Ann will not come with me into Halifax to hear the proclamation, which serves also as the first carriage drive down our newly built road and past the nearly finished gatehouse. She sulks and remains inside as she has for much of the last year since Marian left. I fear to leave her alone with just servants for company, but I cannot miss this.

I tell her it would mean a lot to me and she can stay in the carriage, but she worries there will be large crowds. I give up, storm off by myself and take the maids with me instead who are excited by the prospect and quickly don their best bonnets and shawls.

We travel down my new road and past the gatehouse, to be completed any day now, and we turn left onto the main road towards Halifax to join the flow of traffic into town. An air of celebration greets us as the traffic slows to a halt and families get out and walk, leaving their carriages behind. I see the Priestleys and they beckon me and my maids over as if we are old friends, and we walk with them into the town centre. The throng of the crowds excites me. Once caught up in the noise, the bodies pressed close together, I am just one of many; no one looks at me, I am lost in amongst the hundreds, thousands even that have gathered. I feel alive again as we hear the announcement: Queen Victoria has been crowned as our new sovereign. The crowd cheers and chants God Save the Queen over and over, and strangers shake hands and pat each other on the back as if we have all jointly achieved something, and for those few hours, I am a part of society again. I do not want to go back to Shibden, at least not for a while.

I give the groom and the maids a coin each and the rest of the day off. I travel back with the Priestleys and spend the afternoon with them, like old times, with no mention of why we have not spoken but for pleasantries for three years. It is as if Mrs Priestley and I are agreeing to forget, and of course Mr Priestley knows nothing. I can tell.

We talk about our female sovereign and what changes she may make. I wonder what this may mean for the rest of us women, to be led by a woman again after more than a century; will she raise us up too, or does she not really have any power either? Perhaps she does not care. I do not speak of this with the Priestleys, who would not entertain such nonsense as discussing women’s futures.