Early the next morning, Washington and a party of fifteen men, including Eliza, Alex, Herc, Laf and John, rode out of Valley Forge. They continued on for about fifteen minutes until they came to a halt. Washington nodded at his men then he, Alex, John and three other men turned left, while Eliza, Laf and Herc and the other seven turned right.

They rode down that path for another hour in silence, until Laf held up his hand, indicating that they should all come to a halt. He pointed at the nearby hedgerow and put his hand on his gun. As quietly as possible, Eliza drew her musket and loaded it. No sooner had she loaded it than two dozen British soldiers on horseback jumped out of the undergrowth. Eliza raised her gun and took aim, lining up her shot just as Alex had taught her to do, before firing. She heard everyone around her fire too, and multiple British soldiers went down.

It was clear that the British hadn't been expecting them to be prepared and that was giving them the upper hand.

A gun fried right by Eliza, which caused her horse to rear up and break off into a run. Eliza pulled on the reigns with one hand, trying to slow him down, while she tried to reload her gun with the other. Once she'd loaded her gun she reached out and grabbed the reigns with both hands. She pulled hard and to the left, finally getting the horse to face the battle once more.

Half of the British were on the floor, as were two of their men. Eliza raised her gun to shoot at one of the men in the centre of the battle when something in the corner of her eye caught her attention. She turned to see a redcoat raising his gun and aiming at Herc. Without thinking Eliza raised her gun to her shoulder, took a deep breath and pulled the trigger. The redcoat fell backwards off his horse, letting out a scream as he went down.

Herc spun around at the sound, he saw the solider on the floor then he looked up at Eliza, who still had her gun raised, "Thank you,"

Eliza smiled at him before once more pulling on her horse's reigns.

"Retreat!" The redcoat leader shouted, "He's not here! Retreat!"

The remaining redcoats quickly rode off down the path, going back the way they'd come.

Lafayette turned to survey the carnage on the ground around them. "Prudence, lead everyone back to base," he ordered, "Make sure everyone gets seen by Hall. Mulligan, Schuyler, with me," Laf tuned and continued down the path. Herc and Eliza glanced at each other before ridding after him.

"Where are we going?" Herc asked,

"To meet up with Washington," Lafayette explained, "We're going to have to take the long route though, need to make sure we aren't being followed."

-x-

It was starting to get dark by the time the three of them rode up to an unassuming house. Laf dismounted and the other two followed his lead. They gave their horses to a young man sitting by the door, then went inside.

"I need to go and report to Washington," Laf said, "You two can just relax, go find some food maybe,"

Laf hurried off upstairs leaving just Herc and Eliza. The two of them turned to look at each other and Herc shrugged. He walked over to the nearest doorway and the two of them made their way inside. There, they came face to face with John, sitting in an armchair eating grapes, and Alex, pacing back and forth across the floor. John grinned at them and silently offered them some grapes, which Herc gratefully excepted. Alex reached the end of the room and turned to walk back again, but he froze when he saw Eliza and Herc standing in the doorway,

"Eliza," he breathed, "You're OK! I was so worried something was going to happen,"

"He's been pacing ever since we got here," John added.

Eliza started at Alex for a second before she ran forward, throwing her arms around his neck and kissing him. It took Alex a second to get over his shock and react but when he did, he wrapped his arms around Eliza's waist, pulling her closer, and melted into the kiss,

"I know you said we couldn't do this but-"

Alex shook his head, "I was wrong. I never want to be apart from you again." He pulled Eliza back into another kiss.

Eliza could hear John and Herc cheering behind them, but she didn't care, nothing had ever felt more right, than Alex's arms did right then.

It was only when somebody coughed loudly that the two of them pulled apart. Eliza turned around to see Herc, John and Laf grinning at them and Washington standing in the doorway,

Eliza blushed, "Sorry sir,"

"Schuyler, a word,"

"Yes sir."

Eliza followed Washington upstairs and into a small study. Washington sat down at the desk and indicated for Eliza to sit down in the chair opposite him.

"You understand that I can't give you your old job back?" he said,

Eliza looked down at her hands, the euphoria she'd felt at kissing Alex suddenly came crashing back down. She hadn't realised it but part of her had been hoping that this would put everything back to the way it had been, no matter how foolish of a thought that had been, "Yes sir," she said quietly,

"However,"

Eliza looked up sharply,

"I would like to offer you another job,"

"Sir?"

"Schuyler, you have demonstrated great skill at extracting information from the enemy. I would like you to go back to your normal life and befriend British officers. Persuade them to unknowingly give you information, just like you did two days ago,"

"You want me to be a spy for you?"

"It would be an official mission, a top-secret one of course,"

"Who would know?"

"Obviously for your safety, the number of people who know would be minimal, and I wouldn't bring anyone in on the mission without your direct approval,"

There came some loud laughter from downstairs,

"Those four," Eliza said, "I would like Hamilton, Laurens, Mulligan and Lafayette to be in on the mission, and nobody else. At least not for now,"

Washington nodded, "Very well," he held out his hand, "So you accept?"

Eliza shook Washington's hand, "I accept."

A/N So, my brain has really taken this premise and run with it and now I have two sequels fully planned. I don't know when they'll be up, as you may have noticed I am not the quickest writer, but my aim is to get the first chapter of part two up in the next month. The easiest way for you to get updates on this series is to either subscribe to my profile or you can find me on Ao3, where this story is posted under the same name, where you can subscribe to just the series!