Chapter 2: The Vision

Boston, January 1757

As an evening snowstorm blanketed the street outside, three women sat snugly in a bedroom in one of Boston's most stately townhomes. Sitting in their nightgowns on a large feather bed while a cozy fire burned in the fireplace, the oldest of the women was brushing the hair of the youngest of the group. It was a favorite ritual that Maggie Munro and her daughters, Cora and Alice, always enjoyed every evening at bedtime. For them it was a time to remember the days' events and to share their hopes and dreams for the future. But this night would prove to be very different from all the others. This would be the night that Cora and Alice's lives would begin to change in ways they could not possibly imagine.

"I wonder who I shall marry?" Alice asked in a dreamy tone as her mother ran the brush through her dark blonde hair. "Perhaps he will be a handsome officer from Papa's regiment?"

"Or perhaps he will be a short, bald shopkeeper from the market!" teased Cora, who ducked just in time to avoid getting swatted by her sister as both girls broke out into a fit of the giggles.

Lowering her hands, Maggie placed the hairbrush she was holding in her lap as a very serious look replaced the cheerful one that had been on her face just a moment ago. At age forty two, she was a pretty woman with long black hair, dark brown eyes that almost appeared black and the warm brown skin that bespoke of her Mohawk heritage. Coming from a long line of medicine women who were well known for their healing abilities and spiritual powers, Maggie was no exception having been given the gift of prophecy.

Receiving this ability at the age of twelve when womanhood first touched her, she began to experience visions that would unexpectedly come to her from out of nowhere and would always occur exactly as she had seen them. Beginning first with a foal that was born to her favorite horse, she proceeded to predict the marriages and births, hardships and deaths that would come to those she loved. Not a gift she wanted to receive, especially when the visions told of sadness and suffering, she learned to accept it and one day received a vision about herself.

Sitting with her daughters on that snowy Boston night, she thought back to that spring day during her sixteenth year when the man she would fall in love with and marry was revealed to her. In the vision, she saw herself walking hand in hand along the river near her village with a young officer who was serving in His Majesties Army. Dark haired and ruggedly handsome, he was resplendent in his red uniform and she knew through the vision that he was a Scotsman. Therefore, it came as no surprise to her when later that summer a small detachment of British soldiers arrived at her village and camped there for several days before marching on to Albany. Among the soldiers was the officer from her vision, Captain Ian Munro, a man who was just as attracted to her as she was to him. During his stay, they spent many hours walking together through the forest, getting to know each other and falling in love and it was the day he asked for her hand in marriage that her vision of their walk together along the river played out. With the blessings of her parents, they were married and the day she became his wife was one of the happiest she had ever known, surpassed only by the births of her daughters, each of which had also been foretold to her in a vision. Although life as a British officer's wife meant leaving the Mohawk village she called home, she did so without complaint and passed herself off as Spanish when she accompanied him to England five years later.

Now, twenty one years later, Maggie had at long last returned to the land of her birth to join her husband, who had been given his third assignment to the colonies. Having remained in Edinburgh and London while her husband's career kept him moving about, she longed to go with him when he had been assigned back to the colonies the second time, but her pregnancy with Cora prevented her from embarking on a long sea voyage. Upon his return, she learned of the horrors that took place during several battles with warring tribes, including a terrible attack on a Huron village that haunted her husband for months afterward. Glad that she had not gone with him, she was delighted when he told her of his plans to return to the colonies and settle there when he retired from the military. Then, years later when that retirement seemed imminent and the two had begun to make plans, the war between England and France broke out and Ian Munro, now a colonel, was pressed back into service in the Americas, having been given the command of a frontier post called Fort William Henry in northern New York colony.

When two years had passed and Ian finally felt it was safe enough for his family to join him, he sent word to his wife and arrangements were made for Maggie and her daughters to sail on the next ship bound for Boston. Knowing they would arrive just as winter went into full swing, he arranged for his family to stay with his niece and her husband until the road to the fort became passable again. Enduring a long and rough sea voyage, Maggie and the girls arrived at their destination no worse for wear and settled into their relative's spacious townhome to await the arrival of spring when travel to the fort would become possible again. It was while she was unpacking her luggage that first day that Maggie had a vision about Alice. Later that night as she was about to blow out the candle after having climbed into bed, she experienced yet another vision about Cora. Stunned by what both prophecies had revealed to her, she knew it was vital the girls were told about what would happen to them before they continued their journey any further, but seeing as how they would all remain in Boston for some time yet, she chose to wait until she felt the time was right. And so, on this night two months later as she listened to her daughters playful chattering, she came to the decision that this was as good a time as any to tell them.

"When do you think we'll be able to leave for the fort, Mama?" Alice asked, eager to continue the journey.

"Not until spring, Little One. We must first wait for the weather to warm and for the roads to become fit for travel. Then we will go west to Albany in New York colony and from there we will be escorted by a company of his Majesty's soldiers north to Fort William Henry." replied Maggie.

"I cannot wait to see Papa! He's been gone for so long and I miss him terribly." said Alice. "And I cannot wait to see the wilderness as well. From the descriptions he wrote in his letters, it sounds like such a beautiful place and I just know something wonderful is going to happen!"

"I cannot wait either!" Cora added. "I wish we could leave now, but Mama is right. We will have to be patient and wait for spring to arrive."

"Girls." said Maggie, "I need to talk to you both. There is something very important that I must share with you before we go any further on this trip."

"What is it Mama?" asked Cora as both she and Alice turned to face their mother upon hearing the seriousness in the woman's voice.

At twenty Cora Munro was a beauty, with dark brown hair that hung in waves and an outgoing, independent nature that resulted in her never being afraid to speak her mind. Her sister Alice, who had just turned eighteen, was pretty in her own right, but being quiet and somewhat shy she tended to fade into the background when around other people. Both sisters had brown eyes and cream colored skin which turned to a deep golden brown if exposed to the sun and although half Mohawk, each of the young women appeared to be white, which was a huge relief to their parents, who often worried that any children they might have would become social outcasts if anyone were to discover their true heritage.

"The day we arrived here in Boston, I had two separate visions." Maggie said, pausing a moment before continuing. "They were about the both of you."

Being very familiar with their mother's predictions, which always came true exactly as she foretold them, Alice and Cora both stared wide eyed at Maggie as they nervously wondered what she had seen for them.

"What were the visions about, Mama?" asked Alice in a soft voice that was almost a whisper. Unconsciously she reached out and took hold of her sister's hand, a little afraid of what her mother was going to say given the look on her face.

"I saw the men that each of you will marry." replied Maggie, relaxing her serious look with a warm smile.

Upon hearing the news, both sisters' faces lit up with wide smiles of their own as they swung their heads to look at each other before turning back to their mother and pressing her for details.

"What are they like? Oh please tell us what they are like, Mama! Please?" begged Alice.

Cora, though just as excited as her sister, managed through a monumental effort to act calmer and more dignified, but inside she was as nervous as a small child on Christmas morning.

"I will tell you, but first I must warn you that what I saw is not what either of you girls may have had in mind. The men you will marry will be very different from any you might have imagined, as will be the lives you will live with them." Seeing the fear beginning to show in her daughters' faces, Maggie gave them a reassuring smile and took each one by the hand before continuing.

"Don't worry girls." she said. "You will both be very happy with your husbands and you will love them deeply. It is just that parts of the vision were very strange and I do not understand what some of it means."

"Strange in what way, Mama?" asked Cora.

Letting go of her daughters' hands and folding her own in her lap, Maggie gave a big sigh before she replied.

"Let me tell you what I saw and you will see for yourselves what I mean. I will start with you, Alice, as you will meet your husband first."

Wide eyed, Alice nervously stared at her mother, intently listening to every word she said. Though she tried not to shake, she could not stop her nervous trembling and smiled gratefully at Cora, who placed a reassuring hand on her younger sister's shoulder as she also tried to hide her nervousness.

"I saw the man who will be your husband emerge from the forest, coming to rescue you from great danger." Maggie said as she looked intently at Alice. "He is an Indian and he is young, tall, and very handsome. He will be wearing a plum colored shirt with deerskin leggings and moccasins and his long black hair, which is partially tied back in a thin braid with a small red feather attached, will shine like a raven's wing. But it will be his eyes that you will notice first, Alice. Beautiful dark eyes and when you first look into them you will instantly fall in love with him and you will know, without any doubts whatsoever, that he is the man you will marry."

After her mother finished speaking, Alice was speechless. Turning to look at Cora, who appeared to be just as stunned as she was, she finally found her voice and turned back to her mother.

"Did you say that he is an Indian…and that he will be wearing a plum colored shirt…with a red feather in his hair?" she asked in a soft hesitant voice, wanting to be sure she had heard correctly and afraid to believe she had.

"Yes. That is what I saw." her mother replied.

Staring down at the hairbrush lying in her mother's lap, Alice could not believe what she was hearing. Since she was a child, she had done what every girl did and tried to imagine what her future husband would be like. Always saying he would be a soldier like her father, some instinct deep within her told her that was not who he would be and that she would marry a man who was an Indian like her mother. Then, two years ago, she began to have a vivid recurring dream every night without fail and each time the dream was exactly the same, down to the last detail.

In it, she was lying on a blanket deep in a forest with stars in the night sky twinkling through the leaves overhead. Beside her lay a warrior, who she knew in the dream was her husband. Lying on his side with his back to her, his face was hidden from view, yet despite the darkness she could clearly see his long black hair that had a small red feather tied to a thin braid in the back and that he wore a plum colored shirt. As she looked at him, he would turn over toward her and it was then that she could see his beautiful sleeping face. Feeling an immense love for this man, she would reach out and gently brush his cheek with her fingertips. Waking up at the feel of her touch, her warrior would open his eyes and with a sleepy look still in them, he would reach out and pull her into his embrace. But just as his warm lips met hers in a kiss, she would wake up and a terrible aching loneliness engulfed her each time when she realized that once again it had only been a dream.

Thinking about her mother's prediction as she pictured the warrior, she was not troubled by any of it. In fact, the thought of marrying an Indian did not bother Alice in the least. Like Cora, she was proud of her Mohawk heritage and both girls were always eager to learn all they could about it, of the history, traditions and legends of their mother's people. As small children, she and Cora loved to pretend they lived in a village like their mother had grown up in and one of their favorite games was to strap their dolls onto makeshift cradleboards and pretend to cook over an open fire made of twigs in front of the "lodge" they built out of chairs with a sheet draped over them. But as they grew older, both girls had to abandon their favorite game and focus instead on learning all that well-bred young ladies needed to know in order to prepare them for the lives that society expected them to live. And so, as she learned about needlepoint, music and proper etiquette, Alice put aside all thoughts of living the life her mother was raised to. That is until the dream began the night of her sixteenth birthday.

But even as the wonderful scene continued to play for her in her sleep night after night, she had begun to think that the dream and her instincts about marrying this warrior could not be right. How was she to meet such a man while living in Scotland and London, attending balls and tea parties? And if, by some miracle, she did meet him, where could they live? Certainly not in England, for no one would accept them as a couple. Perhaps they could find a place to call home in the Americas, but even that was questionable at best and besides, how would she get there and where would she even begin to look for him? Then the letter came from her father, instructing his wife and children to join him at his frontier post in the colonies and an overjoyed Alice could not wait to make the journey.

All the while she packed for the trip and during the long sea voyage, she constantly thought about her warrior and planned to take every opportunity she could to look for him as soon as they reached their destination. Upon arriving in Boston however, she was disappointed that none of the land's native peoples were anywhere to be seen, even though she knew deep down inside that they wouldn't be casually strolling about a city such as this. Determined not to let her spirits fall, she reminded herself that her dream took place deep in the forest and she focused instead on the upcoming trip to the fort while still continuing to scan the faces of everyone she saw in case her dream warrior did happen to be in the city for some reason. And every night after she awoke from another repeat of the dream, she ached for this man who she had fallen in love with. A man whose physical appearance her mother had just described in exact detail and who she had confirmed Alice would indeed marry.

Seeing the dazed and faraway look in her youngest daughter's eyes, Maggie left her alone to take in all that she had just told her and turned her attention next to Cora.

"Now that I have told Alice of what I saw for her, I will share what my vision showed for you, Cora. Only this is the part that is strange and I do not understand what all of it means." Maggie told her. Not quite knowing how to continue, she paused for a moment.

With her stomach in knots, Cora took a deep breath and tried to look calm as she waited for her mother to go on, all the while wondering what the woman had foreseen that was so strange she could not explain it.

"The man you will marry, Cora, will be the very image of your sister's husband. They are identical twin brothers. You will meet him less than a week after Alice meets her man. Only this is where it gets odd."

"Odd how Mama?" asked Cora with a noticeable tremble in her usually calm voice.

"Your man will also appear at a time of great danger and will come to the rescue of not only you, but also your sister, her husband, your father and Duncan."

"Duncan?" exclaimed Cora. "But he is in Bristol, is he not?"

"Not for much longer." said Maggie. "He will soon depart for the colonies to join your father's regiment at Fort William Henry, but we are straying from the vision. When you meet your husband, Cora, you and the others will have taken shelter in a cave. A war party of Indians will arrive and take all of you prisoner. It is then that your husband will appear." Maggie hesitated again before revealing more.

"Although both of your men will look exactly alike in physical appearance, their clothes will be very different. Alice's husband will be dressed like other warriors here in the colonies, but your husband's clothing will be like none I have ever seen before and it is how he will arrive that I do not understand." said Maggie.

"What is so strange about how he arrives?" asked Cora. So completely focused on what their mother was saying about their men, neither of the young women noticed that she had made two separate references to their being in grave danger.

"Behind the leader of the war party a swirling circle of fog will appear in front of one of the cave's walls. From this fog your man will emerge. He too will have long black hair but it will hang loose with a long wide band of grey cloth tied around his forehead. He will be wearing a light blue shirt with a wide leather belt slung over his shoulder and across his chest. The belt is covered in a row of thin cylindrical objects that appear to be made of brass. He will also be wearing another belt with small silver plates attached to it over his shirt around his waist. Instead of leggings he will wear pants made of white cotton and a loincloth also made of the same material, which will be much longer and wider than those worn by the tribes here. His moccasins will reach up to his knees resembling boots and he will carry a musket like none I have ever seen before. He will not be from our time either. He will be from a time many years ahead in the future."

"Tell us more Mama!" cried Alice in excitement while Cora sat in stunned silence, trying to comprehend her mother's prediction.

"I cannot." said Maggie. "This is where the vision ends. I only know that both of you will be happy with these men and you will love them dearly, as they will you."

Feeling terribly guilty about not being entirely truthful to her daughters, Maggie could still not bring herself to tell either of them the full details of the visions, or the remainder of them which did not end where she had led the girls to believe they had. This was something she decided would be best for them to learn of when the events naturally occurred on their own. While it was true that both young women would be very happy in the lives they would live with their husbands, she could not tell them that neither couple would have any future together at all if the two young warriors were unable to withstand everything they would have to face.

How could she tell Alice and Cora of all they would have to endure in order to even meet these men and of what their warriors would have to undergo and survive in order for any of them to even have a future together? All Maggie could do was hope and pray that her daughters and their future husbands would have the courage and the strength to survive what lay before them….especially their husbands.

Author's Note: The more I work on this rewrite, the more I am considering altering parts of the plot that will occur later on, but we'll see what happens as the story progresses. I hope you are enjoying this updated version of "Second Chances". After planning and experimenting with the best way to go about this project, I ended up having no choice but to delete the original story and proceed with posting the revised version as new, one chapter at a time. I did not intend to do it this way, but a quirk with the fanfiction publishing method caused it to not cooperate with me and, alas, I had to delete the original and work from the copy of it which I kept on my computer (whew!) So, my apologies to anyone who was upset by the deletion of the original, especially if you were in the middle of reading it for the first time. But don't worry, this new version will be even better! I promise! Thanks to all who are reading this updated story and for the reviews and comments! MohawkWoman :)