Hellen

After Charles shoved me out of the bakery, I returned to the mansion, where I tore the paintings from the wall, stole a trunk from the attic, and shoved all of my belongings inside.

“Hellen?” came a strong British accent from the doorway as I shoved my last dress into the suitcase—the dress that I’d bought with Charlotte over a month ago. I let out a sob. 

“Hellen, why are you packing?” 

I looked up at the voice. My father’s deep blue eyes stared down at me. “I’m going,” I said with great simplicity. “I’m going back to London and I’m going alone.” I shut the trunk lid and stood to go, but I was stopped when Father gripped my shoulder. “Leave me be. I’m leaving. I’m not coming back. Please don’t tell Philip and Sarah where I’ve gone.” 

“What about Charles and Simon?” he questioned. I teared up again. 

“Charles wants me to go; he told me to. And Simon? Simon is dead.” I sobbed and tried to push my way through the door, but I was stopped once again. “Father, won’t you just let me go?” 

“I’m confused, Hellen. You’ve been here, in America, for all this time. Why are you just now leaving?” 

“I’m leaving because it’s what’s best. Charles is right. I should have never made them come here, but now this is their home and I’m the one who betrayed them. I betrayed my siblings, even though I was irresponsible enough to send them to America just because you betrayed us!” 

“Hellen, none of those things—” 

“Don’t argue with me! You don’t understand what I’ve gone through.” By now, tears were streaming down my face and I couldn’t stop them. “You didn’t travel to America for a better life. You came here for a war. You didn’t try to help your four siblings and fail to do so, causing such a bad thing to happen as one of them dying at just six years old. You weren’t the one who stood by while your twin brother flirted with your best friend even though she was engaged. You weren’t the one who took an entire month to realize that your twin brother was in love with a Patriot and he isn’t ashamed, even though the girl is engaged to the person he was best friends with when he was six. You were the one who betrayed us all by passing that awful information to the enemy last year.” 

“Hellen, you don’t understand that my only goal for the past three months has been to find you five, to apologize for everything I’ve done, and to confess my regrets. You don’t understand that I’ve wanted nothing more than for my children to return to London, where their mother is sick with worry. You don’t understand that—”

“You missed my birthday,” I interrupted, letting a laugh escape. 

“Hellen, we don’t celebrate those.” 

“Well, here we do. Of course, I wasn’t expecting anything, but Charlotte’s friend, Delilah, helped her bake a cake for me. It was three-tiered; two and a half feet tall. It was the best thing I’d ever tasted.”

“Well, then you should stay here. I doubt you’ll find another Charlotte Jones once you return to England.” 

I pondered over this. “I don’t care,” I decided. “I need to return to London. I need to fix what I’ve done. The only way to do that is to go back to where I began and start over. No more climbing trees. No more journeying a hundred miles on foot. No more stealing horses—”

“Stealing horses?” 

“It’s a really long story. Can I go now? Charles will be back soon, and I really don’t want him to see me here. He’s already angry enough.”  

“Alright, Hellen, but promise me that you’ll write to me the instant you get back to your mother?”

“I promise.”