Chapter 2:

"Ms. Abigale?" I asked gently. This was going to be one of my only chances to figure this out.

"Yes, miss?" she turned around.

"What year is it?"

"1776. Wait... you didn't know the year?" she replied, looking confused.

"No! I mean... I just, uh... I don't focus on it. Sometimes I forget. Like sometimes we forget our birthdays." I thought quickly. "Do you ever forget your birthday?"

"I guess sometimes. Just once or twice in my life." she thought to herself, and then looked at me. The confusion in her expression was greatly reduced, but she still looked skeptical of me and was probably wondering if she needed to examine my head. After a few minutes though, she seemed to calm down. I guess we were just going to pretend I didn't even ask such a seemingly stupid question.

"Well, that's good." I smiled.

Well, at least now I know, I thought.

I had decided to myself that I wasn't going to let it matter.

_______________

Ms. Abigale had already excused herself so that I could change into my temporary nightdress. Luckily, such a delicately elegant dress was made to slip over the body naturally and did not require a corset. I didn't need, nor want, to go through the burden of learning to place one of those on, and I was pretty sure Ms. Abigale was quite aware of that while she made her selection. I decided to make the final adjustments on putting on my dress and then realized that it must have been very late. The rain was tapping against the windows more rapidly and the darkness was more evident. It was early evening when I woke up in that barn, I thought to myself, but it took me quite a long time to avoid being seen and to find a house that seemed far enough away from where I had come from.

Sighing, I layed back on the bed and made sure not to fall asleep on my damp, wavy brown hair. I was sure the dress that I was wearing was for morning wear, but I guess when you're reduced to nothing but a sheet wrapped around your body, anything goes. I really, really hoped that I was cut out for what was happening to me, and I hoped to God that I wasn't going to be a burden to these people who had so graciously let me into their home.

Tomorrow was going to be a long and very strange day.

________________

When there are seven children living in a house, at least one or two of them are bound to stumble upon a strange girl sleeping in one of their guest rooms. It's kind of expected, and it should also probably be noted that when this occurs, you should pretend to still be asleep. That's what I chose to do, anyways. I knew there were two younger boys looking down at me, wondering how I got there and why I was even in their house to begin with.

"Do you think father knows?" a little voice piped.

"Of course father knows, otherwise he would have gotten her out of here!" a slightly older voice replied, irritated.

"But what if he doesn't know? What if she's a British spy?"

"Why would a British spy be a girl? Girls aren't allowed to be spies."

"Sure they are!"

"No! They aren't!"

"Ask Gabriel! He'll tell you!"

"What?!"

"He knows everything!"

"He won't tell me anything, Samuel, he'll ask why there's a girl sleeping in the guest bedroom!"

"Well first he'd ask that. Then he'd get to the telling."

It was all too much. I was trying to hard not to smile at the little argument I was hearing between these two little boys who were more than 200 years older than me, yet who couldn't decide what to do when a stranger was asleep right in front of them.

"This will never be decided. Father!" the older boy yelled out.

"Father!" Samuel called in unison.

They both continued to call out for "Father" while I heard their footsteps leave the room in a fury. A few seconds later, I heard a second set of footsteps enter. I thought it was Ms. Abigale, coming to wake me.

The feet stopped at my bed, and I sighed.

"Are they gone?" I asked. When I didn't get a reply, I asked again. "Ms. Abigale? Are they gone?"

"I-I'm not Ms. Abigale..."

I darted open my eyes and looked up. A boy with dark brown hair held back into a small ponytail was looking down at me, fascinated but startled. I noticed that the hair he had that couldn't make it into the ponytail hung near his face and helped frame it, slightly. There was something very exciting about him. It felt weird and I shook my head.

"I'm sorry. I... hello." I said nervously. I felt my face burning up a little bit. There came the anxiety again.

"Who are you?" he asked defensively. When he saw that I looked content and non-threatening, he made himself look taller, to fake or prove confidence. In my opinion, he was probably faking it, but was able to hold his own in a vast amount of other situations. Then again, I don't know him... but sometimes, you can learn a lot from observing a person's body language.

"My name is Skye," I told him the same old lie, sitting up. "What's your name?"

"I'm Thomas Martin." he said in a practiced tone. He reached for my hand and held it up to kiss it, but then quickly placed it down and stepped back, looking embarrassed. I smiled. He was young, like me, and learning how to be a gentleman.

"Would you like to sit down?" I asked in a pleasant tone. I had noticed that he forgot to ask why I was, you know, in his house. Maybe a first name was enough to satisfy, to show that I had a right to be there and wasn't hiding anything. I guess he'd just find out later, along with the rest of the Martin clan.

"On... on here?" he asked, pointing to the bed. I nodded and he threw his hand back to his side. He stiffened up slightly and sat next to me, a foot or two away.

"Are you okay, Thomas Martin?" I asked.

"I'm just tired... just woke up." he nodded, looking straight ahead.

"No," I said in a relaxed tone, looking at the right side of his face. "I thought I heard you shouting at a boy named Nathan outside earlier this morning, in my sleep. You were yelling at him about putting something in your food?" I smiled. "That was your voice, I think..."

It was partially true, anyways. I didn't know for sure that it was this boy's voice that I heard, but it actually was hard for me to sleep. I kept waking up during the night from nightmares.

"Yes, I'm sorry." he said quickly. "I'm not very good at this."

"At what?"

"Talking to women." At this, he blushed profusely and stood up, walking towards the door. Before leaving, he took an awkward bow and left, looking flustered. I stared at the door for a few seconds, a tiny part of myself hoping he'd come back so I could talk to him more. When he didn't, I sighed and looked out the window.

It was gorgeous. There were woods beyond the Martin's farm, and I could see tall, aged oak trees and fields of grass and flowers. Between most of this landscape were the crops. I couldn't tell what many of them were, but the corn crops were easy to identify. There were a few men working on chopping, picking, and plowing, and what surprised me the most was how happy they looked doing it. I was absorbed in every beautiful detail of the scene, taking in the fact that this would all be gone by the time I got home.

I sighed again and then inched up, startled. Thomas was outside, sitting against a tree. From what I could tell, he didn't seem like the kind of guy to just sit around all day. An older boy, who had blond hair, noticed this and rode over on a horse. He leaned down and handed a musket to Thomas. I could see them exchanging words, but I couldn't hear what they were saying from so far away. I saw the blond boy shake his head and point towards the house. Thomas nodded. At this, I ducked a little bit and continued to watch carefully, the slightest rays of sunlight hinting at my exposed eyes. The older boy rode, striding slowly towards the house. Thomas continued to sit down under the shade of the tree for a few more moments, and then placed his musket against the tree and reluctantly followed his older brother as they both approached the house. I sat back on the bed and groaned.

"Hello Miss Skye!" Ms. Abigale greeted me as she walked through the door. She had a small platter with some assorted fruit placed on it.

"I didn't know what you liked, and the Martins already had breakfast very early this mornin', so I gave you somethin' nice from the fruit basket."

"Oh, no, this is okay..." I told her as I looked at the delicious looking oranges and apples. "I was just going to eat the next time everybody else does. At least then people who noticed me wouldn't be so startled."

"What? Ooooh, you ran into Samuel and Nathan, did'n you?" Ms. Abigale smiled knowingly. "They cause a ruckus over everythin'. Don't worry about them."

"It wasn't just them. Well... it would have been, if they'd have stopped yelling so much about the possibility of me being a British spy or something. Whatever that's supposed to mean."

"They just boys, they'll come up with the most exciting excuse they can."

"Yeah. And they attracted another..." I flushed at this slightly and ignored it, "another boy into the room, who was older."

"Gabriel?"

"No, he said his name was Thomas. He seemed really nervous for some reason." I noted. "Is he just like that?"

"Nervous?" Ms. Abigale had to laugh at this. "Child, he's the most adventurous, outgoing boy I ever known. He wants to do everythin'. He helps Gabriel hunt, too."

"Oh. I guess Gabriel is the one with blond hair?" I guess that was another mystery solved.

"You saw him too?"

"Well yeah, I think Thomas told him I was here. I saw them outside." I grumbled slightly, thinking about the whirlwind of awkward greetings I'd soon have to encounter.

"At least everybody is gettin' along." Ms. Abigale smiled again. "I'll see you later."

"Goodbye for now." I smiled back weakly. I placed the platter on a night stand next to the bed and started peeling an orange. Now that my mind was clear, and I understood all of my encounters, I couldn't help but wonder about Thomas. If he was the most 'adventurous, outgoing' boy Ms. Abigale had ever known, why did he act so clumsy in my presence?