SassyBrunette, VictorianStar - Thank you for the reviews, I'm glad that you like it.

Disclaimer: I don't own "The Patriot", Elizabeth and Christine are mine.

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V. A Better Life

"Elizabeth, I want to speak with you." Christine started one sunny afternoon, about six weeks after Elizabeth started her new 'profession'. She sat down beside her sister on the bed, a delicate smile on her face.

"What is it?" Elizabeth asked, tying a piece of a scarf around her thin wrist, to hide a few small bruises in the shape of a hand. Of course, it was the Colonel's work.

"Well, I still find far from proper what you're doing…"

"Christine, not this again, please." Elizabeth cut her sister off, expecting another lecture.

"Alright, but please let me finish. You're my sister, I want you to know something." Elizabeth nodded to show that she was listening. "You see, some time ago I went for a walk and I lost my way in the woods. I don't know how I would've found my way back if not for a young soldier that helped me. He was really nice and after we came back we often talked and went for walks…"

"So that's where you've been disappearing during the last month." Elizabeth laughed, causing Christine to blush.

"Well, we like each other very much…" By the way Christine was speaking, Elizabeth quickly got the picture, her little sister seemed to be in love. "We kissed for the first time today and he asked me to marry him."

"And what was your answer?" For Elizabeth this did seem a little quick, but at their present situation it would be better for her sister to get married and lead a better life than the one she already signed her own sentence on. Elizabeth was well aware that now no man would want her, not to marry. She was a whore. Now she remembered the fortune an old Gypsy woman told her about a year ago. Apparently, she told her the truth. Elizabeth would never marry and she had feelings for a true devil.

"I told him I have to talk to you first. So what should I do?" Christine asked shyly, her eyes begging Elizabeth to tell her to marry him.

"Do you love him?"

"Yes." Christine answered with sparkles in her eyes.

"Then why are you asking me? Marry him if that's what you want. Just mind yourself not to admit that your sister's a whore, or he might loose his enthusiasm." Elizabeth said blankly.

"He knows who you are. He saw you. He said that he loves me nomather what my family is." 'He's stupid, naïve or a really good man.' Elizabeth thought.

"If he doesn't mind, then better find him and say 'yes'. If you don't, he might get bored of waiting." Christine nodded and ran to the door. "Wait! What's his name?" Elizabeth asked before her sister left the room.

"Julian Parkerson." Christine answered, practically hanging on the doorknob.

"How old is he?"

"Seventeen. Can I go?" There was a clear sound of a hurry in her voice.

"Go." Elizabeth said and a second later she was already alone in the room. "Julian Parkerson." She repeated to herself. "Seventeen… That explains everything." Elizabeth somehow never felt an attraction to men her age. They shouldn't be even called men, they were still boys. Elizabeth felt inside that she couldn't love someone so young, she just didn't see it. She didn't know why, but so young men were completely unattractive to her. Truly, what could a boy like that do? Of course, he was considered by everyone as a man, but it was clear that it would take some time until he earned to be called that.

Her sister told her she had kissed with him today. Elizabeth was able to picture Christine with that boy, but somehow she couldn't picture herself with an equally young man, not to speak of going to bed with him. Could a boy like that have any actual experience, not to speak of talent? After these 6 weeks Elizabeth had to shamefully admit that now she saw sex as something very important, as it was a constant part of a relationship between a man and a woman. She was a whore and that – fortunately or unfortunately – made her see it. Tavington might've been brusque and brutal in bed, but he definitely was – Elizabeth still blushed scarlet when she thought of it – wonderful.

Besides, young men seemed to her so skinny, without muscles. The Colonel was like a Greek god, slim but well built, very well built. Every time she touched him, she felt hard muscles under her fingers. He was perfect in every way.

Elizabeth walked up to the window and looked at the beautiful day outside. She thought of her mother and her father. She wondered how he was. Elizabeth never met him, he fell off a horse and broke his neck a week after she and her sister were born.

It didn't take long for Christine and Julian to arrange their wedding. It was a small ceremony on which there was only Elizabeth and a few of Julian's friends. For Elizabeth her new brother-in-law was the type she would never come close to: he was naïve like her sister and skinny like a homeless cat. After the wedding ended, Elizabeth allowed her sister and her new husband to use the room she rented. She wouldn't need it during the night anyway, she'd be in Tavington's quarters. Going there was one of the not many things she now looked forward to.

A few days after the wedding Julian sent for his parents to come and meet his wife. They seemed to be nice people and they were willing to let his young wife live with them while he fought in the war. When Elizabeth watched them she thought that her sister fits to them. She decided not to join into the conversation they held. She would only ruin it, it was logical that they didn't dream of their daughter-in-law's sister being a whore. They surely knew who she was by now. Elizabeth thought it better to leave them together and let her sister start a new, better life, a life where there was no place for her. They were a nice picture together that represented a perfect life: a home with a loving family. Something Elizabeth would never taste.

Elizabeth sat on the bed in now only her room. Her sister would leave in a few minutes as she already packed everything that she had – there wasn't much of it. Tears fell down Elizabeth's cheeks as she gazed blankly at the wall. She would miss her sister, she hated her sometimes truly, but she would miss her. After all, all she did after their mother's death, she did to keep her sister alive. Now she was forcing Christine to go alone. It was for Christine's own good. Christine wanted to take her sister along, but Elizabeth knew that it couldn't end well. Some time would pass and Christine would forget about her. 'It will be better that way'. Elizabeth thought.

"Are you sure you won't come?" Christine stood in the doorway. "I wanted to ask you one more time before I leave."

"It's better this way. You should get to know your in-laws better. I'd only be a problem now. But I promise you, that when the war is over I'll come with your husband, remember that." Elizabeth said smiling. She knew it was a lie, but she had to persuade her sister to leave. Christine will forget in a few years, she'll have her own family by then.

"Alright, but promise to come."

"I promise. Now go."

"Goodbye." Christine said and walked out.

"Goodbye…"

Time passed slowly after that and Elizabeth couldn't get used to the silence in the room she lived in. It was so empty, so quiet. Now, more than ever before she waited for nightfall, just to go to the Colonel. She didn't want to be alone. At night she slept clutching to him like her life depended on it. Although he was a scoundrel, he was now the closest person Elizabeth had left.

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