Jeanne "Johnny" Gordon sat on a crumbling wall in the old Spanish mission, watching as twilight covered the swamp and waiting for her watch to be over. She stretched, enjoying the freedom men's clothes gave her. It had been a little over a month since she had joined Benjamin Martin's militia, and Jeanne was finally confident that none of the others suspected that she really wasn't the youngest son of William Gordon, but his oldest daughter. She had become tired of sitting at home, waiting for news of her father and twin brother, so she had taken some of Jim's clothes and become Johnny Gordon. The sound of approaching footsteps brought Jeanne back out of her thoughts. Turning, she recognized Okkum, the tall former slave whom Jeanne had come to respect over the past month, walking towards her. She smiled at him.
"Come to relieve me?" she asked, her voice hinting at laughter.
Okkum nodded.
"Gabriel was for lettin' you stand watch all night, but I wouldn't let him," he said, smiling slightly.
Jeanne laughed, and bid the tall man goodnight as she walked back to the campfire. Before lying down to sleep, she walked over to stand next to Gabriel Martin, who was mending something.
"Okkum says you wanted to keep me out there all night," she said matter of factly. Gabriel nodded without looking up.
"You seemed to be enjoying yourself, I hated to interrupt," he stated in a mock serious tone.
"You keep telling yourself that Gabriel. You keep telling yourself that," Jeanne said, lying down on a makeshift pallet.
Gabriel chuckled.
"Goodnight Johnny."
Jeanne woke early, as she always did, to wash off the sleep and some of the previous day's dirt. This morning Jeanne noticed a warm, wet feeling between her legs. Cursing to herself, she checked the inside of her leg to find, to her dismay that she was bleeding. Still muttering darkly Jeanne pulled up her breeches, walked back to her pallet, and gathered up some of the bandages that she's brought along for this very reason. Retreating to the far edge of the camp, she ducked behind a tree and applied the bandages, praying that the cramping that was sure to follow, wouldn't be as bad as it normally was. She had just finished when Benjamin Martin walked up behind her.
"I'll never understand how you can wake up as early as you do and then stand watch at night," he said, the early morning light dancing over his amused features. Jeanne quickly hid her right hand, the one that was bloodied at the figure tips. The movement did not go unnoticed.
"Are you alright Johnny?" Benjamin asked worriedly.
Jeanne shook her head.
"Just a small cut, it's nothing really," she said. "I must have cut my leg while riding yesterday."
Benjamin nodded, and looked like he was about to say something else, when two riders galloped into the camp.
"Tavington has a list of our men!" one of the riders shouted. "He's searching our homes, killing whoever resists."
Jeanne didn't hear the rest of the rider's message, as it was lost in the commotion of men mounting horses and riding away. Hurriedly rinsing her fingers in the water, she ran over to her horse, tethered next to Gabriel's. As they mounted, Jeanne turned to her older friend.
"Whose houses have they got to?"
Gabriel looked over at her and shook his head slightly.
"I'm not sure, but John Billings was riding away pretty fast."
There was no more time for words as they rode out. Everyone in the company had the same thought on their minds. The safety of their families.