Chapter 5

Emeline was still fretting over what had happened earlier that day when she went upstairs to bed. Martha entered the room and began scolding her about missing meals again.

Emeline looked up at Martha curiously. "Martha, what happened o Ben's family?"

Martha looked at Emeline with a look of surprise, she sighed and sat down on the edge of the four poster bed.

"Do you really want to know child?"

"Aye, I do Martha". Emeline replied.

Martha sighed again and began to recount the tail of Ben and his family.

"Ben's family is from Yorktown, they had quite a bit of money from being a merchant, I knew every single one of the Davidsons. His mother was lovely, her name was Katherine, and his father was good man, and his little sister was an absolute honey".

Martha paused her eyes starting to well with tears.

"Ben wasn't even ten years old when his Mother and little sister, Anne, got the fevers. It was horrible child. Anne was the first go, she was to fragile to hold very long with that kind of sickness, and Mrs. Elizabeth died shortly after."

Emeline's face had become contorted, she felt awful for all of the horrible things she had said to him.

"Now Mr. Davidson was terribly depressed after the loss of his wife and daughter. He became distant with young Ben, and as soon as Ben turned fourteen he sent him away to be an apprentice in Williamsburg"

Emeline's heart leapt at Martha's mention of Williamsburg.

"He lived with a family there by the name of Merriman. They owned the general store. Good people they were."

Emeline recognized the name but couldn't seem to place where she had heard it before.

"Now, Ben left his apprenticeship when he was sixteen, and joined the militia. He resigned when he was nineteen and returned to Williamsburg to finish out his contract with the Merriman's. They had a daughter who was fourteen at the time. Well, her and Ben fell in love and were engaged. She was a wonderful child. Beautiful, she looked like you. Except for the eyes of course." Martha said with a smile.

"Well, just a month before the wedding, Felicity's little sister Polly came down with the small pox, she was just a toddler so she died almost immediately but she spread the pox to the rest of the family, it was only a matter of time before she got it. Her mother died next, than her little sister Nan, then her little brother William".

Emeline didn't need Martha to finish to understand what happened but she let her continue.

"Poor Miss Felicity's family was gone, it was just her and her father left. She was strong so she held on for as long as she could. But she died nonetheless. The only one out of the family that survived was her father. Ben of course was distraught, the Merriman's had become his family and they were gone before he had time to register it. His Lissie, was gone too. Oh how he loved her. If those two were not the most lovely and happiest couple I wouldn't know what one looked like."

"Ben decided to rejoin the Militia after that, and that's all".

Martha looked down at Emeline and smiled at her.
"You best get some rest child".

Emeline nodded and Martha walked out the door.

Emeline tried to sleep but her mind was overrun with thoughts about Ben. She felt so sorry for him. She thought about how Martha had said that Felicity looked like her. The more she thought about it, the more she realized that the reason Ben was so kind was probably because she reminded him of Felicity.

She got out of bed and set off to the stables. She stopped by the kitchens and stole a few apples.

When she got to the stables Ben was leaning up against the wall, his eyes were glazed over. Emeline paused. He looked up at her.

"I'm sorry, I'll go now". She said.

"I'm sorry". He said.

She stopped walking.

"I'm sorry that I'm doing this to you, I hate seeing you in pain". He continued.

She turned around to face him.

"You wouldn't be here if my men hadn't asked for it". He said.

She nodded and walked towards Penny's stall and fed her the apples.

"I wanted to apologize about what I said earlier. It was careless, I didn't know… Martha told me about your family, she told me about Felicity". Emeline's voice trailed off.

"That was her horse you know". Ben said, gesturing towards Penny.

"She's beautiful".

Ben nodded. He stood up and started to walk towards the door.

"Emeline" she said.

Ben turned around to face her. "What?"

"My name is Emeline" she said. She looked down at her feet. She could see Ben's eyes searching for hers as he said in a soft whisper "Emeline".