Summer 1760
I was five when I met Benjamin Tallmadge, Anna Smith, Caleb Brewster, and Abraham Woodhull. Well, I guess you want my name well, I'm Y/N L/N. I was playing on the ground in my pale blue dress, my H/C hair plaited in two braids, just tossing my rings on the stick in front of me. I didn't know anyone was watching, but then I turned around I saw three boys and a girl at least a couple months or a year older than I.
I was born on Y/BD,1755, to my mother M/N and my father F/N, when the Seven Years War started, my father joined the British side to fight against the French in 1756. Well, back to the actual story, when Ben and his friends saw that I was playing all alone in the field, he felt bad, or as I think, Anna actually wanted a new girl to play with instead of three dirty boys that she made him come over to me.
"Hi, I'm Benjamin Tallmadge, and these are Abraham Woodhull, Caleb Brewster, and Anna Smith, I was wondering if we were able to play with you?" Ben said as he pointed out his friends who were standing a bit away. Anna was wearing a nice teal dress her hair was also in two plaited braids like mine, Abraham was wearing a white shirt and tan trousers, his mousy brown hair was pulled back into a queue, and he was standing a bit hunched over. Caleb was a stout short little boy, his dark curly brown hair was tied back as good as it was going to get. And finally Ben, well, his sandy brown hair was pulled back neatly in his queue and he was wearing a light blue shirt and tan trousers.
I looked at him and answered, "Yes, you may play, it gets kind of lonely playing on my own, I'm an only child, so it does get boring playing by yourself after a while."
"Well, what's your name, I told you all of ours but you never told me yours," Ben said as he accepted the ring that I handed him.
"Y/N L/N," I answered as Ben threw the ring to the stick that was sticking out of the ground. I later learned that only Ben and Abraham had siblings, Abe had an older brother named Thomas, and Ben had an older brother named Samuel. Ben's father like mine was fighting for the British in the war.
Summer 1771
It had been eleven years since I've met my best friends and the year after I had started gaining feelings for the one Benjamin Tallmadge. He comes and goes to Yale every school year, but he also writes be long letters on what I am missing up in Connecticut, and I reply to him telling him what's new or happening here in Setauket, Long Island. He came back to Setauket a few days ago and it has been getting harder and harder to try to hold this huge crush back, but I keep it back. Abe has been going to King's College in the City, and his older brother Thomas has joined in the British army since the uprise in Boston last year and the Boston Massacre that currently happened.
Well, one day Ben came to my house which I was helping my mother clean the dishes after lunch. There was a knock on the door and my mother said to me, "Y/N, dear can you please see who that is, I don't think we were expecting any company do you?"
"No mother I don't think we are expecting anyone," I answered as I opened the door and saw the lean stature of Ben standing outside of it twiddling his thumbs.
"Y/N, are you able to go for a walk with me?" Ben asked as he looked into my blue eyes uneasily. I nodded my head, running inside to tell my mother where I was going, with my mother probably muttering something about us being lovesick to each other and not even knowing it.
"So, Ben, why did you want to walk with me and just me and not with Abe, Anna, and Caleb together?" I asked not knowing that he was actually going to spill on how he felt for me, we both kept it hidden well, as we were best friends for eleven years and knew how to act with each other without showing our true feelings.
"Well, Y/N, I just wanted to tell you...um that I um, well this is not coming out as smoothly as I hoped it would. Well, what I am trying to say Y/N is that I am desperately in love with you, I have been for the past couple of years now, and I know you don't have to feel the same way with me, but I just wanted to let you know and get that off my chest," Ben said without looking into my eyes.
"Well, lucky for you Ben, I feel the same way, have been feeling the same way since we were 10 years old, I didn't want to pursue you since I was a girl and that it was improper to ask a boy." I answered and I saw his blue eyes light up with happiness and he grabbed my face and kissed me passionately on the lips.
"Oh, Sorry Y/N, I should have asked if you wanted to court me before I did that, I-I don't know what's gotten into me, I-I get that if you don't want to court me now I-I'll be ok, I-I understand." Said Ben, but looked away. I took his head into my hands and laughed, "Well Mr. Tallmadge, your lucky that I want to court you or I would've gone straight to my father and told him what just happened, that for once in his life, Mr. Benjamin Tallmadge was not acting like a true gentlemen, and was now running off to kiss his best friend just for the fun of it."
I started walking away, then I heard Ben laughing and running to catch up to me, we walked for about an hour alone together until we saw Anna and Abe running towards us, we all said our hellos, Anna and Abe were engaged to get married in the spring of 1773, which made us all happy as two of our best friends were going to tie the knot.
"So, Y/N, did Ben finally ask you to court him?" Anna asked when she saw mine and Ben's arms linked together. I nodded laughing and smiling as Ben shook his head at my reaction to the response of the question, while Abe yelled "It's about time!" We all walked, it seemed to be the one of the times before the war or the drama that would soon happen that it was totally quiet.
Ben proposed to me the Summer of 1772, and we said that we would marry the Summer of 1773 after he graduated from Yale. We kept up our correspondence to each other writing letters to each other daily, then in the spring of 1773 disaster struck, we don't really know what happened, but at King's College a riot started, and Abe's brother Thomas was part of the British regiment that went to King's to halt the riot, he sadly died trying, then Anna and Abe broke off their engagement, and Abe went on to marry Thomas' fiancee, Mary Baker. Anna went on to Marry Selah Strong, who owned Strong Tavern in town. It broke our hearts when Anna and Abe broke off their engagement, as we knew that they were meant for each other.
It was July 25, 1773, a beautiful sunny day, when our group of friends: Caleb, Anna, Abe and our families came to the church to see Ben and I get married. Ben was in a dark suit and waistcoat, while I was in a pale white dress. We were married by Ben's father, which made the day a bit more special. It was another peaceful day between the group.
Then in 1775, the war had broken out in Lexington and Concord up in Massachusetts, Ben had wanted to join the cause right there and then but I convinced him to stay home, and work a bit before he did. But after The Colonies had declared her independence on July 4, 1776, with Mr. Jefferson's Declaration of Independence, I couldn't hold him not to fight no more, he went a joined the Connecticut Dragoons that fall making sure that I was taken care of first. My parents, who were strict loyalists, wanted me to divorce Ben when they had hear that he joined the American side of the revolution, but I told them I won't, saying that I love Ben and that I could not leave them. So, they thought that if they gave me an ultium stay married to Ben and they would disown me or get the divorce and I get to stay in the family. I can tell you I chose to stay married.
A couple weeks later I got a notice on the door of Ben and my house that I was to be evicted off the land because I was married to a known Patriot who was fighting on the American side of the war. I ran down to the church where Ben and I were married, which was now being used as a stable for the British soldiers that we were all housing and begged Major Hewlett into letting me keep the land but I got nowhere. I started walking down the street, where I saw Selah and Anna walking towards me. Anna saw me about to cry and asked, "Y/N, what's wrong, has anything happened to Ben?"
I shook my head no, saying, "Ben's fine as far as I know of, but the British are taking me off of our land and out of the house that Ben made for us, oh Anna, I don't know what to do or where to go, I can't go back to my parents' house, because they disowned me, and I can't go to Ben's father's house, because I don't want Ben to know that I just lost our house."
"Well, Mrs. Tallmadge, you will stay with us in Strong Manor, and I am not taking no as an answer, Mrs. Tallmadge, I promised Ben that I would take care of you, and I will, but I am telling you now, that you should tell Ben about losing the house sooner or later, now I think that Anna would love to walk you home and help you pack." Selah said as he helped me off the ground where I had fallen when I told them that I lost the house.
"Oh, Selah, thank you, you know you are allowed to call me Y/N right?" I said as he nodded his head to the question.
Well this is where we are now it is September, I am living with the Strongs and doing my work with them and trying to stay away from any trouble oh, how wrong I was going to be.
