What Happens By Candlelight

Chapter Fifteen: A Letter

"General Greene does not sit well with me!" I ignored the British general as he ranted once more. "At least Gates was aloof and easy to outsmart, but Greene, he's much smarter and irritably so!"

My teacup fell off the table when he slammed his fists into the wood. I set my fork down before assisting the worker who came to pick it up. The pieces of glass were large enough, so neither of us needed to worry about cutting ourselves as long as we were careful. When I stood myself back up, I was surprised to see the general gone.

"He stormed out while you were dealing with the broken glass. Don't worry, he'll be calmer later today," Madeline was the only one left in the room with me. She seemed completely normal, not clueing me in on whether or not she was upset about the Gabriel situation.

All that time she thought he was paying attention to her, only to learn that the attention was temporary. I could only smile. Once I finished the bread on my plate, I exited the room. I had to find something to do, information to smuggle.

Ever since the night of my birthday a month ago, I had been purposefully avoiding Madeline. While I had a job to do when it came to captivating and seducing the Lieutenant Colonel, she was still my friend. I had no possible way to explain that there were no real feelings on my part, that all of this was a dangerous game of chess.

"A letter, Miss," the woman held out the parchment, which seemed to have multiple letters bundled together. Taking them, I casually inspected each of them, pretending to have expected their arrival.

"Yes, thank you," I slipped past her and into my room. I opened each of them carefully, recognizing my brother's handwriting on two of the three papers. The third letter had familiar handwriting, but I couldn't think of the owner's face or a name that accompanied it.

Surprisingly, my brother's letters were each equal parts playful and brutally honest.

Their entire battalion has been moved for the past month or so to train. Apparently, the cold and near-death experiences help the men bond and gain strength as one entity. It sounded like a stupid waste of time to me.

The third letter caught my interest entirely.

Miss Evans,

I hope that the shawl has kept you warm during the recent cold snaps. I do expect the plantation has been doing well, and that the soldiers left behind have been behaving accordingly. You should know who to go to should they act out of line.

I assume that your brothers have written to you, but based on prior experiences, they may have completely ignored their obligations as older siblings. If that is the case, then I do hope this letter finds you in good health until our return on the Sixteenth of December. If they have written to you, then I am sure the information I have written has lost your interest entirely.

Perhaps I should have asked them before writing this?

Nonetheless, you do not need to reply. I can not promise a speedy response, for multiple reasons. The first being the lack of practice and experience when it comes to writing for any other reason than work, and the second being the extra workload the battalion gives me every time they act up and go against my orders.

But you need not bore yourself over these details.

Do keep yourself and the others safe and in sound mind until our return in the upcoming weeks.  In the case that I do not see you until the holidays, please save at least one dance for me.

~Gabriel Wright, Lieutenant Colonel

He... wrote me a letter...