Family Legacy: Before the Beginning

Hello to all my fans and followers! Due to the overwhelming responses to my

last story, I have decided to write this story. It will focus primarily on James and

Sarah's relationship and how it progresses from acquaintances to friends to lovers. I've chosen to

focus mainly on James and Sarah's thoughts and feelings. I will include some of the information

from some of the episodes where it is needed, but because I assume that everyone has watched

the episodes, I won't use all of the info in them. Please enjoy my prequel and please review!

Note: If you don't like sweet, super romantic stuff, you won't like this.

Note: I made James and Sarah younger than they would have been in the show.

Chapter 1: The Beginning

Sarah

I am staring at the HMS Dartmouth, the ship that will take me to America. It is an ordinary frigate, made of wood planks and billowing white canvas sails. Perfectly ordinary and yet I am terrified. To me, it is a great frightening giant taking me to an unknown and terrifying fate. I have never gone further than six blocks from home without my mother with me. Now I am about to embark on a two month journey. I will be travelling several thousand miles across an ocean to a place that I know nothing about. This is all so overwhelming to me, a young thirteen year old British girl. I am to stay at the home of Doctor Benjamin Franklin in Philadelphia. At least I will have one friend there. I wish he could return with me. At least then I wouldn't be so frightened.

"Sarah!" Mother's voice snaps me out of my reverie. I walk over to her. She is wearing her blue gown and her brown fur cloak. Even though it is only October, it is freezing. When I reach my mother, she extends her arms out to me and I walk into them. Her arms wrap around me in a warm hug. I can smell her lovely rosewater perfume. As I pull away, she puts her hands on my cheeks.

"I will miss you very much, my sweet Sarah."

"I will miss you too, Mother. Must I go to America? I'm frightened."

"I know, darling. I'm frightened for you too. However, I need you to be a brave girl and try to find out if your father is alright. I wish I didn't have to send you by yourself, but unfortunately I have no other choice."

I nod, trying to hold back tears as she tucks a strand of my hair behind my ear. She kisses my cheek and gives me one last hug. It is then that I realize that I may never see her again. I may never see her bright blue eyes and kind smile again. I turn around quickly and walk up the gangplank, determined not to let my mother see me cry. Grown up thirteen year olds do not cry; at least not where other people can see them. I stand on the deck of the ship and look out at my home and everything I will leave behind; my home, my mother, my horse and everything I hold dear. Thankfully, I have the locket from Father around my neck. It makes me feel better. As the ship pulls away from the dock, I see Mother wipe a tear from her eye. She really is just as scared as I am.

James

Today we received a letter from Dr. Franklin. He writes that we will be having a young lady come live with us for a while. Her name is Sarah Philips. Henri is excited about her coming. He claims that having a girl living with us means that we will get to eat a lot of good food. I am less than thrilled about her coming. Why do we have to have a snooty British girl come live with us anyway? She will probably be like the other girls I've met around Philadelphia; super delicate, always fainting and overwhelmed by things like an ink spot on her dress, stupid and clingy. We DO NOT need that around this print shop. I don't want to be the one to always "rescue her".

Moses has been lecturing us about how to behave when Miss Philips arrives. We must always be on our best behavior and not make fun of her accent or tease her or play jokes on her. We have to be tidy and not leave our things lying around. We aren't allowed to eat in our separate rooms anymore, we all have to eat at the dining room table. This Miss Philips is going to ruin our lives, but nobody believes me. Moses says I'm overreacting and all Henri can think about it the food Miss Philips will cook for us.

I have been assigned to clean the room that will be given to Miss Philips. I haven't met her yet, but I already dislike her. Her coming is giving me more chores to do. I had to polish the desk and sweep and scrub the floor. I had to dust everything and make her bed. I really hate cleaning. I should be downstairs helping Moses with the paper. That is my real job. I truly believe that Miss Philips will ruin our lives.