Becoming A Founding "Father"- Historical Hamilton

Chapter Thirty-Three: The First Night

"After a long sarcastic paragraph of explicit detail to help him find you a wife," I add.

"That was mandatory, I assure you." He sighs. "I am fully confident that he'll understand the subtext, my worry is his reaction."

"I mean, will he? If I didn't know you, I'd assume it's a cute- fuck, language thing, sorry-" Cute means something completely different in Colonial America, "-emotional and slightly amorous love letter, but it's not- it's a pile of anger, passive aggressiveness, sarcasm and- well, I mean, it still has the undying love aspect, but it sounds more like a threat than anything. If I'm honest, I'm not sure if he'll understand."

Alexander pauses. "Shite, you're right." A pause. "But maybe 'tis alright- the first paragraph shall be enough to get him to write back, no? And I put a few nice words in the end, too." A pause. "Lafayette sent me a letter recently, asking if you received his letter."

"Oh, yeah, I've gotten it about a week ago. He speaks of his work in Court and he scolded me for going to Stony Point with Wayne."

He nods. "Well, you should better write back soon- he's been pestering me about you and 'tis a nagging annoyance."

I scoff with a smile, and we both jump when someone suddenly knocks on the door. I instinctively screech out a high "We're not decent!" as Alexander scrambles to hide his letter.

An awkward laugh leaves the other side of the door. "The day has started, gentlemen, it's completely unlike you two to still be in bed!"

"Lay off, Tench, it took me hours to get Hammie to bed!" I shout. In reality, he didn't get a wink of sleep, but I'm sure that he'll be alright- Alexander has skipped several days of sleep before with no issue.

In less than a minute, we're out of the door, meeting Tilghman's amused face. Turning to me, he said "You have a remarkably high voice range, Layden. I had almost mistook for one of Hammie's mistresses with that shout!"

"Ah, yeah, that." I chuckle awkwardly, lowering my voice lower than usual. "If it were not for this war, I may have taken on singing. And what the fuck, Alex? A missus? Into our shared bedroom?"

No, his eyes said. I, myself, knew that Alexander's sexual activity with women had been decreased to zero once Laurens came into the picture. He laughed, relieved, saying "You've caught me, Soul."

"Okay, off to pen letters you go, shameless bastard." And so, Alexander departs with a teasing smile.

"Alright, now that he is out of sight-" Tilghman says, snorting. "-What in the heavens were you two arguing about in the middle of the night?"

"I- Wait, how much did you hear?" I quickly ask, trying to mask my panic. He looks into the distance, than laughs again.

"All I know is that you've seen his shaft of delight several times, thus justifying whatever he was trying to prove?" He looks very confused, then he shakes his head. "Whatever it was, I believe that such arguments should not be held in the middle of night, sir."

"Shit, uh- sorry about that. Did you hear anything else?"

"No, not really. But what were you arguing about? Hammie is not one to shout at you, or at night."

I smile tightly. "...'Tis complicated, sir. And the whole penis thing was just... an exaggerated way to prove his point," I add, waving the thing off. If Tilghman thinks that I had seen Alex's privates on purpose? That's fine- he can believe whatever he wants to- and actually much better than him knowing who Alex was really shouting about.

I definitely don't see this backfiring on me in the future.

Tilghman simply looked at me with an unreadable expression and urged me to get to my desk faster.