Doubt Thou Stars Are Fire

Chapter Nine

    I told him what happened. He almost looked as heartbroken as me. "Oh, I'm so sorry." He grabbed my hand while leaning against the tree. I almost pulled away from his touch.

    "There is not a thing for you to be sorry about," I said looking down at our hands. "It's just I haven't told anyone about it. I'd like to believe that there is a mutual trust and respect between us, right, Major?" I moved my eyes up to meet his. 

"I just don't know how someone could throw someone like you." 

"And what's that supposed to mean?" I asked crossing one leg over the other and smiled softly. Flirtation felt odd. I haven't done it in at least a year or so. I blushed softly while he replied. Well, he stuttered.

"Oh! I-I...well. I hope I didn't offend you in any w-way." He looked away. His cheeks flamed up and he bit his lip,"It's just, I just think you're a good person who doesn't deserve that sort of treatment." He leaned on the tree next to me.

I smiled at his shyness. "Have you always been so shy?" I asked him.

"I mean..." he trailed off and glanced to the side again after our eyes meet for only a moment," I'm not too shy whenever I'm a bit drunk."  He finished. I smiled and looked out at Florence, who kept an eye on us from afar.

    "and do you do that a lot?" I asked nonchalantly,"I don't drink too much myself, but I heard I'm a great time when I do." I kept the smile plastered on my face. 

"Not a lot, but I do a few times a month maybe. I haven't drunk in quite a while though." he moved his eyes from me and scanned his surroundings slowly," the weather is really nice today isn't it?"

My eyes diverted up to the sky. "Uh, sure is." The weather was beautiful, the trees pressed red, brown, and gold against the clear blue sky. It wasn't cold but it wasn't entirely hot, which I did appreciate. A gust of wind blew past and a leaf blew into my face. I began to sputter and try to wipe the leaf off my face, but it clung to me. I believe I heard Ben laugh. Oh, his laughter is so sweet. With a quick movement, he pulled the red and yellow faded leaf from my face and onto the ground.

"Having troubles?" He tried to recover from his laughter. I grinned and blushed.

"Why, aren't you my hero?" I said, the smile still unmoved.

"I mean, I try." He looked down to hide his smile.

"You're too sweet." I stood up from the tree,"How about we get you back to your tent though? You should be resting just a bit more before you try walking on your own." I grabbed his arm to lead him back.

"Florence told me that I was allowed on it, but only for an hour or so before resting." He turned around and hobbled behind me as I led him to his tent.

"Oh, she did?" I stopped abruptly, almost making the poor man fall to the ground. Alas though, he caught himself as was alright. He simply nodded his head as soon as he caught balance. I apologized quickly to him and asked him where he wanted to go.

    "Would you mind accompanying me on a walk?" Benjamin asked hesitantly. I looked over at Florence. She seemed to know what was happening with me even though I was a few yards away from her. She smirked and nodded, signaling that it was okay for me to continue on. I smiled back as a thank you to her.

    I turned back to Ben,"Well where are we going to walk to?" I asked,"I can't be too far away, just in case something happens back here and they need me."

    "I understand entirely." He began,"There's a trail somewhere behind the camp followers, I've wanted to go down it for quite some time now, but I've never been able to because I had to lead my men around. Well now that I can't do much besides sending out orders from a bed, now seems like the perfect time."

    "Oh, for sure." I nodded, I was not sure where the camp followers were so I just followed Benjamin's instructions on where to go.

"So, you and Florence? Have you known her for a long time?" He asked casually as we passed a few camp followers in filthy clothes.

I pressed my lips together and looked at them with pity. They were so young looking, maybe not even over the age of ten. What were they doing here? I got so caught up in thinking about how they wound up here and creating different stories to make up for their background, I barely heard Ben asking me a question. "What did you say?" I asked, looking from the children to him.

"I asked if you have known Florence for a while, you both seem to be really close." He stated, staring ahead between two makeshift tents.

"Oh, not really," I said,"we have bonded though, you do need to do that if you want to work with someone you know. Why do you ask?"

"The both of you just seem to be really, close that's all, I didn't know if you knew her beforehand because the two of you work so well together."

    "Is that so? How do you know that?" I glanced over at him and cocked an eyebrow.

    "Well, she came in and takes care of my injuries and things, right? Well, I asked her about you and she told me that you two seem to click perfectly." Ben looked over at me,"I'm sure she holds you close as a friend."

    "I hope so," we passed more tents until we reached the beginning of the trail. I looked down through it's narrow and winding path. "Are you sure you want to go through here?" I asked.

    "I wouldn't think about doing it if I wasn't going to." Ben pointed to a large stick that lied at the beginning of the trail's side," but, can you please grab that for me?" I nodded obligingly and picked the stick and handed it to him. It was a decent size, only about to Benjamin's hip. He pressed it to the ground and leaned on it, making sure it wouldn't break under his weight. It didn't, thank God, otherwise, he would have fallen. I don't think I'm strong enough to bring him back by myself. I watched him take a few steps before decided it was okay to go.

// sorry guys for the short and boring chapter, the holidays can be so busy, can't they? Here's a terribly written present, I hope you all had a wonderful holiday. Don't forget to vote or comment!!!