To start this chapter off...I think I lied when I said that Tavington was coming in on chapter four, or its possibly my poor math skills, but none the less there is no William, yet. So I apoligize if I got anyones hopes up, but do not fret for he is coming sooned than you think! Thank you Music24601 for the review, they are always appreciated. Also, I had incredible difficulty finding a song for this chapter and am hesitant to even put one up (if there are people who actually listen to them) because I can not seem to find one that works. I contemplated Hope in the Air by Laura Marling and The Fray by Joanna Newsom, but despite the songs be utterly stunning they did not sit well with me (Though they may be used in future chapters). So I will leave this chapter blank and am open to any suggestions any of you may have!
(All rights belong to their respected authors. The added characters and plot belong to me I suppose?)
Chapter Four: Among Us
From the carriage Caroline looked over to the harbor. The ships that were docked had men hauling barrels and equipment to and fro, on and off them. She had never seen as large of boats in her life, with hulls as wide as her house and with masts so tall thier tips seemed to be able to scrape at the very fabric of the sky.
With the sudden turn of their cart around a corner the small girl was jolted back into reality as her and her family plodded through the streets of Charles Town.
"How much longer?" Nathan moaned, helplessly resting on his brother's shoulder.
Their father, who after several hours of these questions had just about had enough, spoke back to him with a growing sharpness to his tone, "We are just about there Nathan."
Though the response was not directed to everyone, all of the children managed to sate their curiousity with the phrase. Yet such words also served as the craft for which the awkward position of being 'too close to your destination to complain, but too far to get excited' commissioned itself. What were they to do now?
Caroline, who was being especially plagued by this question, began searching for a form of amusement to bide her time. Her younger sisters were entertaining themselves with the stories Margaret told Susan, while her younger brothers Samuel, William, and Nathan had immersed themselves into a game of hand gestures, and Gabriel was virtually unreachable for he was riding behind the family upon a horse. That left her only one option.
Her path of vision then slowly dropped to Thomas who was resting, only partially conscious, with his head on a crate. The night, having not been half so kind to him as it was to her, left her brother with sunken eyes and a heavy fatigue.
She had stayed down with him last evening to read the mail despite her need for sleep, so she thought it only fair that he at least speak with her in his moment of feebleness. She nodded agreeably with herself and in one brisk movement made her way from her seat to the spot next to him. "Thomas," she whispered as she prodded his near lifeless body.
He made some faint gesture of recognition, but this was not enough to stop Caroline from the pursuit of a verbal response. "Thomas?" Her petite fingers wound around his shoulder for which she began to gently shake him.
Unexpectedly, she felt beneath her grasp his muscles tense. "What do you want?" he groused while straightening his back with three sickening cracks.
"Oh nothing in particular, it's just-"
The words that were on the tip of her tongue suddenly leapt from her mouth to Thomas', "-you were bored?"
She folded her hands on her lap and nodded with an eager grin.
"You do know we're almost there?" he questioned with his disinterest tainting his tone.
She nodded again and began, "Oh I know, it's just-"
"-you wanted to see if I was as bored as you?"
Their brother, sister telepathic tendencies, as usual, took the element of surprise out of their statements and stories. Yet as unfortunate as such abilities, or more incapabilities, could be there were always just as many upsides.
Caroline, in true nervous fashion, began to chew on her lip as she inquired hopelessly, "Well, are you?"
Thomas looked from his sister back to where he was laying his head. Sleep and all its fineries were so appealing to him in that half-into-slumber state, but the pleading look in his sister's eyes, one that he too had on prior occasions, spoke to him louder than his own exhaustion.
With a deep sigh he said, "Sure."
His little sister beamed with delight. "Well then what should we do?"
Before Thomas could even form an answer in his mind she had already began spitting out activities by the dozen. Then by the time the list was done and Caroline was finally able to take a full breath the juncture had passed and they found themselves being jerked forward with the abrupt halt of the carriage.
Upon repositioning himself he glimpsed down at his sister, who was now wedged between two trunks, and chaffed, "Well wasn't that fun?"
She rolled her eyes and pulled herself unsteadily to her feet. Everyone else had already vacated the vehicle in a hurry and her Aunt's "workers", as Caroline often delicately put it, were unloading their luggage and securing the family horses. The sound of the children screaming in pleasure abounded through the air. "We're here, we're here!" they all shouted. Even Benjamin and his three eldest children could not help but find their enthusiasm contagious.
Caroline and Thomas scrambled out of the cart and hopped off the platform to the cobble stone path beneath them. How strange it was in comparison to their country home, where the roads were nothing more than cleared dirt paths. "Let's go!" chirped Thomas, loosing all of his earlier feelings of debility in one quick burst of excitement.
Quickly the two juveniles bound up the stairs where they were met by the rest of their family, save Gabriel who was coming up close behind them. "Aunt Charlotte, Aunt Charlotte," the young Martin's exclaimed running in to embrace the slender woman. All children but one did so.
Caroline stood rigidly at the landing of the staircase, looking over at her Aunt with large mysterious eyes. Was it that she thought Charlotte gave the other children more attention, or was it that she looked too much like their mother? Ben could not even begin to fathom what reason his daughter held such a hostility for her.
"Caroline," she called, holding her arms out to the girl.
Speechless little Susan had more of a response than Caroline, who had still not made a movement. Ben looked down at her anxiously; it was rude for her not to greet her aunt. So with a gentle reassuring hand he patted her back, pushing her forward, but his daughter remained impassive.
Charlotte waited a few moments more for her niece to come running into her arms like the others had, but no such thing was to happen. Defeated, she dropped her arms to her sides. It was just how it was to be. The woman proceeded, with a sigh, to stroke Nathan and Margaret's soft hair. "They're huge. What have you been feeding them?" she asked, hiding the hurt in her voice under layers of soft, delicate inflections.
Ben seemed to do a double take, as if surprised her attention was being directed to him. Caroline saw that glossy eyed glance he always gave their Aunt and knew exactly what feeling was behind it. She scowled for she was sickened by this notion that her father held a fondness for her cognate that surpassed what usual siblings-in-law shared. Benjamin, as his daughter thought it, was just trying to replace their motherly figure and his significant other after the years of loneliness. Caroline, though, knew Charlotte was not the answer to her father's sorrow, but the mere momentary filler. For despite looking like her mother, and sounding like her mother, she was not her, nor would she ever be.
"They come from good stock, on their mother's side of course" Ben added motioning to his kin.
Charlotte blushed lightly and quickly directed her regard to the adolescents crowded around her front door. "Come inside, wait till you see what I have for you!" she gingerly poked the small nose of William, the youngest boy of them all.
"Presents!" the children squealed as they ran past their Aunt and into the house giving no heed to their elders.
"Move slowly," demanded Benjamin, but his commands fell upon deaf ears. His two eldest sons were among those trying to push in, but right as they were about to go through the door way a strong voice forced them to stop. "Keep an eye on these heathens, will you?"
The boys promptly nodded and pushed passed their father with the same ferocity of those before them. With the sudden rush of weight against his back Benjamin tumbled forward, leaning his weight against a startled Charlotte.
Caroline slowly stalked passed them giving her father a fleeting glare as if saying, "How could he?" She could feel the venom burn her throat as she tried to suppress her rage. Remember, she told herself, She will never be your mother.
Frap, frap, frap, the sound of a gavel hitting a oak lectern was lost under the shouts of impassioned men fueled by patriotism to their mother country or to their unborn nation. Yet one man's voice managed to cut through the banter and catch the attention of the rowdy audience. "Our first order of business!" announced the leader of the assembly.
Silence began to sweep over the crowd only to have an unknown man break it. "And our last if we vote a levy!" This remark was met by screams of praise and distaste, but side arguments could not be held long before order was called for again by the head of procession. After a few moments of reprimanding a conservative level of civility once more instated itself, permitting the doyen to continue speaking.
"First, an address from Colonel Harry Burwell of the continental army," the grey haired judge turned his head back over his shoulder to acknowledge the man resting in a seat at the front of the hall, "Colonel Burwell?"
The officer rose from his seat with a courteous nod to the adjudicator before he stepped in front of the crowd. "You all know why I am here?" The rhetorical question was met by the disjointed rumble of murmurs from the audience. Being as vigil a man as he was, he knew it would be better to declare his place among the men, both for and against him, sooner rather than later. "I'm not an orator. And I would not try to convince you of the worthiness of our cause," he paused to stare out at the masses, "I'm a soldier. And we are at war. From Philadelphia, we expect a declaration of Independence. 8 of the 13 colonies have levied money in support of a continental army. I ask that South Carolina be the ninth."
"Massachusetts and Virginia may be at war, but South Carolina is not!" called those who had spoken out of turn before, instigating the roar of contempt in the assemblage.
Harry uncomfortably adjusted the lapel of his blue jacket and spoke, "This is not a war of independence for one or two colonies," he looked out at the room that was unintentionally divided in half by the conflicting political views and continued, "But for the independence of one nation."
Suddenly a man seated in the Loyalist pews shot up and demanded, "And what nation is that?"
Colonel Burwell, who did not yet have his bearings to defend himself, had the attention deflected from his answer when a stout man with a dilapidated wig and missing leg replied triumphantly, "An American Nation!"
A tall, lanky fellow, sitting beside the original antagonist, snapped in retort, "There is no such nation and to speak of one is treason!"
The plump man was quick to bark back, leaving Harry only able to observe what his words could elicit. "We are citizens of an American Nation and our rights are being threatened by a tyrant three thousand miles away!"
Everyone waited for someone seated on the Loyalist side to rise, but instead a blank faced Benjamin Martin, whom sat amongst the rest of the patriots, rose to his feet breaking the pattern. "Would you tell me, please, Mr. Howard why I should trade one tyrant three thousand miles away for three thousand tyrants one mile away?"
The colonel's face buckled in confusion upon seeing the withered face of his old friend. "Captain Martin, I understood you to be a patriot?"
Ben shifted his weight from one foot to another before regaining clarity. "If you mean by 'Patriot,' am I angry about taxation without representation? Well, yes I am. Should the American colonies govern themselves?" he took a deep breath before carefully advancing in speech, "I believe they can and they should, but if you're asking me if I am willing to go to war with England? Well then the answer is most definitely no."
A cragged old voice emerged from a sickly looking man who was now in an upward stance. "This from the same Captain Benjamin Martin whose fury was so famous during the Wilderness campaign?"
Ben viewed his two children who were present from his side of the room. Gabriel and Thomas, unaware of his impending glare, were sharing confused glances with one another having heard such comments being passed in jest to their father before. "I was intemperate in my youth," he countered with little affect.
The aged man adjusted the glasses sliding down his nose and scowled at the ex-officer, "Temperance can be a disguise for fear."
Harry, who was more than aware of Ben's temperamental nature, stood quickly to abet his old friend. "Mr. Middleton, I fought with Captain Martin under Washington in the French and Indian War. There's not a man in this room, or anywhere for that matter, to whom I would more willingly trust my life."
The elderly man, bested by the Colonel's superiority, sat back down. Though this battle was over with, Ben saw this war against a war no sooner done and remained standing to fight his claim, "There are alternatives to war. We take our case before the king. We plead with him."
"Yes, we've tried that," Harry asserted curtly.
Benjamin was disgruntled, but not discouraged with his companion's pessimism, but the false hope in the air gave him the encouragement to think that if he pressed on he could change their minds. "Well, then, we try again and again if necessary to avoid war."
Harry sighed and steadied his sight on Ben's vibrant blue eyes, "Benjamin, I was at Bunker Hill. The British advanced three times. We killed over seven hundred at point-blank range and still they took the ground. That is the measure of their resolve. If your principles dictate independence, the war is the only way. It has come to that."
"I have eight children," the man retaliated, "My wife is dead. Now who's to care for them if I go to war?"
Every person in the room froze at the thought that no one dared bespeak, but while the rest of the assembly mulled over their anxiety of furthering the conversation Harry continued, "Wars are not fought by childless men only."
Benjamin accepted his opponent's response, acknowledging so with a nod, but in no such way did it change where he stood. "Granted, but mark my words. This war will be fought, not on the frontier or some distant battlefield, but amongst us. Among our homes."
People began to straighten in their seats, the eloquence of his words resonating throughout everyone for and against the war. Benjamin observed as faces puckered with anger, disbelief, and worry, but such a reactions did not prevent him from going on. "Our children will learn of it with their own eyes. And the innocent will die with the rest of us," he glanced briefly across the room at his son Gabriel who was squirming in his seat, before looking back up to stare into the eyes of his accuser. "I will not fight, and because I will not fight I will not cast a vote to send others to fight in my stead."
Benjamin had thought he had gotten his point across with much effect on the men and women around him, but there was one whose tenet could not be so easily trifled with.
"And what are your principles?" questioned the Colonel as he crossed the space between himself and the rows of slip seats.
The single father looked dimly into the eyes of his brother-in-arms, "I'm a parent. I haven't got the luxury of principles." With this parting phrase the sullen man sat back into his spot. The men around him purposely adverted their eyes from his person in fear of what kind of acerbic reaction they could possibly provoke.
To everyone's surprise, but Benjamin's, his eldest son got to his feet and stormed out of the courthouse in a rage. Gabriel left his fury resounding with the echo of the door slamming against the wall, but his haste had blinded him to the petite figure hiding behind the back of a pew.
She knelt there, with her hands thoroughly coiled around the ruffle of her collar, until the rush of air from the outside was firmly cut off by the closing of the exit. With a relieved suspire the small girl pulled golden strands of hair, which had got caught, from her mouth.
That was too close for comfort for her frenzied heart to be in such close quarters with her brother. Dare say anybody in her family had found her nestled unknowingly into the crowds of politic conscious men and women they would have gone berserk. Ben would have never permitted her to come, so her interest in the outcome of this assembly had to remain a secret between her and herself. Her pesonel concern was in the result of their decision, for she could foretell how it would influence her content, hardworking, sheltered family. If the levy passed she knew Gabriel would instantly enlist with the continentals with or without the agreement of their father, pulling the family apart over the next seasons, and Thomas would not be too many years far to follow down the same path. All she could do was pray that no such thing was to happen.
A quiver shot up her spine as the picture of her brother's dressed in navy jacket's and white breeches marching into combat formed in her mind. She shook the image out of her head and focused on the problem at hand. Despite her deepest and honest curiousity in the assembly she knew it was too much to risk staying until the conference ended, which was an epoch in the process not to long off. So now was the time to depart, having heard her father's impacting speech, if she was to leave her family none the wiser of her presence.
With her direction set towards the egress she dropped to the heels of her hands. The men sitting in the benches above her gave her no notice for their short attention spans were already transfixed on the political rally that had once more been stirred up as every man cast their vote.
The soft, pink fabric of her gown dragged across the dirty pine floor while she crawled closer and closer towards her objective. What a pity that such a dress was being tarnished, but Caroline could not have cared less if she had been wearing a hessian sack or the finest of silks for she would have treated it all the same. All she needed to do was get out!
Having reached the door she extended her hand upwards and clasped the knob for which she then turned towards her. With the subtle release in tension the door slid open, giving her a foot or so space to slip through unseen by those on the inside, but what of those who were waiting on the opposite side of the wall?
She reveled in the fact that she was almost safe, but could not help but get the bemused stares of onlookers who had witnessed her coming out of the courthouse on her hands and knees. Upon realizing the growing amount of eyes examining her she concurred it would be best to get up.
Once upright again she began hurriedly running down the stairs right as a young boy came bursting out of the courthouse. "28 to 12. The levies been passed!" he announced throwing his hands up in the air. Everyone followed accordingly to their views and shot off guns and hats ceremoniously into the air. In the blur of musket powder and smoke Caroline maneuvered her way throughout the growing crowd around the magnificent brick building, her mind constantly chewing the words, Oh if they would have only listened to him.
Her father was right. More right than anybody would probably be willing to admit. He vocalized her worst fears that were set in the pit of her stomach, inevitably waiting to come true, Gabriel leaving, innocents dying, Thomas following. She grimaced and wondered, Why were men so belligerent?
Not too long into her dreading did Caroline become aware that she had caught the wandering eye of Colonel Harry Burwell as he stepped out from the building.
It took him a few moments to register that the near emerald orbs he had just beheld were indeed the irises of one's eyes and not the mere gleam of a precious stone, but that was not the only thing that intrigued him about the tiny creature that bore them. She was a Martin, no question about it, but there still remained this indescribable difference in her face that left the Colonel questioning, What was it? And why couldn't the vivacity of her visage fade in his mind. This effect lasted long after she disappeared into the forest of people, leaving him with a definite curiousity in the bewitching maiden. He supposed she would just have to remain among the few faces he was to always remember and ponder.
The sudden cold shoulder of a man storming past him interrupted his thoughts. Colonel Burwell watched as Benjamin Martin made a b-line through the hoards of men and women to his son who was standing stiffly in the center of it all. Harry's sudden interest in the family's dynamics piqued as he followed his friend through the people, bumping shoulders with human creatures of all rank from politician to tramp, baker to merchant. His feet then suddenly stopped in motion at a considerable distance away to hear the conversation that was to unfold.
"You intend to enlist without my permission?" Ben asked, exhibiting a startlingly good self-control in his tone.
His son turned on his heel to face his father who was but mere inches away from his face. "Yes, I do," divulged the young man who was staring quizzically into the eyes of his predecessor, "Father I thought you were a man of principle?"
Benjamin felt the blow that shattered him to the core, forcing his lip to retract into his mouth to silence the scream that was threatening to escape. "When you have a family of your own," he started shakily, "You will understand."
Gabriel observed his father's pained face and spoke, "When I have a family of my own I won't hide behind them."
Harry watched the scene conclude with Gabriel storming off towards the line to enlist. This left Ben standing there staring after his son. The Colonel had not realized that he had absent mindedly walked towards the display as it culminated, and that before long found himself right behind the shoulder of the broken man. "He's as imprudent as his father was at his age," Harry exclaimed.
Ben knew instantly who he was speaking with and chose to keep his eyes on Gabriel. "Regrettably so," he muttered.
Concern radiated out from behind Ben's outer wall of indifference, influencing Harry's right mind to suggest something that, under any other condition, he would never do. "I will see to it he serves under me, make him a clerk or a quartermaster, something of that sort."
The Colonel knew it was wrong for him to try to preserve one soldier's life over another, but under the circumstance, which was what Benjamin had already lost, he knew he had to do it for what he owed to the man who had his back on and off the battle field many years ago.
Benjamin finally turned to face the officer behind him with a faint smirk, "Good luck."
Harry hid his smile and nodded sternly as Ben began to walk away with his son and sister-in-law following close on his heels. His eyebrows furrowed, Where was his daughter? "Captain Martin?" Harry probed once more.
Ben turned around abruptly to face the Colonel, "Yes?"
Harry's eyes drifted from side to side in search of that small face that he suspected to once more reappear with the rest of the family. "Had you only brought two of your children?"
Benjamin nodded slowly, eyeing his companion speculatively. "Yes, why exactly do you inquire?" he asked, suspicion pursing his lips and squinting his eyes.
Another smile threatened to creep up the Colonel's face, but he managed to keep it ruled into firm line. "No reason," he affirmed before sharply turning around and marching back towards the courthouse with an amused grin. Now she is exactly like her father! he deemed with a chuckle.
Thank you for reading! The next chapter will be up sometime in the next week or so. Tell me what you thought of this chapter!
