The States

this is not a moment, it's the movement

Look around, look around at how lucky we are to be alive right now!
-The Schuyler Sisters, Hamilton

VA-March 22, 1765
All his children are grown enough to take care of themselves, to live amongst their people. Alfred feels a bit like a mother whose children have all moved away and doesn't know what to do with herself.

He still can't help but feel a little tired when he wakes up to find all of them in his kitchen. They're talking bordering on arguing, but they quiet down when Alfred comes in.

Alfred sighs. To get all of them together required extensive planning, which means either Samantha or Will had been writing letters again.

Or both, he decides, looking at both of their careful poker faces.

Alfred makes tea using the kettle that one of them has heated already.

He takes a sip. "Alright. What's the issue now?"

All of them start talking at once.

"One at a time!"

"The issue is these taxes," Will says vehemently after the rest had gone quiet.

"The taxes aren't even that high, Will-"

Sam cuts him off. "It isn't about the amount, it's that it's without representation. We're being taxed without representation!"

They start talking over each other again.

Alfred sighs and pours another cup of tea.

VA-May 15, 1765
Alfred wakes up to the feeling of anger pulsing heavy in his veins. If he tried, he could separate the feelings back to the sources, the people or his children, but he doesn't bother. Instead, he goes into town.

All anyone is talking about is the new Quartering Act, and can't tell whether the anger is his or the people's anymore.

There isn't much difference, these days.

Williamsburg, VA-May 29, 1765
As long as they stay silent and stay out of the way, the twin representations of Virginia are allowed to sit in on House of Burgess meetings. Well, as long as Elizabeth is wearing Wes's clothes. A dress would be too conspicuous.

They still aren't sure what Mr. Henry had done to get them in.

They both listen in rapt attention to his speech on the Resolves.

Elizabeth flinches back when the opposition cuts Mr. Henry off, a single word repeated and overlapping. "Treason!"

Patrick Henry pauses, seemingly looking at the two of them. Then he speaks, voice damning: "If this be treason, make the most of it!"

VA- May 31, 1765
Elizabeth and Wesley come visit Alfred the most, which is probably one because they're the closest.

They come to visit on the last day of May, Elizabeth with papers in a satchel. She hands them to Alfred with the same pleased expression she had as a child when she would give him a drawing she had done.

"They were passed two days ago." Wesley tells him.

Alfred raised his eyebrows as he read. There was nothing that wasn't true, but he could already imagine Arthur's face when he saw it. He'd call it treason, probably. Lately, he'd been calling everything from boycotts to smuggling treason. "Patrick Henry?"

Elizabeth smiled, a barely-there curve of her mouth. "He waited until the conservatives in the assembly were gone to submit them."

Alfred snorted and looked at the title again. "Well, the Virginia Resolves has a nice ring to it, at least."