THE GREY LADY
They have forgotten my name here; I’m merely The Grey Lady of Downham Market. A footnote in the guidebooks, a shiver for the schoolchildren who dare each other to walk among the graves after dark.
They think they know my story. A woman scorned. A heart broken. A life spent alone, heartbroken. Everything ended in that dreadful, desperate moment when the future I had woven in my mind simply… unravelled.
The air smelled of damp earth and new growth. I wore a ribbon the colour of cornflowers, knowing it would match his eyes, and he would smile at the sentimental gesture. I waited by the Town Hall. I waited until the stalls were packed away and the moon was high.
He never came.
The shame was a physical thing; a stone lodged beneath my ribs. The whispers began before the week was out. I could not outwalk them. I could not outrun the humiliation.
So I came here, to the graveyard, it was where I belonged; God's acre. I sought to end the pain, but it goes on still. I carved my name on his gravestone when he died, I keep vigil over his soul. Can you find me?


