripped from her forehead and body as she tried to rise, instantly slumping back upon the grey cotton sheets.

Her mother would have said she’d deserved it; too outspoken as a young woman, with no possibility of a man wanting to marry such a headstrong lady. And without a marriage, how could she hope to survive daily life or keep a proper household, never mind surviving such an illness? She didn’t have much to her name, but she had done the best she could. And by damned she would not let her life go without a fight. She bit down, enamel upon enamel in fierce determination. She would survive. She dared anyone to say otherwise.