Wow, new fanfiction! This is three I'm doing at the same time, so I hope I don't get too lost! I'm kind of going out on a limb here with this fanfiction, so I hope you guys like it. I've played with the character relations as you'll soon find out, but all the pairings will stay the same. I had never seen a history based fanfiction done in the Ante-Bellum and Civil War time period, so, in the spirit of Jasper, I decided to do one. This is all based in Charleston even though I know Jasper was suppose to be to Texas. I have never been to Texas and since I've been in Charleston a few times, this setting will be easier for me. I'm also going to write this as historically correct as possible.
"Isabella, you will never make it as a true Southern lady. You're too clumsy to even walk down the stairs correctly," I heard my mother say from the sitting room as I pick myself up off the stairs. She honestly had a true and harsh point in that, although I knew she meant it with all good intentions in her heart. I was extremely clumsy, and not at all the prefect southern belle I was suppose to be. I knew I would never have the grace and poise someone of my stature was suppose to have. My twin brother had apparently taken all of that trait before birth.
He had been born the perfect gentlemen, and now, at the age of seventeen, he had already been accepted into the prestigious Citadel College while I sat at home with no great accomplishments to my name. I hadn't even been able to make it at the etiquette school in England my parents had sent me to years earlier. After only a few months, they had sent me back home with a letter to my parents proclaiming that I was "too clumsy to ever make it as a lady of the upper-class," so I knew I would never be as great as my brother.
"I'm sorry Mother," I said, as I dusted myself off, and walked into the room. She was sitting in one of her soft, cushioning chairs my father had had sent over from England. She was doing her knitting as the local ladies sat on various other pieces of furniture around the large sitting room. Great, I had just walked in on one of the neighborhood gossip sessions. Now I was going to be stuck and pulled into it.
"Isabella, you really must join us! We were just talking about Jasper's progress at the Citadel! You really must relay some of the stories he's told you!" Mrs. Haynes said, patting the space on the long sofa beside her. I reluctantly sat down beside her, not at all excited about being included in one of my mother's upper-class social gatherings.
"Go on," my mother said, sipping her tea quietly as she held out one finger in the proper manner.
"Well, Jasper said as far as he could tell, he was one of the best. He even said that if South Carolina secedes like father says they're threatening to, they told him he would make an excellent general for our new army right off the bat. Jasper says that if that's the case and we do secede, there's sure to be a war, and he's certain it will strike right here in Charleston," I said, looking around at the ladies surrounding me. They all stared at me shocked to the point of death. It was as if I had said something wrong, even though I had no idea what it was.
"Isabella, I'm afraid you were terribly mistaken. South Carolina will not secede from the United States of America. We were one of the first to enter this Union, and we will certainly be the last to leave it. Besides, war and secession are not the kind of discussions you need to be having with your brother. Young Master Swan just must not realize what kind of effect these subjects will have on his dear, poor sister. You are already not a true Southern Belle, and all this talk of war will only make you worse. At this rate, you will die an old maid, without a husband, or any courtiers," Mrs. Drayton, the crabbiest old woman in the neighborhood said. It was unreal how horribly she always treated me, although she did speak the truth. I was almost seventeen years old, and I still did not have a suitor. I hadn't had any courtiers or beaus for that matter either. There were always prettier girls than me at the balls, and I never gotten any dances except for maybe my father's older, married friend, so Mrs. Drayton had a point, although I was certainly my life couldn't always continue this way.
"Elizabeth! You know that is nothing to say in front of Renee in her current condition! It's a miracle she's lasted this long with Charlie involved in all this government business that has taken him away to Columbia from her so long," Esme said, running to my mother side. I had always liked her more than any of the other ladies of the neighborhood. Unlike them, she didn't quite have that never-ending gossip feel to her. I felt like she genuinely cared about my mother and me, and not just our status like many of the other ladies.
Unfortunately, she had been widowed more than three years ago when her husband of only a few months died of an unknown disease. I had hated it for her since she was still young and pretty, so I had counted down the days until she came out of mourning when she was allowed to go back to wearing the brighter colors she looked so beautiful in instead of the blacks and grays her husband's death forced upon her. I knew this was disrespect for her dead husband, but I wanted her to be happy and find someone else she could share the rest of her life with since she was only four years older than me. Despite my hope, I knew that much like me, she was probably out of luck since she had already been married once and without bearing any children.
"I think it's time for you all to go home. Show them out, Isabella. I'll just stay here for a little while to talk to your mother in private," Esme said, motioning the other woman out the door as I walked to the front door to let them out. Esme always talked to me like I was a child in front of the other women since she was considered one of them since she had been married, but in private, she treated me as her equal. It was one of those traditions and customs that drove me insane since they made no sense.
As soon as they were out the door, Mammy, our black maidservant that we had had since before was born, decided to appear from upstairs. She had helped my mother raise me since an early age, especially whenever my mother was battling the sickness like she was now. She was like another mother, and like a mother in herself, she demanded respect from all others including me.
"I cain't believe those crazy ol' white woman folk, comin' in here and upsetin' Missus Swan like that! That ain't no way to treat no body if you asks me!" she said, talking in the dialect I knew and loved her for.
"Well, Mammy, you know as well as I do they only come here to take advantage of our money," I said with a sigh, ready to head back upstairs. I would read a book until my brother got home later that evening with his news of the Citadel and the rising chaos Father was telling him of. I knew my father, much like Mrs. Drayton, would never approve of us discussing such subjects, but I wanted to know what was going on as much as Jasper did. Father always wrote to him to tell him when something new and momentous happened.
"That still ain't no way to treat nobody, 'specially one as fragile as Missus Swan. Them woman aught to pay, they aught too. I'd just march up to their houses 'n' say, 'you know what? Missus Swann has better child'en then any of you'll ever have. You ain't got no business comin' around 'n' talkin' bad 'bout my Jasper and Bella,'" she said, pretending she was shaking her fist at Mrs. Dayton. I laughed at Mammy as I walked the rest of the way of the stairs. She had always talked about Jasper and I as if we were here children as much as our mother's. She was also the only person who had ever called me Bella and although I liked it better than my christened name of Isabella, I knew my mother and father would never approve of me going by such a name, so I continued with the hate formality.
Just then, I heard a knock at the door, so I quickly turned around on the top of the stairs to see who was at the door. As soon as I saw that it was someone I didn't recognize, I quickly darted behind the banister on the top of the stairs to spy through the bars as Jasper and I had often done when we were young to catch a glimpse of one of our parents parties.
The man standing at the door looked to be less than ten years older than me, though I could tell that he was older than Esme. He had a professional and business look about him that made him seem older in years than he really was, but I could still spot his real age through his ploy. He was caring some sort of bag which he had tightly sealed, as if he didn't want anyone to know what was in it. I watched as he and Mammy whispered a conversation so as not to alert anyone of what they were saying. Then she quickly ushered him into the sitting room where my mother and Esme where. This sparked my curiosity. What was such a handsome young man doing in my house with my mother, Mammy, and Esme? I had to find out, so I begin to silently sneak down the stairs, watching every step I took, being careful to avoid the creaky stairs I had known the position of since an early age. Just as I was about to reach the bottom and hear what it was they were talking about, there was a quiet knock at the door.
I quickly shot up to grab it before Mammy came out and discovered I was eavesdropping. That would have been even worse than asking for the truth in her opinion. I opened the door very quietly, peeping around the door, coming face to face with a handsome bronzed haired boy who looked to be only a few years older than me…
So what did you think? Please review!
And just so you know, until like the 1920s, the Citadel was actually known as the South Carolina Milatary Academy, but since I'm too lazy to type that out over and over again, I decided to use it's current name.