Hello to all! In case you thought that I was gone for good, I'm really not. Slowly but surely chapters are being written. So thanks to all readers, especially those of you who haven't given up on me yet. As always please comment, or message me, or anything like that if you have thoughts on the story (even if they are negative!). Thank you so much for reading and enjoy!
As always most of these characters are not owned by me.
Sarah found herself looking down at the table as James left the kitchen to go upstairs and try to interview Isabelle. She didn't like to admit it, but she really was hoping that seconds later she would hear Isabelle's shrill voice yelling as her door slammed closed in James' face; just as Sarah had experienced minutes before. Oh how very rude and unkind of her to wish that. She couldn't exactly determine why she wanted it to happen either.
Sarah tried to forget about it all but the thoughts just kept bubbling to the surface of her mind. She realized that yes, in fact she did know why she wanted Isabelle to scream at James. It was obvious right? Sarah knew she was better at dealing with women than James was. So if Isabelle was mad at her, she didn't like the idea that she might not be mad at James. It would make Sarah feel less justified in her assessment of Isabelle's character. It would mean that in this case Sarah had failed and James succeeded. That was it of course.
Sarah dutifully went back to her peas, trying not to notice that in fact there was, as of yet, no yelling. However as she listened she also noticed that there was no sound of a door opening either. In fact she hadn't even heard James knock yet. What was taking him so long? Finally a knock came from upstairs and Sarah held her breath slightly, anticipating the argument. But none came.
That was when Sarah realized that she was wrong. It wasn't just that now somehow James could be kind and sensitive and helpful where she was not. Sarah was not upset because she wanted to be better than James. No, it was because she wanted to be better than Isabelle. She wanted James to see that this patriot could actually use some of her English manners that he so hated. She wanted to show that just because Isabelle was an American did not mean she was always right.
But then why, Sarah thought, hadn't she just told James the story to begin with? Why did she lie when he asked what had happened? Was it that she didn't want to worry him? No Sarah didn't care about that. Maybe she felt that it would be gossipy and rude to talk of Isabelle to James. But if she was honest with herself, she did not have any concerns about being gossipy when she had spoken with James before. That wasn't it.
Suddenly she heard footsteps from upstairs and froze. They were going to the study; she supposed that James did get his interview after all. Sarah felt a pang of jealousy that he got this news story and she did not. Isabelle would never talk to Sarah. And why? Because she only saw her as a Tory. James was on Isabelle's side and Sarah was not. Sarah then realized painfully that that was why she didn't tell James about the fight with Isabelle. Sarah was too sacred that Jame would agree with Isabelle. What if James didn't side with Sarah but instead ended up yelling at her as well? Sarah began to feel a lump in her throat. James had just been so kind to her lately. She thought they were really becoming true friends and getting past these loyalty differences. Now what if having Isabelle around just refueled his fire against her, and made him turn away from her again?
Sarah sighed and dropped the pea that she was holding. She was thinking about all of this more than she should. She need to get out of the shop and get into the air. She walked over to the garden and stared at all the vegetables that were growing. The wind whipped her hair around her face and she tried to relax and let it carry away all of her worries. The wind did in fact make Sarah stop thinking about Isabelle momentary, though only because it instead made her think how cold she was. Sarah looked back at the shop and her stomach began doing knots at the thought of seeing Isabelle inside. She spun her head the other way and looked over at the barn.
Sarah felt weird entering the barn, after all it was smelly and dirty (though not as much as usual she noted) but the warmth that hit her as she walked in was so nice that she couldn't bring herself to care about any of that. As her eyes adjusted to the new light she looked around and decided on the hay loft. Hopefully if someone came in they would not see her there, and she would not be bothered. So Sarah climbed up the ladder and found the loft positively spotless. She didn't see why Moses was always complaining to James and Henri to clean it; the piles of hay looked very organized to her. Sarah found a nice pile and sat on it. It really must have been a long day she realized, as she didn't even think about the amount of straw getting on her dress and in her hair, and instead laid down in the warm hay and tried to forget about all her thoughts.
-Thanks for reading!-