Patriots and Loyalists, Secrets and Romance

five

When I got home from the palace I went straight to Patience who was polishing silver. "Patience, you'll never believe it. Lady Dunmore said James is coming here in two weeks!"

"Oh my goodness," she exclaimed. "That's so soon! I thought he wasn't coming for a couple months."

"Me, too." I said. 

"This is good," she said wisely. "Because the longer you have to wait to meet him, the more nervous you'll be."

"Do you think I have enough nice clothes to wear?" I asked worriedly. "He's related to the governor and his wife, and he's got a title of nobility. What if they think I don't have nice things and that I'm not presentable in court?"

Patience said, "Well your mother mentioned something the other day about she and I making a couple new dresses. We'll have to work faster now, we have less time than we thought. Anyway, even if you aren't titled, your father is pretty important and your mother comes from the landed gentry, so I don't think you should worry that you won't fit in."

"All right," I said. "Patience, have you ever had a beau?"

"You know I haven't," she said. "I tell you everything. You'd' have been the first to know."

"Is there anyone you're interested in?" I asked.

She shook her head. "Not yet."

"You know who I've always thought was especially handsome?" I asked her.

"Who?" she asked.

"Jonathan, my father's apprentice."

She smiled, "He is, I suppose."

"Maybe you and Jonathan could court." I suggested.

She laughed. "Your father's apprentice Jonathan comes from one of the most well-connected and wealthy families in Yorktown. He wouldn't marry a servant girl."

"Well, he's cute and very nice and sweet," I said, "And he's bound to his apprenticeship for another two years, so he isn't going anywhere. Maybe you and he can find a way to get to know each other better. Sometime within that two years things could happen. With his apprenticeship, he doesn't exactly have a lot of time to meet girls, and since you are here at our house every day, it would be easy for the two of you to get to know each other."

She shrugged. "I don't know. He is handsome but I just don't feel that way about him...YOU'RE the one who always liked him."

I blushed. "I do not. Anyway I practically have a husband now, so it's no use thinking about Jonathan."