"They have a small marketplace I noticed on my last patrol." Ramon was saying. "A lot of the local farmers have stalls there."
"That is wonderful. Fresh vegetables would be nice." John said.
"Aunt Kylie you have not been there yet, have you?" William asked me.
"No William I have not. I might go soon though like John said fresh vegetables would be nice."
"May I come also?" Patricia asked shyly.
"Of course you can." I said. She shied away from me. Councilwoman Cassie signed to me 'Sorry Mom.' I shrugged my shoulders.
"I will go with you too Mom." John said. "We have not had an outing in years." He giggled. We laughed.
"I can not go for awhile though." I said.
"Why not?" John said then looked at my eyes. "Oh yeah."
It took three weeks for my eyes to return to normal. My feed habits returned too. It was nice to feed once every two weeks. I stuck to sipping though. I had to feed off of more animals. I thought with more mortals coming to live here they will be needed to feed them.
Patricia, John, Paddy, Quinn, Darin and I went to the marketplace. It was a nice sunny day I had to wear a big floppy hat and my cloak but it was autumn and a little breezy.
We strolled past all the stalls.
"I remember these," Paddy whispered. He was pointing to the parasols. He bought one each for Patricia and I when the men went to bargain for something Patricia and I would stand there watching them spinning our parasols.
Patricia and I wondered over to a stall that had some beautiful jewellery.
"Oh Grandma are they not beautiful?" Patricia said. She did not seem too frightened of me now that my eyes were a normal colour.
"Yes they are." I scanned through them quickly I had picked out a nice set for her.
"Patricia, pick out something you like."
"Oh I like them all." She sighed.
"All right. How about you pick out your favourite?"
"Oh if I must." She took her time looking at all the pieces.
"This one Grandma." She had picked the set I wanted for her. I was pleased.
I took out my coin purse.
"How much Sir?"
"Two pounds Mum." The jeweller said.
I paid him. He placed the set in some parchment and tied it with a blue ribbon.
"Thank you Sir."
"You are very welcome Mum."
We joined the men. They had bought some knives, bows, arrows and a crossbow. I thought these were a little strange for us to buy.
As we walked through the rest of the marketplace we noticed a large group of men dressed in British Army uniforms and they noticed us.
The group of men slowly surrounded us.
"Excuse me Madam." One of the soldiers said.
Paddy stepped in front of me. "You wish to speak to my wife?"
"Oh I am sorry Sir. I do not mean no disrespect I was just wondering why she was the only one with brown eyes?"
"That Sir is simply. The rest of us are blood related." Paddy said.
"Oh my apologises. This means that this lovely creature is not," he pointed to Patricia, "married to any of you."
Patricia had moved closer to me. "Grandma, why are they staring at us like that?" She did not whisper low enough they had heard her.
"Grandma!" Many of the soldiers said surprised. "Is there a problem with me being a Grandmother?" I asked.
"No Mum. You do not look old enough to be one." The first soldier said.
"My husband, sons and brother-in-laws are pleased that you were kind in your remark."
"Husband. Sons." The other soldiers mumbled.
"Attention!" They all stood up straight suddenly.
"What is going on here?" A man who was obviously higher in rank then all of the other soldiers joined us.
"Well answer me." He walked up to one of the men.
"Sergeant. What is going on?"
"We were talking to these people Sir."
"Were you now?" He glanced at us.
"Yes Captain we were."
"What about?"
"Sir?" The Sergeant looked nervous.
"What were you talking about?"
"Um Sir. We were talking about eye colour Sir."
"Eye colour?" The Captain did not quite believe him.
"Yes Sir. The one Lady is only one with brown eyes." The Captain looked a little longer at us. "I see. Bring the men to the docks. We are ready to continue our journey."
"Yes Sir." He saluted the Captain then turned to the others. "You heard the Captain to the docks."
The Captain walked closer to us. "I am sorry if my men disturbed you. The men are a bit on edge. They are on their way East to Quebec." He said.
"They were no trouble Captain." Paddy said.
"Thank you for understanding." He kept staring at me.
"Is there something wrong with my wife?" Paddy asked.
"No. You are a very lucky man Sir." The Captain turned red then walk away.
"Thank you Captain." Paddy said to the back of him.
Paddy turned to me to make sure I was not in direct sunlight then he smiled.
"Let us go." He offered me his arm. We started to walk away from the marketplace. A small group of soldiers were following us. We walked along a trail leaving the settlement heading towards the hills.
"Excuse me." The Sergeant called to us.
We were out of sight of the local people.
The soldiers were running up behind us. We tried not to walk too fast.
"Here we go again." Darin said.
"What?!" I said surprised.
We turned to face them. They had their pistols out and they were pointed at us.
"What do you hope to gain here today?" Paddy asked them.
"We hope to gain access to your women." The sergeant said with a dirty leer.
I stepped forward. "You want to be with me and my granddaughter, do you? Well that depends if you can keep up." They laughed.
"Yes Mum we can keep up." They laughed with a sneer.
"Good follow me."
I signed to Paddy, 'as soon as their backs are turned run. I will be right behind you.' He nodded.
I moved towards the trees putting my parasol away. I pulled my skirts up and held them tight. The men thought I was preparing for them when in fact I was preparing to run.
"Kylie!" Paddy called to me.
The men turned to him. He was already gone when they turned back to me I was gone.
"Hey where did she go?" One of the soldiers said.
