Theodosia POV
I was rowing to the duelling place that was going to happen between me and Elizabeth. But first, there are ten things you need to know.
Number one!
We rowed across the Hudson Bay at dawn, my friend Anne McEvers had signed up as my second.
Number two!
Schuyler arrived with his crew, Susan Bard and a doctor that he knew.
Number three!
I watched Schuyler examine the terrain, I wish I could tell you what was happening in his brain besides, man has poisoned my political pursuits, usually, most disputes die and no one shoots.
Number four!
Schuyler drew first position, looking, to the world, like a women on a mission, this is a women with a marksman's ability, the doctor then turned around so she can have deniability.
Number five!
Now I didn't know this at the time but we were near the same spot her son died, is that why?
Number six!
She examined her gun with such rigour? I watched as she methodically fiddled with the trigger, should this be the right time for confession time? Here's what I'll tell you, my fellow women would tell you I'm a terrible shot.
Number eight!
Your last chance to negotiate, send in your seconds, see if they can set the record straight.They won't teach you this in your classes, but look it up, Schuyler was wearing her glasses.Why? If not to take deadly aim?It's her or me, the world will never be the same.
I had only one thought before the slaughter.
This women will not make an orphan of my daughter
Number nine!
Look her in the eye, aim no higher
Summon all the courage you require
Then count one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten fire!
Elizabeth POV
I imagine death so such it feels more like a memory, is this where it will get me, on my feet several feet ahead of me, I see it coming, so I run or fire my gun or let it be? There is no beat, no melody, but Bartow, my first friend, my enemy, maybe the last face I'll ever see, if I throw away my shot, is this how I will be remembered?
What if this bullet is my legacy.
Legacy, what is a legacy? I've learned that it's like planting seeds in a garden that you could never get to see. I wrote some notes at the beginning of a song that someone will sing for me, oh America, you great unfinished symphony, you sent for me. You let me make a difference, a place where even women can leave their fingerprints and rise up, but I'm running out of time, and my times up, wise up, eyes up...
I catch a glimpse of the other side, Peggy leads a soldiers chorus on the other side, my daughter is on the other side, so is my mother. Washington is watching me from the other side, teach me how to say goodbye, rise up, rise up, rise up-John!
I took a deep breath after coming out of my deep thinking, I had made my decision, my love take your time.
Raise a glass to freedom-
Theodosia POV
She aims her pistol to the sky!
"Wait!" I shouted but it was too late I had already pulled the trigger and the bullet hit Eliza. She collapsed, I tried to go near her but I am ushered away.
Someone tells me "You better hide," but I don't listen.
They row him back to the Hudson.
I get a drink, I hear wailing in the streets.
They say that Alexander and John were both at her side when she died.
Death doesn't discriminate, between the sinners and the saints, it takes and it takes and it takes, and history obliterates, in every picture it paints me in all of my mistake, when Elizabeth aimed at the sky, she may have been the first one to die, but I'm the one who paid for it.
I survived but I paid for it.
Now I'm the villain in your history, I was too young and blind to see, I should've known, the world was wide enough for both Schuyler and me.
That the world was wide enough for both Schuyler and me.