Charlotte

So, it turns out that it was illegal to have an army in your house. So, I don’t know if us having 10 American soldiers in our bakery counted. James thought that us being nice to him meant that all his friends would get to move in with us. So now we were feeding a bunch of sweaty men. Or boys? They all looked like they were in their twenties. Most of them were fifteen to eighteen years old. Mother had been stressed. She had been baking like crazy. And now we had two Jameses.

We had James #1 as in Delilah and Juniper’s older brother, then we had James #2 as in Irish James. Don’t worry, I was confused too. James #1 had been out in the wheat fields that they owned. He had been out there for hours. Usually, he’d be bored by then, so Delilah and Juniper set out to check on him. Mother had me kneading dough like crazy. I sat down for a second next to a soldier. 

“Charlotte, can you head out to town and get us some eggs and milk? We’re running out.” Mother called to me. I got properly dressed for the public eye and left with a basket in hand. I walked on the dirt path that led toward town. There were a bunch of redcoats standing oddly in alleyways. I continued to my destination. I entered the store and waved to the merchant.

“Hello, Charlotte.” He said as he waved back towards me. 

“Hello, Mr. Terramina. How have you been? How's your daughter?” I greeted him. 

“She's off with her mother in France.” He said with sorrow in his eyes. 

“How did that happen?”  

“Her mother decided to, well Mary decided that the farm wasn’t a good place for her.” 

I grabbed a few eggs and placed them in my basket. I picked up a few glass bottles of milk.  

“Can you send a note when she returns home?” I asked as I walked up to pay.

“Of course, Charlotte.” I gave him two coins. 

“When you get the chance, can you also send a note that I said hi to her?”

“Yes, yes. Now go it’s getting dark!” I left the shop careful not to drop the basket. I walked slowly back home. My mother could wait a while for the ingredients. I walked around a corner. I saw a large group of Patriots—at least I assumed they were Patriots, as they wore blue coats—crowding an alleyway. I decided to investigate further. As I walked closer, I realized that the men were screaming. There was one carrying the body of a dead white man with bright red hair. I tried to see what was going on. I shoved my way through the crowd. I peeked through a man's arm. About five redcoats were pointing their guns at the men. I noticed that behind them there was a little girl that looked the age of 6 and a boy that looked the age of 10 hiding behind them. The girl whispered in one of the redcoats' ears. I tried to read her lips.

“Daddy, I'm scared.”