Paris, France ~ September 1767
"F sharp, Elizabeth, F sharp!" My harp tutor instructed. I pursed my lips in frustration. gazing intently at my moving fingers. I made no sign that I had heard his chastisement.
I hated the harp with a fiery passion. I often fantasize sneaking down to the parlour late a night and cutting the strings so that I may be rid of the foul beast. I would be perfectly content playing my piano all day but mother says that a proper lady must be well cultured and proficient at many arts.
Lady, I scoff at the notion of me being a lady and the rest of my family being considered noble. The Arnaude family's French nobility is but a mask to hide our dark core. By day, we appear to be a typical noble family, participating in politics, attending functions and going to balls, but at night my father and brothers fight tyranny from monarchs and Templars alike. I would jump at the chance to fight alongside my brothers but I am a lady and freedom fighting is no place for a lady.
Despite my desires to join my family's ranks as an Assassin like my brothers before, my father insisted that I was to the focal point that holds together our charade. My mother and I are the ones who are sent to societal functions and here in Paris your face in society affects your entire life. My mother is perfect at hiding what she doesn't want others to see. I, on the other hand am temperamental. If I crack my whole family is put at risk of discovery.
My father and brothers can conceal their identities and move in secret but a woman like myself would bring too much attention to herself if she were seen leaping across buildings and acting like men do. If I were to start acting suspiciously, it would only be a matter of time before the entire family would be discovered and we would all be doomed to perish by the hands of our enemies. We cannot give them the chance to do so.
Throughout my childhood, I was reminded of this and now at the tender age of eleven I have accepted my fate in silence. I accepted that I would be the proper lady that my parents wished me to be, for the greater good of my family.
Although I have accepted my fate, I am restless at night. Many nights I lie awake wondering if that night was the night that I'd rise to find one less plate at breakfast. Every morning I wonder if today is the day I will be in mourning. It's restless nights as such that I would sneak to the gardens to train in secret as my brothers had under the watchful eye of my father. Over the years of restless nights I became a deadly shot with throwing knives. I can hit a target from a distance of a hundred meters. Training in secrecy was my way of focusing my mind so that I may stop wondering what might be happening to my family.
A sharp slap on my wrists brought me from my thoughts. My hands stung and glowed red.
"Focus, girl! How can you expect to ever impress any man as lazy and unfocused as you are?" My tutor scolded. I stopped playing the hated instrument and rubbed the pain from my hands.
"I do not desire to play this foul instrument any longer." I said passively, holding my chin up high. My tutor's face started to turn red. I had been unfocused and resistant all day and now I had gotten on his last nerve. I moved to leave the room but he grabbed my wrist hard, rooting me to my stool.
"Listen here and listen close, girl; the world does not care for your desires nor does it desire stubborn women. If you want any sort of happiness in this life you had best learn to control yourself else you dishonor your family." He growled in my face. I glared into his cold eyes. He released his grip from my wrist and raised to exit the parlor.
"We are done for the day. If you have any sense at all, you will adjust your temperament before our next lesson." He said sharply, storming through the doors of the parlor and making his way to the servant's exit. I sat at my stool rubbing the mark he left on my wrist for a few minutes before my mother came into the room.
"Did Jacques leave already? Your lesson shouldn't be over for another hour." She said. I stood from my stool next to the harp and walked towards the piano that was situated in the corner of the parlor. I sat and started playing mother's favorite song hoping that she might ignore my behavior that forced Jacques to leave an hour early.
"Oui, Jacques grew tired of my insolence." I said casually my hands moving fluidly over the ivory keys deliberately not looking her in the eye.
"Mon Dieu." Mother said underneath her breath. She walked out of the doors and informed the maids to work on the opposite side of the house and leave us in peace. Mother walked back in the parlour and locked the doors behind her. She stood with her back to me for the longest time before facing me. Even without seeing her, I could tell she was angry. When she turned to face me her face was full of disappointment and disapproval.
"Elizabeth, when will you understand that it is imperative for you to behave yourself at all times? Do you not understand the scrutiny we are under? You must censor yourself at all times Elizabeth. God forbid if Jacques were to talk to the wrong person! No matter how right you think you are, you must always act as people expect you to otherwise people start asking questions. People cannot ask questions Elizabeth. Do you understand?" She asked gripping my shoulders. I bowed my head.
"Yes, mother." Mother hugged me and stroked my hair.
"I am sorry to scold, you my love, but we are being watched more closely than usual. Christopher was spotted a few nights back and there is rumblings of an investigation on our family. We have to take every precaution, Elizabeth." I looked up at her in worry. Her face was paler than usual and had gained a few more lines within the past few months. I had known that things were tense but if mother was worrying about the men then it must be serious. She usually covers her emotions and worries so well but this is different.
"Is Christopher in prison?" I asked.
"No," She answered solemnly. "But an eyewitness claims to have had a clear view of his face. Nothing can be proven as of yet but we need to take extra precautions. Which is why your father has gotten us passage to America so that we may let things in Paris cool on their own." She said in a serious tone. I knew there was no arguing on the fact that we will be leaving the country. It made sense that we would get away from the city since things had become so hot but I did not expect that we would make such a long trip. I had figured, if it were to ever come to this, then we would seek refuge in another part of Europe.
"When do we depart?" I asked.
"We leave in three days time. Just enough time to tie up loose ends." She smiled softly at me and caressed my cheek. "Everything will be alright, Elizabeth." I smiled at her, still in her embrace. "Come Elizabeth, we must pack for our voyage." We hooked arms and made our way to our respective chambers to pack our valuable possessions.
For the next two days the manor was bustling with activity. Everyone worked day and night to pack everything to be shipped to the English colonies or be sold at an auction after our departure. In light of recent events my tutoring had been canceled. In fact, I had been informed that I would have no studies until we reached the Colonies and father would hire a new tutor for me. This put a new spring in my step at the realization that I would not have to even look a harp for six months.
I had tried to talk to Christopher about what had happened on his mission but he quickly found a reason to excuse himself.
On the night before we were scheduled to depart I was once again restless more due to the excitement of the adventure that this voyage would bring than worry for my family. Our feet were halfway out of France's door and I felt secure that we would make it out of Paris in one piece. Things had gone so well already, I felt luck was smiling down upon us.
Deciding I would never be able to fall asleep, I wandered aimlessly around the manor which was completely empty as furniture had either been sent on a boat ahead of us or put in storage. Only the really valuable and precious items were being brought on the voyage with us. I made my way into my mother's flower garden. I sat quietly on a marble bench staring up at the cosmos.
Oh, what an adventure is awaiting for me! Six months sailing across the world and at the end of the voyage awaits a wild new land. Oh the possibilities! Maybe I'll meet Indians and explore lands that few men have ever known.
I was broken out of my reverie by a loud crash. I furrowed my brow in confusion, I had thought the house was completely empty. What is there to break? Whoever was up must have been in a hurry. One of the men must of forgotten to tie up some end before our journey. There's always something.
I got off the marble bench and went into the manner so that I may clean whatever had broken. Mother would be cross if she woke up to a mess. When I reached the doorway I froze in fright. That was no one I knew. Quickly I hid myself back around the corner.
Poking my head around the doorway I saw that many large soldiers had broken down the door and were now searching around the manor. I quietly retreated back into the gardens. I could hear voices coming from inside the house and a few were getting closer to my position behind a rose bush. In a panic I looked around the garden for some way to escape. I was cornered in by the stone walls surrounding the garden. I saw my way to escape through the fence where the ivy grew against the wall of the house leading up to the roof. I had to get to the roof to make my escape.
With much trouble I began to scale the checkered fence. Halfway up the side of the manor next to the window of my parents chambers, my nightdress caught on the edge of the fence. I pulled desperately to free myself when I saw my father's candlelit form from my position next to the window.
The soldiers that I saw downstairs where now in my parents chambers interrogating my father. He was tied to the chair from his writing desk and my mother and brothers were no where in sight. I was torn. I wanted to rescue my father but there was nothing that I could do. The window was locked and even if I could discreetly open the window, I didn't have anything to defend myself with. I had forgotten to grab throwing knives in my hurry to escape.
I could hear voices through the window. I could just hardly make out spoken words through my heart pounding loudly in my ears.
"Francis Arnaude, you are hereby declared guilty in the eyes of the king on the charges of countless acts of treason, conspiracy, and murder and sentenced to immediate death. Is there anything you would like to say in your defense?" A deep voice asked.
"Go to hell Henri." My father growled. Suddenly a loud shot rang from inside the manor and my father fell from his chair and onto the ground his unmoving eyes looking straight at me. I looked in horror as a halo of blood formed around his head. Though his life was fading from him quickly, he looked at me and made the effort to mouth the word "run".
My hand pressed itself against the window as if it could pull him out of the room and allow me to take him with me. When my hand touched the cold glass I came out of my shock and I ripped my skirt from the fence and finally made it onto the roof. I had somehow also lost both of my slippers in the process of climbing. When I pulled myself onto the roof I collapsed into tears. Mother appeared from the other side of the manor roof and embraced me. She comfortingly stroked my hair as I sat there quietly sobbing for my father all the while looking over her shoulder for any incoming soldiers.
Mother had changed her clothing since I had last seen her just a few hours before. She is now wearing her Assassin robes that I so rarely see her wear. Since marrying my father, mother had given up the active role of being an Assassin. She was one of the few female Assassin's in Europe and she gave it up to raise my brothers and I. Father did the violent work while mother mostly gathered information through secret meetings with trusted sources and loose mouthed socialites.
"Elizabeth, we have to get to the docks." I looked at her in surprise. How could she be so calm about this? Surely she must have heard the shot. Half of Paris certainly did. Her husband was just murdered and she acts as if it were nothing?
"Father's dead and you still want to run away with our tails tucked between our legs?" I asked incredulously.
"What other choice do we have, Elizabeth? Your father diverted the Templar's attention so that we may make our escape. The men who killed your father won't hesitate to kill the rest of us if we are found. Our whole family has a death warrant. Your father would have wanted us to continue our journey." She whispered loudly. "You and I are going to sail to the Colonies and that's final. France is not safe for us anymore." She said helping me up to my feet.
"What about Christopher and Nathaniel?" I asked. She had mentioned she and I but had excluded my brothers.
"Nathaniel is being sent to an Assassin base in Italy. He is needed more here in Europe than in hiding with us. Their numbers are already small enough, the last thing the Assassin's need is able bodied men not actively working. I have not seen Christopher since last night but if we do see him, his orders will be the same." She said in a strict tone. "Now we must hurry. It is almost dawn and we will want to travel to the docks in the cover of the night." And so we continued onward, jumping across rooftops and hiding in alleyways. I stumbled and struggled to keep up while my mother moved with great grace and poise.
When we reached the shopping district, the shops still weren't open. Mother made a small stop at a tailor shop, broke in and stole a few traveling dresses for us to wear since I was still in my night dress and we were forced to leave all luggage that we were going to take with us.
On our journey across the top of Paris we did not come across Christopher. Mother insisted that we stop at a carrier pigeon coop to relay his orders to him.
By dawn we had reached the docks and the boarding-check man was just setting up for the day. Mother told me to wait in the alleyway while she handled the situation. She went up to the man and bribed him with a bit of extra francs to let us on early and in secrecy. He was utterly charmed by my mother and easily let us through. My mother motioned me to follow her onto the ship.
For the rest of the day we hid in the lower decks until we felt the ship moving. We both silently looked at each other with relief. We had finally made it out.
For six months we sailed across the Atlantic. It was probably the longest six months that I have had to live in my eleven (twelve by the end of the voyage) years of life. Eating nothing but hard biscuits and salted meats and suffering from seasickness made me impatient to get off this cursed ship. Books certainly romanticized the life of a seafarer.
After six months we finally reached the Boston harbor and docked. As I stepped off the ship I couldn't help but to feel that I was cleaning my slate and starting my life all over again. Here in America, I wasn't a lady any longer and could choose who I wanted to be.