Laurens, I like you a lot!

Chapter 8

Eliza's sunshine smile, her black eyes glistening as we picked up the paint. She was wearing a pair of my trousers, my old brown ones that were a little too short for me. We walked all the way in to town, and we got the paint. Before we even got home, she had blue on her face and hands and all over her tunic. Many ladies disliked her fashion sense back then, as they believed a woman of her substance should dress to impress. Eliza thought they were dunderheads.

Eliza's always been very clear about her emotions, whether that's happiness, love or downright disgust. The whole way home, she skipped and sang, "I'm so excited! I'm so excited!" She was adorable. Her beautiful, silky hair was tied back with my favorite orange cravat. For some reason, she loved stealing all my clothes back then. Perhaps they made her feel powerful. I should have asked her when I had the chance.

When we made it back home, she kissed me on the lips and handed me a can of paint. This was going to be fun, I'd thought. I've never seen her look more energetic and excited about anything, not even our son. I watched her run into the house, leaving me on the porch with a can of paint in one hand and two paintbrushes in the other. I stepped inside and sat down on the floor. We were going to do the entire house, so it was going to take a while.

Eliza waltzed back into the sitting room and opened the windows. She told me that it'd help to air out the house. At the time, there wasn't anything in our home except for a small down mattress that we shared. Everything else was still either at Mulligan's place or at Daddy Schuyler's. We didn't miss any of our stuff, though, as we had each other. I miss when things were like that, when she really loved me, when she was truly helpless.

I'm almost positive that we got more paint on ourselves than on the actual walls, but I haven't had that much fun since. I remember she painted flowers on the baseboards while I painted the actual walls. She's such a great artist, it was so beautiful. She stopped after Philip was born just several months ago. I don't really understand why, it isn't like she doesn't have time. Angelica's always over, helping with the baby, as was Margarita.

Those times were just better. We were both happy, and purely in love. we'd just gotten married, and although there were some problems with Angelica's unrequited love for me, things were still good. I wish we could go back to when things were like that. So simple, so real, so raw, so fearless.

So helpless.