"What were you thinking?" Col. Tavington hissed angrily as he led Jula into her room, locking the door behind them. "I finally get to sleep, only to be awakened by what? You being brought back by a guard because you ran off!"

Jula began to cry silently, her cheeks beginning to burn and sting with hot tears.

"Now answer me, what did you think you were doing?"

"I don't know!" she cried suddenly. "I just... just... never mind, forget it!"

"What?" Col. Tavington asked grumpily.

"Forget it! You don't understand! You won't understand! You may have been in a similar situation with your wife before you were married, but even that was different!"

Col. Tavington's features began to soften slightly.

"Yes Jula, the situation was different. We were older, and Mary was my captive, so she had to stay, at least for a while. Yet when her father and brother were killed, she was free to go."

"But she didn't."

"No, she didn't. She stayed because she didn't have a place to go back to. That, I'll admit, was my fault." replied the colonel, his face beginning to grow hot in embarrassment.

"She stayed because she loved you."

"... Yes... the feeling was mutual... But not everyone agreed with our decision to be together. Even Cornwallis had issues with it."

"Yes, but she wasn't shot." snapped Jula bitterly.

"Jula, it was either him or I, and my apologies if I didn't want it to be me lying dead on the ground." replied Col. Tavington with a sarcastic edge in his voice.

"Did you really think he would shoot you?"

"That's not a question one asks when a gun is being pointed at them under any circumstances." the colonel answered smoothly.

"He put the gun down."

"But he wouldn't let you go."

"That's only because you were being a jerk and a half with him!"

"Well what did you expect me to be?" cried Col. Tavington suddenly, his fatigue beginning to catch up with him.

"You didn't have to kill him!"

"He was an enemy soldier! I wasn't going to just give him a slap on the wrist and send him on his way!"

Shaking in rage, Jula turned to leave when Col. Tavington reached out and grabbed her arm, holding it too firmly for her to go anywhere.

"Just you wait.."

"What?" Jula snapped.

"Don't think you're getting off with just a harsh talking to. From now until I can re-learn to trust you, you are not to go anywhere without Mary or I accompanying you."

"How sweet.." Jula replied in a mocking voice. "Can I not just have my sister do it?"

"No. You get into trouble, you pay the consequences."

"I already have! Wade is dead!" Jula shouted, her eyes streaming with tears, but Col. Tavington remained firm.

"I understand that-"

"No, you don't! You're just like he said you were! A monster! A cold, unfeeling monster!"

The colonel's face tightened and his eyes narrowed dangerously.

"You haven't even the faintest idea of what I've been through; sure, you may have read about me in your sister's bloody history book, but I am generally a very secretive person, and that doesn't even begin to scratch the surface."

"Oh really, what's missing? That you're actually an angel?" Jula shot contemptuously.

Col. Tavington began to shake with anger.

"No, I am no angel." he replied in a quiet, deadly voice. "But I am not without feeling.."

"Really? You could have fooled me-"

"Oh, is that so?" replied the colonel, his voice dripping with malice as he backed Jula against the wall next to her bed. "Has it ever even occurred to you that perhaps I seem to lack emotion because I have felt too much already?"

"What have you felt? What has brought you to your knees?" Jula asked in a mocking tone.

"You foolish girl. I live around death; it is even in my dreams."

"Yeah, but you enjoy it-"

Col. Tavington slammed his fist hard on the wall, right next to Jula's head, causing her to flinch, and yelled, "Oh yes! I enjoy it! I absolutely enjoy dreaming about the look on my wife's face when I had to tell her that our baby daughter didn't even get a chance to live before she was born! Oh, and how I relish in the vision of my mother's lifeless body before me while my father sits drunk in a chair!"

Jula began to shake. She knew full well that the colonel had a temper, but never before had he acted this way with her. It was one thing to read about it and see him treat someone else with such harshness. But having him display his infamous temper to her had her truly terrified.

Col. Tavington stepped away from Jula, still shaking in anger. Taking a deep breath in an attempt to calm himself, the colonel walked towards Jula's door and opened it, but before walking out, he turned and looked back at her, his eyes ablaze with so much angry fire and emotion that it seemed to pierce her right down to the core of her being.

"Get to bed."