Page 19 of The Lady and the Footballer
Then Lily noticed she couldn’t see Mr. Thornton anymore, except – yes, there he was. Crouched down and helping the girl with the piece of fabric. So he had seen her, eventually. She sighed as all of the excitement leeched out from her after her run down here. It was all for nothing, then.
She should return to her office.
But instead, she found herself stepping up to a small platform that looked like some workshop, holding a workbenchcovered in tools. She turned around, using the vantage point to watch the workings of the floor, finding her eyes drawn to Mr. Thornton as he moved through the space with authority and care.
From how he bent his head to speak to other workers and their answering genial expressions, Lily realized that he wasn’t checking progress or asking how their work was faring. He was making sure the people were looked after.
Of course.
A sudden shout captured everyone’s attention, and Lily followed the sound to see a worker struggling with a jammed textile machine. A few employees gathered around him, all trying to unjam the machine as others tried to hurriedly pull the fabric through with so much force that one piece ripped.
Mr. Thornton held his hands in front of him in a downward motion, and Lily could only guess that he was telling them all to calm down or stand down, one or the other.
Before addressing the machine, he briefly placed his arms on the man’s shoulders, reassuring him and checking him for injuries before he walked to the machine, made a few adjustments, and then had it going again within a few minutes.
The workers clapped, smiling at him, and Lily could see just how much they respected him.
She supposed it didn’t matter where one came from or what kind of education he had if he could command respect like that from those he worked with.
Then he turned and began walking away from the man and the machinery – and right toward her.
Lily suddenly realized where she was standing. If Mr. Thornton was the foreman, this was likelyhisworkshop and where he oversaw the factory floor when he wasn’t walking through it. She had promised to stay out of his way, and now here she was, standing in the one place that belonged to him.
She jumped down from the platform, ducking behind a piece of machinery so that he wouldn’t see her coming. The deafening clatter of the looms surrounded her, the rhythmic pounding of the shuttles and the spinning of the gears almost hypnotic. She knew enough about the mill, having been raised within the business, but she had never been quite so intimate with it before.
A few people looked her way in confusion, and she stupidly smiled and nodded as she backed away, trying to keep him in her sights.
Then she bumped into something cold and hard, turning to see a large, iron-framed power loom behind her. Above her, leather belts connected to a central steam engine and wooden shuttles rapidly flew back and forth, threads joining together through the loop.
Lily was momentarily mesmerized until suddenly, one of the wooden shuttles splintered, the piece lodging itself in the machine gears. Everything happened so slowly that it was almost like a dream, as the flywheel spun erratically and the entire loom began to shake. One of the metal arms began to bend, and an overhead belt slipped off.
Hearing the machine's groan, Lily finally moved, trying to run away from any potential danger. However, as the machine seemed to turn into an animate object itself, violently jerking back and forth, her skirt became snagged on one of the gear teeth, which continued to turn agonizingly slowly and erratically, pulling her ever closer.
Lily tugged on her skirt to try to free it, feeling like the girl she had seen trying to wrench the cloth out of the machine, only this time, she couldn’t get her clothing to budge.
She knew that her panic was only causing her to act even more erratically, but she couldn’t seem to stop her frantic tugging.
The loom tilted forward dangerously as workers shouted and metal screeched together. A loud snap sounded as one of the metal arms broke loose and then came flying forward. Lily let go of her skirts to lift her hands to shield herself, and the metal caught her in the midsection, pinning her against the machine.
She was completely trapped.
Against a machine that might take her life.
Chapter Eight
The entire day had been filled with one near-disastrous miss after another.
Colin prayed for a reprieve after he fixed the loom and returned to his workshop, hoping he could have a few moments to continue on the minor repairs he needed to make to a few pieces of equipment before returning to the factory floor.
He was about to turn toward his workbench when a small figure caught his eye – one that he instinctively knew, before even looking at her, was not supposed to be there.
Then, a wooden shutter splintered, and the entire machine went awry. Colin was moving before the machine malfunctioned, but he was too far away and slow to do anything. He sprinted forward, his stomach sinking as he realized with each quick step that the woman trapped was none other than Lily Evans. If there was one woman he would wish with all his might was not here, caught in this machine, it was her.
He arrived at the machine just as the metal captured her in its embrace. He reached forward, one hand on each piece of metal, as he tried to pry it apart wide enough to release her.
It barely moved.
Her eyes met his, desperate, pleading, and as much as he wanted to curse her for being here and for putting herself in danger, he wanted even more to be able to do soafterhe saved her, when she was free from the clutches of the machine.
