Twenty-nine years old, Amanda Blows, lived in a small two bedroom cottage in Tatham's Fells, near Boston, Lancashire, with her two daughters. All the cottages were primitive in that they had no running water. No toilet or bathroom. Water was obtained from a single pump at the horse trough in the village square.

Amanda's eldest daughter Hannah was ten years old, and her youngest daughter Charlotte, six year old. The children's father had long since taken off and not been heard from again. Life had been hard, but the same could be said for hundred's of families who barely scraped a living. They worked long hours in the spinning factories, and the bleach works or in one of the titled gentry mansions.

Caring for her two children had fallen to Amanda almost from the time the girls were babies. Fortunately, she had always been able to rely on her mother, Jean Blows, whom the children lovingly called Nanna. Amanda was still very attractive. Her eyes violet in color was brushed by long lashes. Her long blond hair was partly covered by a kerchief to help keep it from falling over her face as she leaned over the scrub board in the small scullery. These days, she always appeared to wear a troubled look on her face, but this did not subdue the brightness in her eyes as she pulled up the corner of her apron to wipe the perspiration from her forehead. After all, the children were happy even though they were very poor and daily barely able to make ends meet.

The cottage, situated on a lane adjacent to a large wooded area, was owned by Lord Hauntmont as was almost all the property around that area.

The Hauntmont family had owned the land at Tatham Fells for four generations. They also owned two of the largest cotton mills.

The nearest neighbor to the Hauntmont estate was Wilfred Ainsworth of Smithhill Hall. The hall had been built of sand coloured bricks and consisted of twenty eight rooms. The house was Tee shaped and had two tall ridiculously large chimney stacks. There was a stable large enough for six horses Wilfred Ainsworth also owned the Bleach Works in the picturesque area known as The Small Valleys at the bottom of which there was fast flowing water and overlooked an area known as the Turton Fields.

During medieval times, Bolton was a center of the woolen trade. Spinning factories were now being built. Fine muslins and calicoes were being produced. Girls as young as eight and nine years of age were employed in many of the factories. The girls worked very long hours for pitifully low wages.

Amanda had worked in one such factory until the owners of the factory installed modern machinery that replaced much of the need for human labor. Men and women were laid off and this caused wide spread discontent. It also led to a crisis time when the machinery was deliberately smashed by enraged mill workers. These were known as the Luddies. The Luddies were led by a man from Sherwood Forest called Ned Ludd.

Troops were brought in and many arrests made.

These circumstances also necessitated Amanda's mother, Jean Blows, to move out of the general area, to the outskirts of Bolton, to a one bedroom cottage quarter mile from Amanda.

Amanda called out to Hannah, who was playing with friends, "Hannah, go to the edge of the woods, and collect more wood for the fire under the copper boiler, it has burned very low. Do be quick, because I still have a lot of washing to do and when you get back, you will have to go to the pump for more water!"

Hannah was a healthy if somewhat thin ten years old. Her curly blonde hair hung down her back in braids. Her eyes were a hazel color. Her skin matched the finest Dresden china, with cheeks brushed by nature, a soft coral pink.

Hannah was enjoying the brief time she had to spend with her friends who worked in one or the other factories, or were too young to go to work. She wistfully said to her mother, "I wish us didn't have to take in other people's washing, ironing, and mending!"

Her mother quickly retorted, "If us didn't, us would have no food, and I would not be able to pay the rent, so be off girl, and get the wood: Things be now so hard for us lass, that soon I will have to send you off to work in one of the factories or in one of the rich people's homes."

"Mammy, I know'd Charlotte be only five, but her is old enough to help me collect wood." Hannah said.

"If you take her to the woods, make sure she is by your side, for you know'd what a little terror she be for wandering off." Hannah's dirty faced, and snotty nosed, friends did not want to help to collect wood. They were either too young, or too tired, from working long hours at their various jobs, and their time off were both seldom, and for short periods only. Her best friend Felicity was also ten years old. She worked at one of the cotton mills in Bolton for fifteen hours a day, six days a week. Felicity said, "Ta ra, Hannah. I be not knowing when I will get time off again, from yon factory, and by then, thee may be working; they always be looking for more girls."

Hannah took Charlotte by her hand, and with the other pulled a little two wheeled cart for any wood they found. They marched past the village water pump and horse trove and on to the woods. Finding sufficient fire wood was becoming more difficult all the time. In the past, they had sometimes collected small pieces of coal dropped by the coalman on the few occasions he had delivered coal to one of the cottages. But there had been no coal delivered for a long time. More and more of Amanda's neighbors, sought what little wood there was to be found. It meant they had to go a little deeper than usual into the woods. The woods belonged to the estate of Lord Reginald Hauntmont and were out of bounds. Hannah and Charlotte could be charged with trespassing. Hannah hoped the gamekeeper would not see them and run them off or worse, have them charged.

The Hauntmont family owned over three thousand acres of land. Some wooded, some pasture, some rented to tenant farmers, and some rented to the peasants. The rest of it was moorland.

Hannah loved her little sister as she loved her mother. She also had a special love for her Nanna, who visited them as often as she was able and almost always had a small sweetmeat treat for them.

Nanna was tall. She had spent a hard and troublesome life. But it had not robbed her of her good looks. She also had long blond hair and blue eyes, and she was proud of her long slim body.

Of the few fallen branches they found, Hannah soon discovered, were too large to carry or drag. She tried laying them across a rock and jumping on them in an attempt to snap them in two. She was busy carrying out this task and then bending to pick up the pieces now easier to carry.

Being very busy, Hannah had not noticed Charlotte had walked deeper into the woods. She called out, "Help me collect all the pieces Charlotte!" There was no reply. Hannah looked around and could see no sight of Charlotte. She then began to panic. "Charlotte, you are naughty, remember what mammy said to us, "go to the edge of the woods, but not deep inside; then come back as soon as possible."

Hannah dropped the sticks that she was carrying. "Charlotte." She was now panic stricken as she as she ran from tree to tree calling for her sister. She suddenly spotted Charlotte talking to a boy with long and tussled ginger colored hair. He had a pug nose and was dressed in clothing the likes of which she had not seen before. Hannah judged him to be either thirteen or fourteen-year's old.

Hannah was angry as she hurried to her sister, scolding her for leaving her side and talking to strangers.

The boy shouted out, "Leave her be, her ain't doing notin, and I were only asking for her name, and where she do come from?"

"It be no business of yours for us have come to collect sticks of wood, so clear off,…