FUN FACT: I think James and Sarah are stuck in my computer. I don't even mean for them to be arguing, I look down at what I'm typing, and there they are, hashing it out. It's kind of scaring me, actually.
The breakfast table that morning was an almost comical affair.
Moses, who tried to keep relations between the two hot-headed eldest children peaceful (or at least without going to blows) and Henri, who had no idea of last night's events, valiantly tried to keep up the flow of conversation, to which Sarah and James respectively replied to in carefully enunciated monosyllables and mumbled sentences, the former never directed towards the latter. In fact, Sarah was not looking at James at all.
Suddenly a thought struck Moses, if only to fill the tension. "I need a volunteer to come with me on a trip to Virginia." he said. "Ben Franklin asked me for someone to copy down a speech Patrick Henry is making in three days, and since it will take two and a half to get there, we have to leave now. He wants to publish the entire thing in the Gazette."
"I'll go." Sarah said immediately. James looked away and Henri frowned.
"But Zharah, you don't agree with ze patriots! Why would you want to help them?"
"I am not doing this because I agree with or don't agree with the patriots. It will be good for me to get out of the house and, er, clear my head—but why are we making the trip in winter? Tomorrow is the New Year." asked Sarah.
"Dr. Franklin asked us to record the speech, and it's happening January third. That's all I know, Sarah, I'm sorry—are you sure you wouldn't rather stay here?"
"Of course not." James continued to try to catch Sarah's eye from across the table. She steadily ignored him. "When are we leaving?"
The boy in the center of the group pushed Henri again, this time making him fall against the wall of a building. They were all about his age, but Henri was defenseless against their combined strength.
"But all I asked was if I could play with you!" he said, struggling against the two children holding his arms, at the beck and call of their leader.
"We don't let little frogs play with us." said the leader. He wound back his arm to hit Henri. "My father got killed by a frog in the Seven Years war."
Henri cringed and waited for the impact, which never came. Instead he heard his name being shouted, then the boys scattered, heavily assisted by James. "Henri!" James knelt in front of the younger boy, grasping his shoulders. "Are you alright?"
"Yes," breathed the orphan blankly. James had always felt as if Henri was his brother, and never more so then now, as he knelt getting his breeches wet in a pile of slush, protectively holding the arms of his ward.
So when Henri leaned forward into James and began to cry, James just let him.
"Zames? I miss Zharah."
He fought to remind himself it was only to placate Henri when he said, "Me too."
The trip was faster then expected and Moses and Sarah decided to stay in Williamsburg to eat their suppers before starting back out to Philadelphia. Moses had decided to eat at the home of one of his friends, and had invited Sarah along, but she refused. She settled outside a store to eat her supper, bored of the wagon's canvas walls. A gaggle of girls sat on the same bench, and out of politeness, Sarah spoke.
"Hello, how are you?"
It was the sort of rhetorical 'how are you' but it didn't stop one of them, probably their leader by the way she sat in the center, to say, "We don't talk to English priss."
From by the shop, a girl slightly younger then Sarah but with almost as red hair turned. "Don't talk like that, Mary!"
"Oh, what do you know?" scowled the girl, but left anyway, flouncing off with her friends. The younger girl ran up to Sarah.
"My apologies about Mary—sometimes she's nice, but—" the littler girl lowered her voice to a stage whisper as she bobbed a quick greeting curtsey, something Sarah had not seen since she left England, "She shows off because she's sweet on Ben, and he's a patriot."
The gesture was kind, but Sarah had had quite enough. Giving the girl who had defended her her thanks, she took her leave and ate in the wagon. Once again, she began to think about James and Henri. They could have said the same thing.
Her hands fingered the locket around her neck. The sky was darkening, but her hands knew where it was without looking. It had been Henri's idea and James's most precious possession for a locket they had given to a 'British priss'—thank heaven they didn't think that—they barely knew. She had lost her temper with James just as much as he had jumped to conclusions. She wished they didn't argue so often. Why couldn't she get along with him as she did Henri, who shared his values but was like a brother to her?
When she got back to the shop, she was going to try not to argue as much.
The sky was almost dark and Moses was coming up the path, so she handed him the reins of the horses and lay down in the wagon wrapped in her cloak.
She surprised herself by missing Henri, the print shop, and the familiar.
She surprised herself more by missing James as well.
Sarah was woken roughly, by shouting voices, in the middle of the night. Despite the freezing air and the hard floor underneath her cloak, she thought for a split second that she was home; all the voices around her were British.
It took her another split second to remember that that wasn't necessarily good.
Turning, she pushed herself against the back of the canvas to hear what the soldiers were saying.
"Is the girl still in the wagon?"
"Aye. We'll get 'er as soon as we finish going through the documents."
"Good. She can rot in jail with the Negro for all I care. Serves these Yanks right for spreading around this scum." Sarah drew in a sharp breath at that. Unfortunately, some British soldiers were just as dishonorable as the colonists at times.
Sarah climbed out of the wagon, holding her hands above her head when she saw Moses standing with two guns to his back.
"Moses," she hissed after she had been roughly ushered next to him. "What are all the papers for?"
"The friend who had me for supper met with me so we could get some posters from place to place. I thought we were too close to the city for British patrols of the country roads, but I was wrong." he said softly, out of hearing range of the soldiers.
"What's going to happen to us?"
"A rope for him, missy," interrupted a solider holding a musket to their backs, "And probably a prison sentence for you."
"Prison sentence? Rope? This is ridiculous! We haven't done anything wrong!" cried Sarah indignantly. The soldier, hearing her familiar accent, gave a mocking grin.
"Well, you don't sound much like a patriot."
"Because..." Sarah was about to declare her allegiance to King George when an idea struck her. "Because we're both loyalists, of course! And I demand to know what is going on here. No law has been broken."
"You were found with these posters. That's sedation." said the soldier bluntly, but Sarah was drawing the gazes of the other soldiers by her outburst.
"Not when we were doing our duty as British citizens by confiscating these papers," said Sarah, taking a deep breath and trying to act confident and haughty, though her legs were shaking underneath her long skirt. "We work for a newspaper and found these papers behind the press."
"And why're you taking them back?" asked another soldier.
"Because..." Sarah was lost for an answer, but Moses stepped in.
"Because we're taking then to be...re-pulped. It's a very...complicated printing technique. The original message will be blotted out completely."
It was obvious the soldiers didn't know anything about 're-pulping', but they feigned knowledge. "Ah!" said the one in charge. "Re-pulping, you say? Yes, I know all about that." he nodded. "Let them go."
Sarah gave a shaky sigh of relief and followed Moses, who was readying the horses. It was too dangerous to stay in the city any longer. They were going back to the print shop in the middle of the night.
"Moses," she whispered when the soldiers were out of sight, "What's re-pulping?"
"I have no idea." he chuckled as the moonlight shone down on the road. Sarah looked towards the path ahead. She just wanted to be at...the print shop again.
Curious, she had almost thought the word home.
"Is that zhem?" was the first thing Henri said as they cleaned up breakfast, which had really consisted of bread and apples.
"What?" asked James, who had not yet fully awakened. Henri pulled him to the window, then out the door.
The cold air serving to wake him up further, James watched through bleary eyes as Moses helped Sarah down from the wagon and Henri flung himself at her.
"Zharah! We missed you! What did Patrick Henry say?"
"I'll tell you when we go inside, Henri. I'm so happy to be back!" Sarah released the younger boy and threw her arms around James.
After a moment both Sarah and James awkwardly stepped back from one another, realizing the implications of their embrace. Sarah blushed. James cleared his throat and turned his similarly-colored face away.
"We ran into some trouble on our way back." Sarah said quickly to clear the air.
"She's right," spoke up Moses, who was unloading the posters from the back of the wagon. "And Sarah saved us both from jail—or worse."
"I'm sure I didn't." murmured Sarah, embarrassed.
"And the good news is that we've got these papers through and they can now be distributed." said Moses. "We almost got arrested because of them."
"Let's get back inside. No need to wake up the neighbors." said James, holding the door open for the others to pass through, which earned him a smile from Sarah.
"The danger isn't over, children." said Moses. "The British soldiers will just get more vigilant, and the punishments will get more serious."
"They threatened the rope, Moses. I'm not sure how much more serious it can get." Sarah said, putting the kettle on the stove.
"I understand, Sarah." Moses set the papers inside the store room and looked out the window. Outside, the buildings were just beginning to wake up, which meant that the soldiers would be up soon as well. "We just have to be careful."
One of my favorite girls made a little cameo in this chapter. If you're the first to review with her name, I'll dedicate the Liberty's Kids crossover with her fandom that I'm planning to Y-O-U.