"Susanna, wake up! For heaven's sake! You've been sleeping all morning and there's so much to do." My mother's shrill voice startled me from dreaming of running threw a field of tall grass. I was chasing something, but I didn't know what. The longer I ran, the more excited I became. I needed to catch it, but…she woke me up. I groaned and turned to my other side. "Come on honey! You need to start your chores or you'll be up late again tonight." I looked at the rock walls that built our entire house. The roof was made of wood, a new invention, and we got our own rooms. Well my younger brother, David and I shared this room, with one bed and one writing desk, where as Jacob and Bradley, my older brothers, had to share their own room, across the hall. "Susanna?" she coaxed again and I felt the bed sink slightly. I sighed and rolled over looking at my mother who was now seated on the edge of the bed.

Her dark curly hair was in a bun, which was then covered by a white linen cap to block the sun from her face when she was out in the fields. Her bright green eyes twinkled every time she smiled and she was very rarely angry with us. She had freckles on her nose and cheeks and tiny lines under here eyes. She smiled at me and brushed my dark hair out of my face. "Come on sweetheart wake up. I'll help you get your dress on." She said standing up and grabbing my dress from the back of chair close to the bed. I sighed and pushed back the covers. I slid out in my nightgown and she gasped.

"Oh no." She said putting a hand to her face.

"What?" I answered feeling my face go red. I looked down at my nightgown and it was covered with blood. I screamed and Momma jumped, covering my mouth.

"Shh honey. It's ok." She said stroking my hair and listening carefully. When there was quiet through out the house she let go of my mouth and there were tears in her eyes.

"Momma, what's wrong? Am I sick?" I asked, feeling tears in my own eyes.

"No honey. It's normal. You're becoming a woman now." She said and a single tear trickled down her cheek.

"Why are you crying?" I said wiping the tear away. "Are you sad?"

"A little. You're not my little baby anymore."

"David is the baby." I said as if she had forgotten.

"He is the youngest, yes. But you were my baby girl. I just realized that you are not a baby any more." She sighed and stood up straighter.

"I'm glad I'm not a baby any more Momma. I want to be big like Jacob and Bradley and get to stay up late and go to parties." I said smiling, as Momma pulled my bloody nightgown over my head carefully. She frowned at my nightgown and the thin sheets on my bed.

"You'll have to sleep in the barn for the rest of the week. Do you mind?" She said, gathering the sheets.

"Not at all. It's like having my own room." I said, blinking as a pain ran through my belly. I groaned and felt nauseous all of a sudden. Momma noticed and held onto my arms.

"Listen to me, I want you to wrap in this blanket, go down to the creek and wash yourself very carefully. Then you are to wrap this rag in your petticoat. Are you listening?" She said noticing that I wasn't paying any attention. I nodded my head and looked back at her. "Every hour or two you go back to creek and rinse out the rag, hang it to dry in the hay loft and use this other rag."

"Why?"

"So that you don't bleed on your clothes."

"But…why am I bleeding."

"Because you are a woman."

"Do you bleed Momma?"

"Of course, but it's a secret. Now hurry or your father will know that you are missing. I'll get your chores started for you and when you're done getting ready come to the kitchen. Understand?"

"Got it!" I said smiling brightly. She smiled at me and gently touched my face before leaving the room that I shared with my little brother David.

I sighed and pulled the blanket tighter to my body and quietly crept out the back door, holding onto my dress and the rags Momma had given me. I ran as fast as I could to the creek and walked along to an edge that was hidden by trees. I dipped a toe into the water and shivered. For May the water was still as cold as ice and getting clean in this water would be a disaster, but Momma told me to do it, so I must.

An hour later I was as clean as could be, fully dressed and I was folding up the blanket when the sound of laughter caught my attention. I looked around me but could see nothing. Then there was a loud splash from the other side of the shrubs. I ducked down and crept into the bushes, keeping as quiet as I could.

There in the creek were two boys, both around the same age. One boy had dark black hair and tanned skin; where as the other boy had blonde hair and pale skin, like me. The blonde boy was facing me so I got a good look of his face. He was a very good-looking boy. His eyes were dark and cheerful and his face was full though his body was thin. There were little red spots on his forehead and chin, which I remembered Jacob getting and Momma said that it was normal. The dark haired boy's back was towards me. All I could see were the way his muscles in his back moved when he caught and threw the ball. I was very intrigued. I moved closer and watched the boys. They were laughing and throwing was looked like a ball at each other.

"Come on Jess, you never noticed how big they were? Your face gets sucked into them every time she bends over to talk to you!" The blonde boy said and the dark haired boy chuckled.

"I don't really look at your mother that way."

"She's not my mother!" The blonde boy scowled and threw the ball. He threw the ball too hard and it passed by the boy called Jess and soared right into the bushes beside me. I panicked, seeing the dark haired boy head towards me I started to back out of the bushes, but my long tangled hair got stuck on a branch and the more I pulled the more the bush shook.

I shut my eyes tightly as the boy emerged from the water, and sat perfectly still.

"Oh, what do we have here?" He said, his voice practically laughing at me, yet I still refused to open my eyes.

"What is it Jess?" The blonde boy called.

"A damsel in distress." He called back. "Need some help?" He said and this time I looked up. His bright blue eyes caught gaze first and I couldn't help but look into them and wonder if his eyes were the only thing that colour. Then my gaze fell to his smile and white teeth. Having white teeth meant money so naturally his was noble. At 12 I wasn't stupid, I knew how I was supposed to act in front of nobility. I bowed my head and stared at my bare feet.

"No thank you sir." I said and tried to pull my hair out, not caring if it was creating more tangles. He chuckled and reached towards me.

"Here, let me…" He gently pulled my hair from the bush and places it on my shoulder. "All done."

"Thank you." I said, barely louder than a whisper.

"What are you whispering about over there?" The blonde boy called.

"This little girl got stuck in the bushes." The dark haired boy shouted back. As I said, I was 12 and at 12 you don't exactly think things through.

"I'm not a little girl!" I snapped! "I am a woman."

"Oh is that so?" The blonde boy chuckled, crossing his arms over his bare chest.

"Yes." I said sticking my nose in the air. The blonde boy looked to the dark haired boy and smirked.

"Well then, what do you think about this?" He said getting up out of the water. I blinked and then felt my face heat up. I quickly turned away, embarrassed by his nakedness. Both of the boys laughed, the blonde one laughed louder than the dark haired one who up until this moment I hadn't noticed that he was naked too.

"Some woman. Can't even look at a penis with out getting blushing." The blonde boy teased. "Want to touch it?" He asked and I felt my stomach turn.

"No thank you." I whispered.

"Are you sure?" He asked, even more amused by my great discomfort.

"Come on now Adam. Let her be. She's just a kid." The dark haired boy said, his voice calm and soft.

"I suppose your right. How old are you girl?" He called to me. I bite my lip and took a deep breath then I turned to look at him.

"12." I said.

"I would've thought you were at least 11." Adam said, smiling. "Wouldn't you say so Jesse?" I glanced at the blue-eyed boy and he smiled slightly. He squinted his eyes at me and then grinned.

"I would have said 10. She's still got all that baby fat on her face." With that the blonde boy, Adam burst into laughter and fell back into the water.

"I'M NOT 10, OR 11. I'M 12. Now if you don't mind, I have better things to do then sit around here and be made fun of by you two!" With that I turned on my heel and stomped all the way back up to the farmhouse.

It wasn't until I reached the wooden back door that I realized I had left the blanket down at the creek. I groaned and looked back down the hill, into the trees, which hid the river.

"Hey, Susanna! Get to work." Bradley said as he gave me a sharp shove. "Papa is going to be real angry if he sees you standing around doing nothing." Bradley smirked at the idea of me getting in trouble. Of all the people I had met in my life, Bradley was the meanest (even meaner then the two boys I had met at the creek). When I was two he tried to push me off the hayloft and when I was 6 he almost knocked me over when he was riding a horse. With his dark brown hair always covering his cool grey eyes, he looked tough and angry. He worn a tunic, made of the same material that all of our outfits were, a coarse brown wool that Papa had gotten last year from the wool that didn't sell. His white tights were dirty from working in the field and his straw hat was falling apart.

"I'm helping Momma in the kitchen today." I said sticking my tongue out at him. He was stumped for a second and then he chuckled.

"Sure you are. Wait till Pa hears about this." He hooted. "Hey Papa, guess what little Susanna just told me." He said racing away.

"Its TRUE!" I shouted after him. I felt so angry. First the boys were teasing me at the creek and now my own brother was making me out to be a liar. Why did everyone hate me? I felt so overwhelmed that I kicked a rock, which ended up being stuck in the ground, causing me to stub my toe and tears sprang into my eyes. I jumped up and down clutching my toe, trying not to cry, until suddenly the tears took over and I sank to the ground and sobbed.

"What's wrong kid?" Said one of my favourite voices. I wiped my face and turned slightly.

"Nothing Jacob. Just hurt my toe." My 16-year-old brother, with short dark hair and bright green eyes sat down beside me. He grinned at me and wrapped an arm around my shoulders.

"Want me to kiss it better?" He asked, in the way that he used to whenever I was hurt as a small child.

"No thanks. I'll be ok, I think." I said, sniffling.

"Bradley making fun of you again?" He whispered and I shook my head. But when he squeezed my shoulder I caved and nodded. I told him about how Bradley never believes me and that it hurts my feelings and how I felt so angry yet very sad at the same time. He looked at me with kind eyes but he shook his head.

"What have I told you?" he said in his pretend Papa voice.

"Not to let what Bradley says bother me." I said smiling. "But sometimes it's really hard." I whined and Jacob shook his head.

"Come on Susanna. You're stronger than that. We're the Simons. We're tough. We should be knights fighting for England."

"But we're just poor farmers who need to work to survive." Papa said appearing beside Jacob. His graying brown hair reached his shoulders and his mustache was trimmed to perfection. His grey eyes were tired and droopy, but they reminded me of all the smiling he did. He, like Bradley and Jacob, wore a straw hat and his brown field tunic, with faded white tights. He looked down at us with raised eyebrows and his arms crossed. Both Jacob and I jumped to our feet and began apologizing.

"Sorry Papa, I was distracting Susanna by talking to her." Jacob said.

"No Papa it's my fault. I was crying and Jacob stopped to comfort me." I said. Papa looked from Jacob's face to my face.

"Jacob, take your brother into town and pick up the things that your mother needs from the market." He said only glancing at my brother briefly.

"Yes Papa." He said, kissing my cheek as usual before dashing off to the barn to collect the horse and my other brother. Papa continued to study me like I was a rare gem.

"What is it?" I asked, unable to take this uncomfortable silence any longer.

"You're mother…told me what happened." He said looking away, allowing me to be embarrassed. My face heated and then cooled by the time he looked back at me. "It's time you started acting like a lady." He said.

"I do Papa." I defended and he smiled at me.

"Ladies wear hats and comb their hair." He said brushing my wild black hair behind him ear.

"But is makes me head itchy."

"Susanna, these are the rules you have to follow now. You don't want to be a little girl anymore then you have to act like a grown up." He said gently touching my cheek.

"Papa, I don't think I want to be a grown up any more." I said sadly.

"It get's easier my darling. You'll see." He smiled at me and turned away from me. "You're mother's waiting for you in the kitchen." He said over his shoulder before disappearing around the side of the house.

Momma and I spent the whole day together. She showed me how to pluck the feathers from a chicken after Papa had killed it and how we saved the feathers to use for pillows. She showed me how she washed the laundry in a large pot, big enough to fit me in it, that was full of boiling water and then hung it outside to dry. By the time we were done I was more exhausted then I had ever been while working in the fields because in the fields you didn't have someone watching you all the time, so you could lay down and watch the clouds float by, or day dream while cleaning the stalls.

When dinner was over it was David and my turn to clean up the dishes, while Papa and Jacob went outside to bring the cows into the barn. Momma sang happily as she swept the kitchen floor and Bradley buried himself in a book that he had picked up at the market.

As we were putting the dishes away, our dog Holly started barking. Holly was a guard dog and when she started barking it was never a good sign. One time we had ignored her consistent barks and woken up the next morning to find half of our sheep gone. So instantly everyone froze and listened. We heard Papa's loud shout but couldn't hear what he was saying. The next minute the door swung open and Papa pushed two boys in through the door. I blanked as those blue eyes met mine again. I quickly looked away, pretending I was busy.

"What's going on?" Momma asked, looking worried.

"These two were trying to steal our chickens." Jacob said, kicking one of them.

"Don't you know who I am?" The blonde boy snarled.

"We don't need to know who you arm." Jacob said grabbing the boy by his hair.

"Jacob! That's enough." Momma said sternly. "We do not allow violence in this house."

"But…" She stopped Jacob with a single hand.

"Even if these people tried to wrong us, it is not our way!" I stared a t Momma in wonder. When I grew up I was going to be just like her. "Come, please sit."

"Helen, maybe we should just take them to the sheriff." Papa said.

"These boys are just children, no younger than our Bradley. I'm going to make them a cup of tea while they tell us why they were in our chicken coop." Momma said, turning towards the kettle on the stove. I looked at the boys again and both of them looked at me in wonder. Adam, the blonde one had a cut just below his left eye and Jess had a black eye.

"How did you get hurt?" I asked, with out even thinking. Papa looked over at me shocked and I blushed.

"Yes those cuts do look very sore, how did you get them?" Momma asked, saving me. She nudged me to go and get the peroxide and a clean cloth.

"We were attacked by bandits." Adam said scowling. Everything I had brought with me was taken." At this Jess nodded. I held out the cloths to Momma but she just pushed me forward, telling me to do it. My hands were shaky as I approached Adam.

"This might hurt." I whispered as I poured a little bit of peroxide onto the cloth and then dabbed it on a small cut just under his ear. He winced but didn't look away.

"You'd think you could fight off a couple of bandits." Bradley sneered at them and Adam scowled back.

"There were a lot of them." Jess explained.

"How many?" Papa asked.

"About 12." Adam said. "Too many for both of us. We didn't really have a option but to offer up everything."

"What kind of things could they take from a bunch of run always."

"Run always?" Adam laughed in disbelief. "Do I look like a run away to you?"

"Obviously Adam or they wouldn't have said anything." Jess said with a smile.

"Do you not know who I am?" Adam asked again for the second time, this time in complete disbelief. He looked at me in the face and I froze. If he told them that I had seen them naked in the creek I would be in a lot of trouble with Papa. I begged him with my eyes, not to tell. He looked to the rest of my family.

"Are we supposed to?" Bradley sneered. "Burglars don't get respect in our house. No matter who they are." Papa and Momma both looked at Bradley with surprise.

"What do you know Bradley?" Papa asked.

"Nothing." He said, going quit again.

"Bradley, look at me." Momma said standing in front of him, a technique that always proved to be successful. We could lie to Papa but not to Momma.

"He's the prince." Bradley said quietly.

"The prince?" Momma said, shocked. She looked at Adam and then to Papa.

"Yes, I am." Adam said, rising for dramatic effect and knocking me out of the way.

"No need to put on a show." Jess snapped. "These people have been kind enough to let us in and give us food." With this Adam realized what Jess said was true and sat back down.

"I'm sorry for our harshness towards you, your majesty." Papa said, bowing slightly. "We had people steal from us before."

"It's alright." Adam said, waving to him but staring up at me. My hands started shaking and I felt nauseous.

"Would you like us you ride with you to the palace?" Jacob asked.

"They never let us in." Jess said. "They lock the gates at night and since his highness here lost the ring," Adam turned and scowled at him.

"What was I supposed to do? They had a knife at your throat." I gasped and looked at Jess.

"Really?" I asked and he nodded, looking embarrassed. "That must've been scary."

"It was for me." Adam said. "There's my best friend about to die."

"That's so sweet!" Jess teased, smiling at me.

"Would it be possible if we stayed here tonight?" Adam asked Papa, making eye contact with me before looking at him. Papa looked to Momma.

"Are you sure one of the towns inns wouldn't be better than this run down old place?" Momma asked, embarrassed.

"This place is nicer than any of those silly inns." Adam said, causing my mother to blush, which I have never seen.

"Then you are welcome to stay." Papa said looking at Momma for confirmation.

"Susanna and I will go and set up the beds for you." Momma said with a smile. I sealed the bottle and headed out of the kitchen after her.

"You'll sleep on the floor in our room tonight, ok?"

"But what about the barn?" I said, dreading the hardness of the stone floor.

"The boys are sleeping out there so that the Prince and his friend can each have their own room. I don't want to hear complaints Susanna, please." She said, knowing exactly what I was going to do.

"Alright Momma." I said sighing. She was quiet for a second and then she looked over at me and gave me a smile. "They were sure taken with you." I felt my face heat up.

"I don't think so." I said and Momma laughed.

"I saw the way they watched you. They think you're pretty, which is true."

"Oh Momma. I'm just a baby compared to them." I said remembering what they had said to me.

"Not any more honey. Just wait, boys of all ages will start noticing you more now that you're a woman."

"Is that a good thing?"

"Of course it is. With a face as pretty as yours, its hard to not notice." She said cupping my face gently. "You just remember to be a lady, to be kind and gentle but to remain pure." She looked deep into my eyes and I blushed again as I realized what she was saying.

"Momma I would never do that!" I said shocked. She smiled at me and let out a little chuckle.

"Oh to be young again." She sighed, pulling the sheets tighter on our bed.

That night was a sore one. Momma woke me up extra early, the sun was just starting to rise and she sent me to the creek again. Two baths in one week! It was horrible. When the sun did come up Momma sent me out to collect enough eggs for everyone, and we had scrambled eggs with sliced bread that Momma toasted in the oven and slices of fresh bacon.

Sitting at the table with Adam and Jess was exceptionally uncomfortable. After what Momma had pointed out the night before I felt like all they were doing was watching me. I forced myself not to look at them and stared at my plate. When breakfast was finished I stood up to collect the dishes and Jess stood up too.

"Here let me help." He said, causing Papa to look at me with surprise. I blushed and shook my head.

"No its ok." I spoke barely louder than a peep. I didn't look up but I knew he was amused by my embarrassment. He passed me his plate and it clatter in my shaky hands. When I stood by the washbasin, I took many deep breaths trying to calm my nerves.

"Jess and I were wondering how we would get to town from here?" Adam said, taking a gulp of his tea.

"Jacob and I will ride with you, just to make sure you get there safely."

"No need kind man. I just need the directions." Adam said.

"I insist." Papa said, making it clear that he was annoyed by Adam's power over him.

"I need some things from the market any way." Momma said, staring at Papa. He looked away and the kitchen fell silent.

"Well thank you then. We should really be going though." Adam said looking at Jess for confirmation.

"Of course. We'll just saddle the horses and be on our way." Papa and Jacob jumped up and headed outside.

"Bradley maybe you should help your father." Momma said. He pouted but he left the kitchen without making a sound. Momma grabbed two bundles of cloth and handed one to each boy. They looked at it shocked. "It's just a little bit of food, but in case you get hungry along the way you have something to eat."

"Thank you." Adam said sincerely and Jess nodded.

"It was our pleasure having you visit." Momma said.

"We would love to come back and visit again." Jess said smiling at us.

"You are welcome any time. Right Susanna?" Momma said smiling at me and I blushed again.

"Of course." I said smiling slightly and then turning away. I couldn't figure out why I blushed so much. Why did these boys make me feel like a silly little girl when all I wanted to be was a woman?

As I watched them ride away with Papa I was torn between wishing they would stay longer and wishing that I would never see them again.