North American Mother

Chapter 5

After Madeline was confined in the London home she fell into the routine of asking Arthur, when he was there, what was happening with her brothers. Arthur would scowl but saw no harm in informing her of the goings on of her brothers. And so she was at least able to keep up with what her brothers were doing. However Madeline found herself growing extremely bored with the walls of her room and shortly after word of the war with America ending reached her Madeline asked if she could at least have access to the library. Arthur agreed, telling her that after supper he would let her have some time there to find a few books to read. The first books she grabbed were simple stories, fairy tales and the like. Eventually she read all of those and moved onto a few books that taught science and biology. She began to study and found she really enjoyed learning about the various processes and workings of the world. She really found herself enjoying learning about human anatomy and found she wanted to become a doctor. Arthur scoffed at the idea, telling her that women did not become doctors.

After she had asked about becoming a doctor Arthur began making her learn embroidery and other proper tasks for a gentile lady. Reluctantly she learned them and began filling time between books with making things for her brothers, at least for Matthew. She had made a few things for Alfred but Arthur had refused to send them to him, still bitter about the war and its results.

Meanwhile back across the Atlantic with Matthew and Alfred. Alfred's bosses were getting more and more wary of Canada being in British hands. As concerns grew tensions rose and eventually Europe was being plunged into another war as Napoleon began his crusade to rule Europe. America took advantage of Britain's distraction and declared war on Britain. They turned their sights on Canada and prepared for invasion. Alfred was against it. He was worried about his siblings and he feared that attacking them would do more harm than good.

Despite his reluctance and attempts to stop things Alfred was assigned to the force that took York and was there when things went wrong, but he tried to do the right thing and find Matthew and Madeline so he could bring them back with him to Washington. During the chaos of all the looting and burning Alfred managed to find Matthew's home and hurried inside.

"Matthew, Madeline!"

He rushed forward to find Matthew in his parlor curled over in pain. Alfred curses, he had forgotten about the pain of being connected to the land and its people.

"Dammit!" Alfred hurries toward his brother and wraps his arms around him. "Mattie! I'm sorry, it wasn't supposed be like this."

"Al Alfred?" Matthew looks up at his brother through sweaty bangs before looking around. "He he's not here is he?"

"Who, who isn't here Mattie? And where is Madeline?"

"Arthur's watchdog. Alfred he took her, Arthur took Madeline. He said if I misbehaved or tried to leave him..."

Alfred stared at Matthew in horror as suddenly Matthew's answers to his inquiries to join him made sense.

"I, I'm sorry Matthew." Alfred held his brother to him, letting him cry on his shoulder. They sat like that on the floor for several hours until things outside began to settle down for the night.

"I I have to go Mattie. I'll see if I can stop this. They weren't supposed to go this far, just capture the city."

After that Alfred left and managed to get his people under control enough to get them out of the city. They soon left all together and Matthew was left in his house, back under watch from the general that Arthur had assigned him. After that Matthew made it a point to send letters to Alfred whenever he got a chance and managed to get a few from his brother as well. Unfortunately things began to grow more complicated and chaotic for Alfred as tensions between his political parties and the northern and southern states rose.