Title: In a Lady's Eyes
Summary: Lady Anna Cornwallis lives the life of the privileged. She has everything she could ever want, except love. Until she meets the commanding officer of the Green Dragoons. Is this Colonel Tavington the man she has been looking for?
Disclaimer: All characters from the Patriot belong to Centropolis Entertainment and Sony Pictures. Lady Anna and the plot are mine.
Feedback: Please I would love some
Anna sighed as she read the letter from her father, Lord General Charles Cornwallis. He and the southern army were in the colony of South Carolina and he wished that she would join him. She looked out the window at the rolling hills of one of her Virginia plantations that she had inherited from her husband when he passed on.
She had married the much older Baron of Newcastle at her fathers' insistence when she was 15 but before they could consummate the union he rushed to the Colonies to oversee the many plantations he had, he wanted to formalize their union on the American soil. But unfortunately for him he died of cholera on the journey over the ocean. She inherited thousands of fertile acres in the Colonies, most in Virginia as well as several grand manors and two thousand acres in England as well as quite a sum of money, over 25 thousand pounds a year in income.
Anna was her fathers' only child; she had her mother's slim build and graceful beauty. She was also blessed with her fathers' intelligence and wit. As a child she read all the books she could get her hands on and was educated at some of the finest schools in England. Her family had many connections, one close relative was even the Archbishop of Canterbury. She was also very strong willed and idealistic.
After her husbands death she had traveled to the Colonies alone to oversee the plantations which was frowned upon there and in England. After only a year in the Colonies war broke out. Lucky for her she never used her maiden name, she was known only as the Widow Newcastle, she kept her family ties a close secret.
Sighing again she picked up a quill pen and dipped it into a pot of ink. Quickly she wrote out a short reply saying that she would love to go to South Carolina and join him. She quickly blotted the letter and folded it. Then she sealed it with crimson wax and stamped it with a stylish letter A. She bound it with a red ribbon and gave it to one of her messengers who would deliver it to her father.
Then she set two of her maids upstairs to start packing. She also sent two of her male slaves to fetch some of her father's things from a storage shed. He had requested a few items of furniture as well as his two Great Danes, Jupiter and Mars, presents from the king which she had been caring for. She herself personally packed two of his dress uniforms, which her seamstresses had made, a trunk of his personal writings and several cases of Madeira wine, which was her father's favorite.
Walking outside she caught the attention of Abe, a freedman who was one of her overseers. They walked along one of the fields for a bit before she started to speak to him, "The tobacco is growing well."
Bowing his head he replied, "Yes ma'am it is."
She carefully watched the slaves at their work, "I am leaving you in charge Abe, I am going to South Carolina to stay with my father for awhile, I do not know when I will be back. I will leave Matthew in charge of the house staff. You both will confer on major decisions while I am gone."
Abe nodded his head, "We will see that everything runs smoothly while you are gone."
Anna smiled and turned towards the house, "Good, I am counting on both of you not to lose my home during the war."
Just a couple short days after answering her father's letter she and a company of soldiers who were stationed near her plantation set off for South Carolina. For the most part it was uneventful. But when they reached the South Carolina border things changed. The war was raging here, she could see it in the landscape where trees and fields were burned and in abandoned homes which bore the scars of artillery attacks. They rested one night in an abandoned plantation house.
That night to keep her mind off the war she read through her fathers war journals. All her life she had read his books on warfare and sometimes she though that she knew more than he did.
The next day they set off again, they were told that they were but half a day's march from where her father's headquarters were, in a manor given to the British army by some Loyalist. Anna was sitting in the back of a wagon with the dogs on a very uncomfortable bench writing in her journal when suddenly gunshots rang out. She quickly dove to the floor of the wagon and grabbed her pistol. Several bullets shot through the canvas over her head. Outside she could hear the Lieutenant in charge of the company traveling with her shouting orders but from the din she could tell they were not fighting Continental Regulars. She knew from her readings that they were fighting militia, which did not follow the same rules as the regulars.
Soon the shooting stopped and she could hear rough voices outside the wagon. Quietly she cocked her pistol, ready to shoot the first person that stuck his face inside the wagon. Jupiter and Mars began barking incessantly and moved to the end of the wagon while she stayed near the front, in the shadows. A rough looking man with greasy hair and knawing on a bone started cursing at them.
He pulled out a pistol ready to shoot them both when a tall man with dark hair and an authoritative figure stopped him. The greasy man complained saying. "They won't let anyone near the wagon." The newcomer took the bone and threw it to the ground about ten feet from the wagon, both Jupiter and Mars jumped out and towards the bone.
Anna took that moment to make herself known, "Of course they were protecting the wagon, it is what they do."
The newcomer wore a dark coat with embroidery and had dark hair, but very light blue eyes and he spoke with a soft voice, "These wagons are now the property of the South Carolina Militia." Then he held out his hand and helped her out of the wagon, then his men started going through it.
One man, a tall one with sandy red hair pulled open a crate and exclaimed, "Look Madeira!"
Another pulled out the trunk with her father's writings and the newcomer and another man, a pastor by the looks of him started going through them. "These look like the personal correspondence of the Lord Cornwallis."
The greasy man looked at them and said, "I say we drink the wine, eat the dogs, and use the paper for musket wadding."
The pastor got a sick look on his face, "Eat the dogs?"
The man in the dark coat said, "Oh yes, a dog is a very fine meal."
Then the pastor got a green look on his face and exclaimed, "Dear heavens."
Anna took that moment to speak up, "I don't care if you drink the wine, but the dogs are very valuable so please don't eat them and those papers are my father's personal diaries and journals so please do not use them for musket wadding."
The man in the coat rose and approached her, "May I ask your name?"
She gave him a steely gaze and said, "I am Lady Anna Cornwallis the Baroness of Newcastle, I am the daughter of Lord General Cornwallis to whom I am traveling to meet. May I ask who you are sir?"
He stood up straight, "Certainly, I am Colonel Benjamin Martin of the South Carolina Militia, but you may call me "The Ghost"."
Authors Note: I am trying to keep in line with the movie, but it has been sometime since I have seen it, if you see any errors in the timeline or in dialog or characters please let me know so that I can correct it.