°~Two Weeks Later~°

°~September 26th, 1790~°

(Y/N POV)

Eleanor didn't like me. That much was obvious.

Meanwhile, her brother, George, refused to talk to either of us.

Only on day three of our stay at Mount Vernon did I learn that there was another child in the home: another George. A child only at eight months old, who slept and slept so much that we didn't even realise that he was here until he cried for food.

That alone implied to me that Frances and her husband were uninterested in conversation.

The only ones willing to engage were Washington, Martha and Anna, who kindly threw a chicken bone into my eye on day five.

I still hadn't recovered from that.

I sat up late with my eye still twitching, despite that it had been ten days since the occurrence. Yes: we had been here for a grand total of fifteen days and I was already regretting my life decisions.

Emily had decided to take up rowing as her weekend hobby. My attempt at it had failed drastically (I had to be rescued, to lay it out flat) so I kept to my piano playing. Washington had told me that I was once fond of writing my own music, which I could hardly doubt were my original creations. They were likely replicas of songs from our time, memes, like All Star or Megalovania. So naturally, when Martha assigned me to practise and learn Mozart's Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, it went terribly. I was getting there, though... the first eight notes, that was.

'Damn that chicken bone...' I said to Emily, legs crossed on the bed as I rubbed at my eye furiously.

'Maybe it's infected.' Emily lay on her stomach, her legs held up in the air as she intently read into a book.

'I didn't know you could read,' I joked.

'Haha, very funny.' She displayed the front cover to me, a leather seal with some black thread sewn at the top to make out words that I couldn't quite read. 'It's about the history of rowing.'

'Good to know that you've finally found a hobby that doesn't involve being lazy.'

'Yeah, well what about you, huh?'

'I'm doing the piano.'

'That's not very physical.'

'It doesn't have to be.'

Caroline reentered the room for the third time tonight. She'd advised for us to get a restful sleep but with my eye pain and Emily's sudden eagerness to read, we could not.

Though we had tried to befriend Caroline, she could not accept it and we remained as close acquaintances. It was clear that she wished to be kind and generous towards us, which she was, but being confined to enslavement limited her access. Emily's proposal to raise the issue was still prominent to us both, though it was not time yet to raise it, as much as I would have liked to. For now, my only goal was to gain Caroline's full trust.

She stopped at the doorway and sighed. 'You should rest.'

'I can't,' Emily and I said together.

'It seems that not a soul can rest tonight.'

I glanced over to her. 'Are there others up?'

'Little George,' she said, 'for a reason that I cannot quite interpret. He will not speak.'

Emily gasped, before abruptly rolling from her bed and digging her hand underneath it. She then pulled out what she had supposedly been hiding, thrusting it up with her hand as though she'd just won a golden medal.

My eyes widened. 'How did you get that?'

She lowered the slice of cake. 'Stole it.'

Emily strolled over to Caroline and offered her the dessert.

'Oh - no, thank you. I must retire to my cabin soon, anyhow -'

'Please?' She held it closer to Caroline, who backed away.

'I could not. If Master and Mistress Washington were to know -'

'Then have it in here!' implored Emily.

'...Dine in your -'

'Yeah! It's no big deal!'

She took Caroline's hand and led her inside, closing the door. If it were me, I would not have kept on persuading her if she did not feel entirely comfortable, but Emily seemed determined to give her something to sustain herself. I couldn't argue with it.

'We did it all the time when my sister and I were little,' I stated, 'eating in our rooms without our parents knowing.'

After sitting Caroline down on the bed, Emily added, 'or staying awake past bedtime.'

'Midnight feasts.'

'Trying to make each other laugh.'

'Talent shows.'

'Kiss, marry, kill.'

Caroline halted herself from taking her first nibble into the cake. '...Kiss, marry, k-'

'A game,' said Emily. 'You say three people and you have to decide who you would kiss, marry and kill.'

'Good Heavens, why would you choose to kill?'

'You wouldn't really, it was just fun.'

'I see...' Caroline took a bite, careful not to miss any crumb. 'What is yet to come in our time seems to... to differ.'

I nodded. 'I think that you would like it there.'

'Do you suppose so?'

'I'm certain.'

Caroline took but a few more seconds to finish the cake, sucking away the crumbs left on her fingers.

'Thank you, both of you,' she finalised. 'Generosity costs nothin' around here and yet it is one of the most difficult things to get. Are you sure you won't be needing anything?'

'I'm sure,' I confirmed.

'So am I,' returned Emily.

'Alright, well, I'll wish you two a good night.' She began walking towards the door, though as her hand hovered over the doorknob, she rotated her head back. 'If you need me, for anythin' at all, ask around for Caroline Branh-'

And she went silent. At first, I wondered why she had and stared at her expectantly, but then I responded to the noise that she had picked up. I leapt from the bed and over to the window, Emily following.

Marching from the gates of Mount Vernon was an army of men and women. Some wore the filthiest of clothing, whilst others were dressed to the highest standards of wealth. What did not vary amongst the crowd, though, were the torches they carried that burned through the darkness. A thick smoke that should usually not be perceivable in the enshrouding ebony yet still throttled past with a seething desire to dominate. It drove fear - encouraged it, even. I could hear their chants of fury that, somehow, echoed around an open landscape and perpetrated against the godly.

And then, I opened the window.

'BURN THE WITCHES!'

'MAKE THEM SUFFER!'

~~~~~~~~~~

Odd place to say this but I must before I forget lol: thank you all for 10K reads!