Thank you guys for your response! I can honestly say that I didn't really expect much out of this story in regard to reviews or follows, but I've been pleasantly surprised. Thank you Babyb26 and Lady Gisborne 15 for your reviews! I really hope you enjoy this chapter of Wanderlust!

-lightinside

The next morning, trying to hide from my mother who insisted upon having the servants packing every petticoat and corset I owned for the trip, I sat in my brother's room while he gathered his things.

"Why did you decide to take me with you?" I asked him quietly. "You never offered me an opportunity like this before, John. You never encouraged me to be like you. Why now?"

John stopped what he was doing and looked at me, hair the color of corn silk framing his face in the same way I'd seen it since he was a boy. "If I had left you here with mother, she would have smothered the adventure out of you and you would be married and a mother yourself by the time I returned. I can't consciously leave you to her mercy, Joanna. I wouldn't be a very good brother." With a teasing smile, he continued packing his things and I was left to ponder over his words.

"Was she right? About there being no other women on the boat?"

John arched one of his eyebrows without ever looking at me. "Scared, little one?"

"Well, no. At least, I don't quite think so. Worried would be a better word, I believe." I confessed, wringing my hands in my lap. "I've never left home. You know that. And though I've always wanted to – I'd gladly have settled for being a deck hand if that meant I had gotten to go with you – I can't help but wonder if everything will truly be alright."

"You'll be with me, Joanna." John reminded me with an easy smile. "Everything will be perfectly fine."

"And… John… even though I am glad to be going, I don't agree with why the exploration was put together. Jamestown, John. Really? The English may have ambitions, but we certainly do not have the right to take away someone else's land by force. No one does."

"Whenever did you become so political?" He asked, surprised by my candor.

"Since all I ever hear about are the supposed 'savages' that we'll be invading." I muttered bitterly. "Why is it so wrong? Why is being different so horrible? I don't understand. They cannot be that bad."

"I agree." John admitted. "But there is so much yet to be discovered, Joanna. Some things… well, sacrifices have to be made on everyone's part in order for the world to advance. It is just how things are."

"I don't like it." I told him. "No one should have to suffer in order for advances to be made. And by suffer, before you interrupt," I said when he opened his mouth, "I mean, for example, invading a strange land and forcing its inhabitants into a state of panic, confusion, and distrust as we usher them out of their homes with fire and threats of war. I know of Ratcliffe and his reputation. It isn't right and I won't support anyone who thinks it is."

John hesitated for a moment, unsure of how he should proceed after what I had said, before breaking out in a broad grin. "Opinionated. Just like father." Though stunned by his statement of our father who had been deceased since I was seven years old, I was moved almost to tears. "He would be so proud of you, Joanna."

"Then I suppose I've done something right." I murmured and stood from my seat, smoothing my dress subconsciously. "I think I've done enough hiding. Mother will come hunt me down if I don't show my face sooner or later."

John laughed, the kind of laugh that was so large the person threw their head back just a little to release it. I knew that meant that John's spirits were soaring. I knew that he was just as glad to be getting out of England as I was. "Talk of war? Fearless. Storms? No problem. And then there's Mother…"

"Hush." I giggled, shoving his arm. "You'll be sorry if she catches you dawdling. I think she's decided that if we cannot be persuaded to stay then the sooner we leave and stop sullying the family's name, the better."

"I'm sure." John snickered, tossing his pack over his shoulder. "Always so dramatic."

"Are you going to the docks?"

"Not without you." John promised. "But I do need to see if Thomas is here. I made him swear that he would ride with us." I watched my older brother sigh heavily, as if the responsibility of looking after his younger friend was almost too much. "That boy… It will be a wonder if he still has his head on his shoulders when we return."

I smiled, reflecting on Thomas's never ending and unsurprising tendency to fall over nothing or drop the lightest thing – a vase or a suitcase, even – in just the right way so that it was either broken or damaged beyond repair. It was a wonder to me how he ever made it through childhood alive. "Don't let him forget to tell his mother goodbye."

"He couldn't forget that even if he tried." John told me and glanced around before planting his feet firmly on the stairs. "Better hurry."

"Will do. Go on." I ushered him and hurried toward my doom as I heard my mother fussing over the remaining bags that Charles, our footman, had left sitting outside my door.

I apologized to him quietly as my mother continued to lose what little cool she had left and stormed all about the room, screeching about the clothes not being stored properly, the linens this and that, the room was too dusty – Joanna would suffocate living in a place like this, etc.

For a moment, I could have laughed at the idea that she thought an abundance of dust gathering on the baseboards of my room was what had clouded my judgment and was therefore the entire reason I was abandoning her and going abroad with my brother.

"I'm not abandoning you, mother." I murmured, stepping up to her in the hopes of giving her some small consolation. "I won't be gone long. You will see me again soon."

"Joanna…" She sighed, taking my hand. "Dear, you are making such a mistake."

"Mother…"

"No, darling, listen. I know that I'm not the easiest person to live with. Your father reminded me of it often. He told me to be easier on you – on your brothers, too, but especially you. Joanna, you aren't ready for the world. The cruelty of it."

"I can hardly imagine anything crueler than you referring to people you've never laid eyes on as savages, Mother." I scolded her quietly, but refused to take my eyes off of her so as to convey my message clearly. "It's so shallow, even for you."

"You think me shallow, Joanna?"

"You can be, yes. Among other things."

My mother sighed and patted my hand before releasing it. "So much like your brother. And both of you are like your father. It seems that I will always be outnumbered."

"Yes, it does seem that way." I answered with a gentle smile before kissing her cheek. "I love you, mother. I will see you sooner than you think."

"Go on, dearest." She conceded. "The carriage is waiting on you. John and Thomas are in the parlor, I believe."

No matter my mother's prejudices, I could hardly say that I wasn't going to miss her beyond even what I could fathom. And as I descended the stairs, I was never more aware of that fact that I was in that moment. But as soon as I laid eyes on my brother and on Thomas who stood beside him, eyes alight with the thrill of something new, I realized that I was on my way to a new life. A better life than even I could dream up, sitting here in the house so far away from whatever wonders lay over the ocean.

"Are you ready?" John asked me as we walked out to the carriage. "No second thoughts?"

I shook my head with conviction. "No second thoughts."

"Well, then. Time to go." John crowed, tossing his rucksack in the carriage before climbing in after it. Thomas stood on the street for a moment, looking around, and I stood with him as I did the same.

The longer we took to climb inside, the more impatient my brother was becoming. It didn't seem like a full minute had passed before John poked his head out of the window.

"We don't have all day."

And it was then that Thomas and I both seemed to snap out of our daydreams and come to our senses. I climbed in, followed by John's friend, and the door was shut, forever closing us off from our home as we journeyed to the docks.

Ready or not, it was time to do something that I had only read about in books. It was time to give in to my whims – to travel the world.

It was time to let wanderlust take over and steer me where it would. And this time, it was steering me in the direction of Jamestown, an ocean away.

I only hoped that I was ready for what lay beyond.