Blue Stockings - Tess A2 S9

• There was a girl at home. Lived at the parsonage. Annabel.
• She'd spend a whole afternoon sewing a ribbon on a bonnet, and she'd be content.
• Why wasn't that enough for me, Celia?
• You know, I'd climb the roof of Will's classroom just to listen.
• Once I lost my footing and they found me hanging by my underskirt, but I wouldn't let go of my notebook.
• I should have fallen and cracked my skull right then and there, I'd have been better off.
• But no. I was stubborn. Forfeit any hope of reputation, of a good match, wreck Mother's nerves with worry, all for this, to be here.
• And then I meet a boy. A poet. A poet! In a library.
• And I fall for him like a rock. And suddenly I can't think because my mind is full of him.
• I read Keats and hear his voice. I look at Vermeer and there he is, in oils.
• And I love him with every thought and bone and sinew.
• And then he buys a ring. But it's not for me. And now. What am I now?
• He's carved out my heart, Celia. What do I do?