Page 1 of The Lady and the Footballer
Chapter One
Nothing could compete with a day like this.
Save, perhaps, a night with a good woman.
Colin stood to the side of the field, hands on his hips as he surveyed the men before him. He couldn’t believe he was back here, playing the game he loved once more.
His joy was nearly indescribable.
“Are you going to stand there and take the air like a lady, or will you get onto the field and show us your worth?”
Colin nodded to his captain and sprinted back onto the field. Just in time, the ball met his feet and he connected, sending it sailing over Mickey’s head to Tommy, who was sprinting toward the opposing goal.
“That’s it, Thornton,” Rhys said, clapping his hands. “Your head’s in the game now.”
A cheer filled the field as Tommy found the top left corner of the goal, and he pushed his hair out of his eyes as he rounded the corner of the field and lazily ran toward Colin, patting him on the back as he went.
“Show us what you’re made of, solicitor!”
Colin bristled. He hated the reminder of what he had failed to accomplish. When Tommy turned around and laughed, though,Colin knew he was trying to get a rise out of him. Refusing to give in, he rolled his eyes and continued with the scrimmage.
“We need to be ready for the Athletics!” Rhys yelled out. “Our first game with a new sponsor, and we must prove ourselves. Let’s go, boys.”
Sweat broke out over Colin’s forehead, even though the September Manchester day was not particularly warm and the skies were grey. He jogged over the rough, uneven field where they practiced just beyond the smoky industrial mills. At least here, the air was fresh and open, a stark contrast to the mills, their machinery humming in the distance, a sound he had hoped never to have to hear by the time he reached his twenty-six years, but here he was.
He now had the chance to play the game of his heart, and he would put everything he had into staying in this place in the sport he loved.
And then there was Tommy. His friend hit him on the shoulder as he ran by him again, and Colin sighed as he rubbed an old wound whose origin he couldn’t recall.
There were too many to remember correctly some days.
“Five more minutes!” Rhys called out as they all increased their intensity. Even in practice, the competitiveness of all the men here was unmatched.
They were each trying to prove that they had earned a place on this team and were worthy of starting in the first game against their main rivals, the Manchester Athletics Football Club.
Felix stole the ball off of Joey in the backfield, sending it sailing up to the middle of the pitch, where Tommy found it, dribbled it around poor Mickey once more, and passed it to Colin, who was streaking down the center. He brought his foot back, connecting with the ball in that sweet spot that was just perfect, and it went sailing toward the goal – only, it didn’t hit it.
No, it went about a foot too high, in a perfect arc over the top crossbar toward the space beyond.
Colin watched it go, only for his eyes to drop below the ball.
For there, just beyond the grassy stretch, were three women walking in a line.
They were turning around, so they couldn’t properly see the football field . One – a more matronly figure – looked up just in time, her eyes widening momentarily in fear.
The girl didn’t see it coming.
Colin caught a glimpse of her right before the ball hit, and it was enough to make him pause, only the pause was to her detriment.
For by the time he called out a warning, it was too late.
The ball hit her right between the eyes, and she went down backward like a felled sapling.
Colin’s feet were moving before he knew what he was doing.
“I always knew I loved football, but I am falling even deeper now,” Lily’s friend Emmaline had sighed dreamily as they circled the makeshift football pitch. It was actually a rough area of grass next to the River Irwell just beyond Lily’s father’s mill. She had heard him drone on that morning about why he would ever pay for the team he sponsored to practice elsewhere when he had a perfectly good stretch of land by the mill.
Additionally, most of the players worked nearby or in her father’s mill, so nothing could be more convenient.
