October 1814, Somersetshire

It was a fine October morning as Anne Elliot slowly walked from Uppercross Cottage to Kellynch Hall. The evening before, she had dined at Uppercross with Captain Wentworth for the first time since his arrival. She recollected the difference between his cold politeness towards her and his warm acceptance of the Miss Musgroves' eager admiration. Once they had been so much to each other, now nothing. She felt tears filling her eyes.

After dinner, Anne had asked Mrs. Croft if she could come to Kellynch Hall and collect a small locked box from her former bedchamber. Anne had previously decided against bringing this box to Uppercross Cottage, where her inquisitive and troublesome nephews might discover it and attempt to open it or hide it. But ever since learning that Captain Wentworth would be at Kellynch Hall, she had been most anxious to retrieve this particular possession. Mrs. Croft had told her to come by in the morning, as nobody but the servants would be home.

Anne knocked on the front door and a servant let her in. She proceeded quietly up the stairs, unaware that sitting in the library at that same moment was Captain Wentworth, who had decided at the last moment not to go out for a walk. He was distracted by his own thoughts and had not noticed her arrival.

Anne walked down the hall, turned into her bedchamber and was immediately struck. She saw Captain Wentworth's belongings placed neatly around the room. She had not considered the possibility that her chamber would be in use. Admiral and Mrs. Croft would have taken Sir Walter's, of course. She had thought Captain Wentworth would be in Elizabeth's, for it was the largest and most finely furnished of the remaining family chambers. She wondered if he knew whose room he had taken, before quickly deciding he could not; if he had any idea, surely he would have avoided the room as much as he avoided its former occupant.

The smell of him in such a place overpowered her. For a few minutes she saw nothing before her; it was all confusion. When she had scolded back her senses, she went to closet, found the box, and unlocked it to confirm the contents. She gently touched the small stack of letters inside and gazed at the other treasures, remembering precisely when each one was collected.

Her brief reverie was interrupted when she heard steps coming down the hall, a something of familiar sound. She closed the box quickly - no time to lock it again - and hurried out of the room, hoping to escape, but she was too late. She stepped out of the room and collided into a very surprised Captain Wentworth.