Nathan cringed as he sat up the following morning. He had slept uncomfortably and his shoulder muscle was tight and painful. Astra gave a concerned whine as he inhaled sharply.

"I'm fine," he sighed and hurriedly dressed as the crisp morning air greeted him as he threw of the thick blanket.

He left the key with the innkeeper with instructions to return it to Gerard on his next arrival. The owner, familiar with the young Scotsman, nodded in affirmation and wished the boy good day.

Despite the cold, it was a pleasant morning in Concord. The sky was a clear blue with a faint sun slowly climbing up it. It seemed just a decoration, without giving off any heat at all.

Instead of making his way back to Achilles, Nathan decided on visiting Lisa again. It had been a while since he had seen her last and he thought the winter coat would be a good excuse. Astra, recognising their path, gave a judgemental grumble as she looked up at him with her large dark eyes.

"What?" He laughed and ruffled her head. "Oh, just because you're not the only lady in my life anymore." She returned another grumble and nudged his leg with her nose.

They made their way through the hunting village; it was a shorter trip from the Bull's Head than the homestead. Nathan made a mental note to inquire about the prices. It was for convenience he told himself but he couldn't trick himself into covering up the real reason, he wanted to be closer to Lisa.

"She's just a good friend," he told the air, Astra and himself.

She huffed in response.

As the house came into sight, nearly veiled by the edge of the forest, Nathan picked up his pace. He approached the door but before he knocked, he heard a faint voice. A melody was coming from inside the house, a sweet tune, as if for a dance. A flash of pink passed the window and frowning, he investigated. Through the misty glass, he could see Lisa, her golden hair swaying as she danced around the room. She was dressed in a large pink dress, too big for her and so one shoulder hung down her arm, revealing her drab clothes underneath. Her dancing partner was a broom, stiffly moving in time to her song.

He couldn't leave it any longer. He knocked on the window and waved.

"Nathan!" He heard her muffled cry as the melody abruptly stopped, the broom clattered to the floor and she wrenched the dress from herself.

Soon, the door clicked open and Nathan stepped in, welcomed by Lisa, red as a tomato and bowed her head to the floor.

"I can't believe you saw that," she muttered.

"It was cute," he grinned and she rolled her eyes.

"You can't let my father know I was wearing that, he'd kill me." Lisa didn't meet his eyes but picked the pink dress from the floor and dusted it off. She draped it over the chair and traced the white lace trim before turning to Nathan. "It's for a lady going to a ball soon."

"It's very... Nice." Nathan hurriedly decided on the adjective, unsure how to describe the dress having never been hugely interested in Georgian fashion or a common attender of balls.

"I'd love to go to a ball," she sighed, turning back to the dress. He could tell she was imagining herself back in that dress, surrounded by bright and exciting people rather than the dusty house and a broom.

"I have no idea where any balls are or how to get invited." He shrugged.

"One day," she decided with a smile. "What are you here about anyway?"

"Oh, yeah, I was wondering if he could make my coat any thicker," Nathan said, shrugging off his coat and holding it out.

"Well I'm not much of a seamstress," Lisa sighed but took the coat anyway. "It looks like it could do with a lining, probably wool but not anything scratchy. Father can see to that when he gets home."

"That's alright, he can take his time, I'm sure if I run back to Achilles' I'll keep warm," he joked.

"You won't go anywhere without a coat in this cold!" She commanded. "Stay here, I'll make us some soup to warm us up. Tell me, what's been happening out in the rebellious world of Nathan Young? I heard there was quite a fiasco down in Boston."

"There was," he said, pulling up a chair as he sat down at the kitchen table. "The Sons of Liberty were throwing tea off the merchant ships, there was a huge fight with the redcoats."

"The Sons of Liberty?" She raised an eyebrow and she cut the vegetables. "You've gotten yourself involved with the infamous rebels have you?"

"And I've joined a militia," he added, "I might fight some real battle before long."

"I don't like the idea of you fighting in a war," she muttered and then raised the knife she was using to peel potatoes and pointed it at him, narrowing her eyes. "You'd better not get yourself killed."

"I promise," he laughed.

Lisa caught sight of the window where snow began to fall outside.

"Let your dog in," she joked, "I don't want her being all miserable outside in the cold."

Nathan opened the door and whistled. Astra bounded from around the corner, her fur dotted with melting snow. As she stepped into the house, she shook her thick coat, spraying melted snow everywhere.

"Ah!" Lisa cried as she spotted the pink dress become patterned with the spray. "Go sit by the fire, Astra and stay out of the way!"

Astra humbly obeyed and sunk down beside the crackling flames, contentedly sighing despite the issue she'd caused.

"Oh, this'd better dry clear," Lisa frowned, wiping at the marks. "If your wolf has dirtied this dress I'll turn her into a rug."

Astra grumbled.

"I mean it."

"It'll be fine," Nathan said, "look, it's disappearing already."

Lisa sighed, setting the dress back down reluctantly. She continued her chore of cutting vegetables but her eyes kept drifting to the garment draped over the back of the chair.

At that moment, Nathan heard a cry from outside. It was almost a shriek, like an animal in pain. But words were distinguishable. and as he leapt to his feet,

"Eleanor!"

He bolted to the window, his chair clattering to the floor behind him. Lisa cursed under her breath as she jumped, nearly putting the knife through her thumb. Amid the falling snow, he could make out a stumbling figure, trudging through the white blanket, falling to his knees and struggling to stand again.

"Nathan, what are you looking at?" Lisa asked, the knife abandoned in case of another scare.

"There's a man outside," Nathan said, turning to her and pointing. "He's calling for someone."

"Well I don't hear anything." She frowned.

"Eleanor!" The voice rang out again as Lisa joined him at the window and the two stared out at the pale scene.

But the man was gone. No trace of him remained.

"There's nothing there," Lisa declared and returned to her seat.

"No, there was definitely a man." Nathan replied firmly. "He was calling for a woman named Eleanor."

"I don't know an Eleanor." She shrugged.

"I do." Nathan felt cold.

He had heard that his grandmother had died while his mother and her sister were still girls. While he knew little of the story, he remembered the dismissive remarks from Aunt Mary as she poked the wrinkled in her forehead, sniffing how if she hadn't had to take care of the family after her mother died and her father started drinking, she wouldn't look so aged. He thought little of it at the time but those events of the Aquila were haunting him again, the disappearing man just might be his grandfather.

Why was he plagued with these visions of the past? He had heard stories of ghosts, unable to pass onto the next life due to some lingering pain.

"Nathan, come sit back down." Lisa said with almost concealed lines of concern marking her face.

Without a word, Nathan did so. As they cooked, ate and waited for Lisa's father to return, all he could think of was the lost man in the snow and how many more sightings of this spectre he would see.