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Back The Moss House
Chapters (22)
  1. The Moss House
  2. Imprint
  3. Chapter One
  4. Chapter Two
  5. Chapter Three
  6. Chapter Four
  7. Chapter Five
  8. Chapter Six
  9. Chapter Seven
  10. Chapter Eight
  11. Chapter Nine
  12. Chapter Ten
  13. Chapter Eleven
  14. Chapter Twelve
  15. Chapter Thirteen
  16. Chapter Fourteen
  17. Chapter Fifteen
  18. Chapter Sixteen
  19. Chapter Seventeen
  20. Chapter Eighteen
  21. Chapter Nineteen
  22. Epilogue

So fearful to leave but also to be left. I have become so reliant on Anne as if she is the very sun, and without her all I can see is darkness. To be left here without her is inconceivable. But so is Russia! A dark unimaginable place to which she forces me to accompany her.

I cannot stay here alone, but I cannot shake this feeling of foreboding that hangs over me about leaving.

Miss Lister

She enters the carriage as if being dragged to an asylum. I am not forcing her to come! I have given her fair chance to remain, offered to employ more staff, find a new companion for her, even convinced her aunt and Mrs Priestley to visit her more, take her under their wing. Yet she insists on coming with me.

I am accustomed to travel and so I shall be the husband, the tour guide, the guard of precious Ann once more. I squeeze her hand in reassurance and glance back at Shibden. The near-completed tower in which I cannot wait to place my books and write up the travels on which I am about to embark.

I am excited by the journey before me, but sad to leave Shibden behind. I will see you again soon, Shibden. I open the compass from Father, which I carry at all times; the needle turns and finds North. It will help me find my way home again, he said, but what is home when it is empty?

Now I had best reassure Ann, so we can at least be out of our own grounds before she starts to cry.

Miss Walker

I look once more at Shibden Hall through the carriage window as we set off down the driveway. Our home, our safe place, our Moss House, and suddenly the thought comes to me that only one of us will ever return here again.

Anne takes hold of my hand and, before we have even passed the gatehouse and joined the main road, I cannot help but cry.

Miss Lister

Dear God, what have I let myself in for?

Miss Walker

Dear God, please do not ever let her leave me.

Epilogue

Epilogue

Anne Lister and Ann Walker set off from Shibden Hall on the twentieth of June 1839 for their trip to Russia. They went to Belgium, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Russia and Georgia, where Anne Lister died on the twenty-second of September 1840. Ann Walker was left alone to return with her partner’s body, which was interred at Halifax Parish Church on the twenty-ninth of April 1841, seven months after Anne’s death.

Ann Walker returned to Shibden Hall, which she had inherited from Anne, but on the ninth of September 1843 her brother-in-law Sutherland had Doctor Belcome forcibly remove her from Shibden and take her to an asylum in York. Sutherland moved into Shibden himself, seemingly alone. Elizabeth died in 1844.