Becoming a Founding "Father"- Historical Hamilton

Chapter Eighteen: Valley Forge

Valley Forge is the encampment site of the Continental Army during the winter of 1777-1778.

*(XXX) refers to crossed out text.

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"Layden!" I hear someone call me from behind. I slow my horse down, and she huffs out air, almost like a sigh. My legs are frozen stiff, and it's a surprise that I can still feel my limbs. It's been days on horseback.

"Hi, Lafayette," The Frenchman caught up to me, his beautiful white horse glowing in the snow. He smiles, his nose, ears and hands red. "Shouldn't you be with Laurens and Alexander?"

"I should, yes." He remembers something and laughs to himself. "But I... start speak in French, and they start to... argue. No, not that. Argue... friendly? Une débat."

I pause, deciphering his accent. While it is very beautiful and smooth, it's thick, and a pain to understand. "Debating, by any chance?" 

 "Oui."

I sigh in relief. "Alexander got his shit together. Fucking finally. I was wondering how long he would ignore Laurens." Lafayette fully flinched at my swearing, but didn't say a word about it. 

"You do not look s- uh... surprise at that." Lafayette said, his words slurring slightly. "Just... happy? Yes, happy. Why is that, monsieur?"

"Well, I just had a feeling that they could become..." I searched for the word in my head. "...close friends-" That wasn't it, "-if Alexander would get over Laurens being from the South."

"Get over?"

"Uh- to... accept and move on. Something like that." Lafayette nods. "They're similar people, so."

"Why do... you say it like that?"

"Pardon?"

"You finish sentence with- euh- continuation word. Usually, when person says 'so', they... make idea visible?"

"Make a point, yes," I say, while thinking of a way to explain it too him. "It's not grammatically correct- I'm just being lazy. When I end a sentence like that, it means that I've already made my point before, and I don't want to repeat it."

Lafayette huffs. "You are... strange, sir." I laugh at that, and the irony of the situation- the only one to tell me how weird I am with the English language outright is a French aristocrat! "Hah! That's the truth, I'm afraid."

"But your English is... more simple. Easy to u-understand." He smiles brightly, and I feel like I'm blinded. Lafayette is such a sweet person, something that is so rare in this place. We continue to ride in silence, the snow crunching  softly under the horse hooves.

We're slowly approaching our location. I was told that was going to be our camp for the winter. And now I know well enough that camping isn't as fun as it sounds, especially in winter. More so, there were several collisions with the British days ago, which didn't end well.

One of them went especially bad, with Meade bursting into our tent and crying out that "the British took Philadelphia!"

With America's military capital taken, nobody was in a good mood. Alexander had been crying from stress the night before our departure to Valley Forge. Lafayette commented on his red eyes the next morning, but he didn't admit anything, and I stayed silent.

Lafayette is shivering aggressively. His posture is still perfect, and his head is held high, but he can't seem to stop his hands from shaking. He's a tall man, a bit taller than me, but he was thin and slender, like- I repeat- a porcelain doll.