Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to the Patriot, nor do that film's producers own the rights to this story. So there.
News from homeChapter 7: Destiny's Interlude-- Correspondence
The Whigs in Parliament had been silenced, if only for a moment. News of Cornwallis' victory at the Cowpens was the talk of London. An unpopular war still could have its heroes, and the earl's personal opposition to the measures that had sparked the rebellion were well known. Cornwallis, at the moment, was the most popular man in England.
So said the Gazette, fresh off the packet from Liverpool only a week ago. Tavington read through the paper with some interest. There was pressure from many interests to bring the war in the Colonies to a swift conclusion. The French, mindful of the British victories, had backed off from risking any more land forces. Their navy, however, was still harassing the West Indian sugar planters. These gentlemen wanted the full power of the Royal Navy brought to bear on the French. That, of course, could not happen while the colonists were still in arms against the Crown.
"Another round, sir?"
"What?" Tavington looked up. He had been so intent on the newspaper that he had not heard Wilkins immediately. "Oh, yes, I thank you."
Wilkins waved down the red-faced barmaid, and within minutes the crowd of officers at the table had foaming pints before them.
"Good news?"
Tavington passed him the newspaper. "Good enough for us. We're not being left to twist slowly in the wind. With the campaign in the South going so well, we'll be well supplied for the time being. We're also getting some reinforcements."
"Not before time," Richard Hovenden said sharply. Hovenden was senior captain of the Dragoons now, and pushing hard for promotion. With the added troops in the Legion since Cowpens, there was no doubt the Dragoons could use a major, but that was beyond Tavington's power. He had written the recommendation to the Lord General, and it was in his hands. Tavington hoped they would have a decision shortly.
The grubby little public house here in Halifax, North Carolina, was like every other grubby little public house since Cowpens. The quartermaster got them billeted as best he could. They had done better at some of the big plantation houses along the way, but a soldier learned to bear privations on the march. The Green Dragoons were nearly a week in advance of the rest of Cornwallis' army, securing the bridge over the Roanoke. This was to be their gateway into Virginia. Their next mission was to find General Phillips' expeditionary force and join with them. There had been no word of a rebel advance. Possibly Clinton had them fully occupied in New Jersey.
His captains were already settling down for another evening of cards, women, and liquor. Tavington had long ago pledged to risk only his life, never his money. Somewhat unsteadily, he headed up the rough wooden stairs to his dank little room. At least there was a fire there, and Tavington slumped wearily into a hard, high-backed chair before it.
Reaching into his tunic, he pulled out a worn letter, and read it over by the wavering firelight.
Arcadia
March 17th, 1781
My dearest William,
I pray this letter reaches you. Having not heard from you in so long, I feared our correspondence has gone astray. We are all quite well, and hope that your difficulties are not too great to bear. Work on the house continues apace. The labourers from Charlestown arrived safely, and Julia is now happier with her room. She wants to tell you all about that herself, however.
Amelia has been restless since the Christmas holidays, and I did not want her to feel a prisoner in her own home. She has often begged me to send her to Charlestown to study drawing, and with the roads so quiet, and the situation so well in hand, I wrote my old friend Caroline Pinckney, asking her if the school we attended together was still in operation. She wrote back a very kind letter, inviting Amelia to stay with her at her mother's house. Even more generously, she and her brother came and took Amelia back to Charlestown with them. It was so very pleasant to see them after so long, but I regretted that you were not here to meet them. Caroline's brother, Stephen deLancey, told me that the two of you had become acquainted in Charlestown last autumn, at Lord Cornwallis' ball. I am so pleased. The DeLanceys and Pinckneys are some of my oldest friends, and I know you will find them good friends as well. It was particularly kind of them to spare me a journey which would have been most disagreeable in my present condition
No, my dearest, I am not ill. I have some very good news that I know will please you as much as it has delighted me.
Whether Amelia is home by the time you return or not, you will not find the house empty. A little stranger is coming to live with us sometime in September. The girls were thrilled, and between the three of us, the baby's linen was finished in no time at all. I have been refurbishing the nursery. It was provident that Julia's room was redone to her satisfaction, for it prevented a great deal of sulking about moving the last of her personal possessions out of the nursery. I moved the small pianoforte from the nursery into her room, so the little one will not damage it when he starts walking. I had to spend some time retuning and caring for that poor instrument, which has seen its share of travels!
Amelia was very excited about going to stay in Charlestown, and of course she will like living in the DeLanceys' lovely home better than attending school. I arranged that she would have music lessons as well as visits from the drawing master, so I felt I could give up my role in her education honourably. With the house, the plantation, Julia and her antics, and now the newcomer, Amelia and her moods were more than I could manage.
As to the estate itself, the restocking goes on. The new dairymaid is proving a treasure, and with the spring, we will once again be completely self-sufficient in that regard. I rode out to look over the work on the twenty acres near the swamp (yes, my love, I was very careful, and Gideon rode with me the entire time. Besides Tomyris would never be so ill-bred as to hurt me) and it is going well. It will certainly be ready for cultivation this year, and I talked to Mr. Hamilton about the reparations. I have everything perfectly under control, and you need not worry about the plantation at all. I helped my mother manage it for years, have managed it successfully alone, and I foresee no difficulty continuing to do so.
Oh! I heard through a friend of a friend that Gabriel Martin is home with Mr. Martin at Fresh Water, and that he was recently married. Perhaps now he will settle down and forget all of his nonsense, but I am not sanguine; for I was told that his bride, the shopkeeper Howard's daughter, is as red-hot a rebel as he. Easy enough for a girl who need fear nothing herself to urge men to their deaths! At any rate, they are all living at Fresh Water, and Mr. Martin will see that Mr. Gabriel honours his parole.
Give my regards to young Mr. Thomas. He is a sweet boy, and I cannot forget his charming gallantry to Amelia. Perhaps it is as well that she does; for though she read whole novels into his behaviour, it was plain to me that it was good manners and a little flirting on his side, and nothing more. I am glad that he was not badly hurt at the Cowpens, but I am still melancholy when I think about good Captain Bordon, and his unhappy fate. I had hoped that he might settle in these parts. The Crawford plantation has been confiscated, you know, and may be put up at auction. If I had a little more capital, I would seriously consider trying to acquire it. There is some wonderfully fertile land there, down by the river, and a fine grove of cypresses.
If only the wretched rebels would give over, and the war could end! I so want you home with me. I miss our happy days together, and our sweet nights, though perhaps it is just as well that you do not see me when my condition begins to alter my appearance. I love you the better for your devotion to duty, but still wish vainly for a conclusion to all of these alarms.
Give my regards also to dear Cousin James. I know you think him a blockhead, but he really is not, and he is very devoted to you. Please be kind to him, for I have so little family left, that it is all precious to me. I received a letter from Aunt Sarah Jane Minerva. Charlotte is still utterly prostrate with grief, and it is fortunate that I arranged a governess for the girls and a tutor for George, because Charlotte hardly pays them any mind at all. I think Aunt is not very well, for the letter was more affectionate than usual, and her handwriting nearly illegible. She asked me to remember her to you, and spoke very respectfully of your good sense and ability, and not so respectfully of your great good looks. She wrote that knowing you was one of the last great pleasures of her life. I am so glad she gave you the Everleigh ring for our wedding, so we will always have a token of her regard. It is very selfish of me, but I hope she is with us for a good while to come, for I have no idea what to do about Charlotte and the little Montgomerys if Aunt is no longer there to care for them!
My dearest, I conclude now, thinking of you, and picturing you vividly in my mind's eye. I am always and forever yours, and implore you to guard yourself: not just for my sake alone, but also for our child who will need you, as I do. God keep you, my dearest husband.
Your loving,
Elizabeth
Tavington once again seriously considered resigning his commission. Elizabeth was going to bear his child, and he most probably would not be there to welcome it into the world. She was working hard to secure their future, and he was no help to her. She was raising her sister, carrying a child, running a household and managing a plantation, and he was sitting in an unclean little hole of a room, hundreds of miles away. If at that moment he could have laid his hands on George Washington, Sam Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and the whole lot of those disturbers of the peace, not one would have escaped alive.
Amelia's little note was folded inside Elizabeth letter, and was evidently scrawled in such haste, and in such a state of ecstasy that he could barely make it out.March 12th
Arcadia
Dearest Colonel Tavington
I hope you are well and safe. I am very very well and I am going to Charlestown today. I am hastily writing this note to give to Lilabet so she can send it on when she finishes her own letter. I am not going to school, but to stay with our friends, Mrs DeLancey and her daughter Mrs Pinckney, who went to school with Lilabet, and Judge DeLancey who is Mrs Pinckneys brother and who was so kind to make it all possible by coming all the way here and back so I would not have to travel without an escort. Judge DeLancey and Mrs Pinckney are delightful and I am to study drawing and music and stay with them and Mrs Pinckney says that her mother will very likely give a dinner to welcome me and possibly there will be dancing, which I most ardently hope.
I helped Lilabet with baby linen, and Julia will say she helped, but she was really very tiresome and troublesome and she made horrid beetroot dye which she dripped all over everything and spoiled my best Irish linen fichu and my handkerchiefs, and Lilabet had to let me take some of hers and I have never been so angry in my life.
Do guard yourself well, dear brother, and I pray that I shall see you before the year is out. Had we but world enough and time, as the poet says, I should write more, but the horses are waiting.
Your affectionate sister,
Amelia Wilde
Tavington had indeed met Stephen DeLancey at Cornwallis' ball in Charlestown about a month after the Battle of Camden, and the two men had not taken to one another at all. Tavington was not yet secure of Elizabeth's affections at the time, and had not welcomed a rival. DeLancey was clearly of the opinion that Tavington was in no way good enough for Elizabeth, and Tavington suspected he was the source of the rumours that Tavington was a heartless fortune hunter who had ensnared the gullible Miss Wilde for her property and fortune. There was nothing he could say, no defense he could make against such cruel and untrue gibes. His future conduct and his obvious affection and respect for his wife would have to speak for him, but that would take time.Now Amelia was off to live with the DeLanceys. Tavington could only hope they were well bred enough not to demean him to his own sister-in-law. At least Amelia would have something to think about other than Thomas Martin, who was already so much forgotten as to not even be mentioned in her little letter.
He pulled little Julia's letter out as well, hoping it would lighten his mood.
March 17th
Dearest Colonel Tavington,
I guess you know about the baby. When Lilabet started sewing all those little things, we figured it out, and Melly squealed so it nearly burst my ears, but I know now that babies are work. We all helped make the baby linen, though, and some of it was fun. Lilabet let me embroider the caps I made however I liked. She taught me to knit booties, and I made a pair and she let me dye them purple. I got scolded because somehow the dye got on some other things, but they are mostly clean now. Lilabet made me say sorry to Melly.
My room is beautiful. Lilabet agreed that I was old enough to have a real young lady's room, since the nursery is going to be taken over by "the little stranger." I think that is an odd expression. We'll probably get to know him pretty well. I shall be a good aunt, and tell him whenever he does anything wrong, just like Aunt Sarah Jane Minerva does. Anyway, my room is so nice. The dirty wall has been washed, and then covered with pretty rose silk, and the floor was scrubbed and scrubbed, but nothing could get rid of the horrid stains, so Lilabet bought a Turkey carpet for my room. It makes it look exotic, which is a good word I just learned. She moved the little pianoforte into my room, too. She says she doesn't want the baby banging on it, but I suspect it is also so I will practice more.
Melly has gone to Charlestown to study music and art. I miss her sometimes, but sometimes she was hard to get along with. I know I am not supposed to criticise my sister, but that is only to strangers, and since you are my brother now, and I can talk about her to you behind her back all I like. Lilabet says Melly's head is full of romance. I guess that doesn't leave room for much else. Anyway, Lilabet's school friend Mrs. Pinckney and her brother Judge deLancey came and took Melly to Charlestown with them. Melly will have lessons, but I expect she'll go to parties and balls mostly now that she is out. Miss Pinckney asked Lilabet if I would like to come too, but Lilabet saw my face, and told Mrs. Pinckney I would appresh—that I would like it better when I am older. I didn't like Judge deLancey much. Melly told me that he and Lilabet used to be engaged and that he would have liked to marry her himself, but I said ha! Because she's married to you and now that the baby is coming not even a judge can do anything about it.
Lilabet says Aunt Sarah Jane Minerva is in a decline. I didn't know what that meant at first, because she never leaves the house. I wonder if she has a made a will, because that is what people who die do, and they leave their worldly possessions to others. I am afraid that if Aunt Sarah Jane Minerva dies she will leave us the Montgomerys. Arcadia is very big, but I am not sure that it is big enough for that. If Cousin James were not with you, he could take care of them, because George and Jane and Mary all like him. I like him too, and I would like him even more if he could do that. Give him my best love, but I guess you will have to say that in a more manly way.
I can't think of any else to say, except to not let the rebels get you. Also, I wish you would come home as soon as you can. Going riding is more fun when you are here. We miss you, and talk about all sorts of things we might do when you come home for good.
Your most affectionate sister,
Julia Wilde
Tavington folded the letters carefully, and replaced them in his pocket. It was so hard to be away and not know what was happening. When the letters had first arrived, three days ago, he had passed on the news to Wilkins, who was concerned about his Aunt, and even more about the fatherless children of his cousin. Tavington had unbent to the degree of reading a little of Julia's letter aloud, though not the part that concerned Wilkins directly, of course.
Wilkins knew no more than Tavington about what to do. The family had no other close male relatives other than themselves; so who could act in the case of Miss Everleigh's death was a real question. Wilkins said the family lawyer was trustworthy; but in the end, something would have to be done for the Montgomerys, and Tavington grimly acknowledged that the lot of them would probably end up on Arcadia's doorstep.
-----
Thomas was sharing a room at the same inn with Sam Willett and Billy Miller, the cornet with Captain Hovenden's troop. It was a dispiriting business, crowding into the one lumpy bed, and they drew cards for the unlucky victim who must lie in the middle, but there was no help for it. Thomas would almost rather pitch his own little tent, but that was not possible in their situation here in Halifax.
He was not particularly happy with his new commander, Captain James, and he guessed that Lieutenant Monroe was not, either. The lieutenant had said something that indicated a transfer within the Legion was in the offing, and if his Lieutenant were transferred, Thomas hoped he would be going with him. Captain James was very stiff-necked; not trusting the Lieutenant's judgment the way Captain Bordon always had.
Thomas missed the Captain horribly, and could not shake a feeling of guilt about his fate. He would never forgive Gabriel, and while he missed Father and Fresh Water, he had no desire to return and try to live at peace with his rebellious older brother.
Sam spoke up, his voice startling loud, as he spoke in Thomas' ear. "You know why the quartermaster has us all crowded into this room together?"
Billy Miller, nearly asleep, mumbled, "No, Sam, why?"
"He's in league with the paymaster, who's late with our money. If we're crushed together in this disgusting little room, there's no room to entertain the ladies, and if there's no room to entertain the ladies, we don't need our money. And if we're not clamouring for our money, the paymaster can get away without paying us in full. That's what I think."
"That's the stupidest thing I ever heard. Don't accuse Lieutenant Hovenden of embezzlement. I'm sure he would never embarrass the brother his Captain like that."
"You don't know him like I do. The Captain's all right, but his brother Moore is a bad lot. That's the worst of life in the Army: putting up with superiors who are idiots or worse."
Thomas was too tired for the discussion. "I'm trying to sleep here. You two can continue this discussion tomorrow morning. Good night."
"Your such a Goody Two Shoes, Thomas," Billy said. "I agree with Sam that it makes it difficult—"
Thomas sat up and rolled out of bed. "I can't do this," he said, throwing on his uniform. "I'm going out for a walk. I expect it to be quiet in here when I get back."
"All the more room for us," said Sam, equably.
"Maybe room for company," speculated Billy. "If you move over a few more inches, Sam, and turn your back, I could go look for that Betsy---"
Thomas was out the door, still buttoning his waistcoat. He needed quiet and rest, and Billy Miller did not know the meaning of the words. He went downstairs, and walked out into the cool night air, glad to be alone with his thoughts. He had just received a letter from Father, and needed time to digest all the news. The paper in his pocket made a crinkling sound as he patted it. He would have to reply soon, and was not sure what to say.
His father had written:
March 12th, 1781
Fresh Water, South Carolina
My dear son,
I pray that you are safe and unhurt. We are all well here, but for Nathan's carelessness in the horse paddock last week that left him with a dislocated shoulder. It was set right, and is healing, but it was a painful lesson in respecting horses' tempers.
Susan has started talking: it started shortly after Gabriel returned home. She is a mysterious little girl, and keeps much to herself, but at last I am beginning to understand her a little.
Gabriel and Anne Howard were married at Pembroke church three days ago. They are deeply in love, and it is good for the place to have a mistress again. She has taken charge of the household, and Abigail finds she has much to do to discharge her duties to Mrs. Gabriel's satisfaction. Gabriel is nearly restored to perfect health now, which is why the wedding could at last go forward.
As you can imagine, Gabriel is not happy about having given his parole. After expressing my views last night, I believe both he and Anne will not bring up the subject again, but I cannot control what they say to one another when alone. You know that I have always sympathised with the Patriots. While I feel the war has been a disaster, I cannot fault those who saw injustice in England's rule and tried to find a new and freer way. As Gabriel pointed out, the war is not over, however quiet things are now in the Carolinas. The same injustices that sparked the war still continue. If the King truly wants peace, he will have to bring more than a sword to the Colonies.
I have recently heard from my friend Harry Burwell. You may have heard that he refused to give his parole, and is a prisoner in Charlestown. While I honour my old friend's unflinching principles, I am very glad that Gabriel did not follow his example. I will be even happier when you too are no longer in danger.
However Gabriel and Anne feel, and whatever their views, nothing changes the fact that you are still my son, and will have a home under my roof as long as I live. I will have no civil wars here at Fresh Water. You both performed your duty honourably, and you also showed true brotherly devotion, by saving Gabriel from Colonel Tavington. Gabriel knows that he owes you his life, and will not allow Anne to criticise you, I am sure.
I have received word from a fellow assemblyman that some peace overtures are being made. He was unable to give his authority, and I can only pray that this is not a false hope.
Your other sisters and brothers often ask about you. Now that Gabriel is home, they wonder why you too have not returned. I know that you are following your dreams, and I hope they are all you imagined, but remember that there are dreams to be found at home as well.
Your very loving,
Father
Thomas leaned back against the log wall of the little public house, thinking of home. His breath made a little white mist in the frosty air. From an upstairs window, he heard the rutting of a fellow officer---Lieutenant Davis from the incoherent noises—and one of the barmaids. Bad luck for you, Billy, he thought wryly. He wondered if Dinah was all right and well cared for, wherever she was. The women of the British Legion were mostly in Camden with the garrison there. She's probably already forgotten me. He felt sudden, overwhelming sadness at the idea. He missed her; he missed the times they had had together. He found the idea of taking up with a strange woman in any of the anonymous little towns they went through rather nasty and unappealing. Whatever he and Dinah had been to each other, at some level they had liked and cared for each other. Maybe marriage might not be so bad someday.
That would have to wait. Colonel Tavington had stated unambiguously that he thought no officer under the rank of captain should marry. While some women would be willing to live on less, it was not fair to drag a decent woman around without providing decently for her. If the war continued, there might be promotion ahead. If Gabriel was to be securely ensconced in Fresh Water, Thomas would need to further his career in the Army. Whatever Father said, a visit under a roof already sheltering Gabriel and Anne could only be uncomfortable for everyone. Living there permanently was manifestly impossible.-----
Notes: It's true: Cornwallis voted against the Stamp Act in. Parliament.
Thank you to my Loyal reviewers: LCWA, nomorebraces, pigeonsfromhell, Zubeneschamali, Slytherin Dragoon, ladymarytavington, and Carolina Girl. I can't do it without you.
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