When Stars Align || G. Lafayette

Chapter 1

"Mémé! Is what wrong?" I rushed to her side and laid my arm around her shoulder in an effort to comfort her.

"Mon fils! Mon beau fils!" she cried.

"What has happened?" Nael asked as he came in behind me, his voice wavering with worry. I noticed the letter discarded at my grandmother's feet. I slowly reached down to see what had her so troubled.

Dear Sir or Madam,
We regret to inform you with deep sorrow that Monsieur Gaspard Legrand has passed away on the night of November 15th.

I read the letter aloud to Nael, and my eyes widened at that sentence. My heart began to pound through my chest and tears swam in my eyes, blurring my vision. I blinked them away and drew in a shaky breath before beginning to read again.

His was one of the many lives claimed this summer by an epidemic of yellow fever.

I couldn't read on. I dropped the page and threw myself into my brother's arms as it fluttered to the floor. The warm tears began to flow from my eyes, and he and I were soon crying on each other's shoulders.

"We will be alright, soeur cadet, I promise," he said through tears. He was always the strong one in the face of tragedy.

"We will be alright," he repeated softly. I hoped more than anything that he would prove to be correct.

That night, I could not bring myself to fall asleep. Every time I shut my eyes, his voice filled my ears, always saying the same thing.

Do what I have taught you to do.

I tossed and turned in my bed, unable to shake the feeling that I could be doing more for him. And I could be. At a certain point, I was convinced.

I stood up, pushing my quilt off of myself, and crept to my desk. I composed two letters that night, first to General George Washington, informing him of my departure from home and telling him that I would be joining his ranks once I made my way north. Next, I wrote to Nael.

I explained to him how Père had spent every moment with me discussing battle strategies, how to surprise the enemy, how to fight. I wrote also of the time we had spent hunting, when I had learned to operate a musket. I asked him to take care of Mémé for me, and to take care of Rachel. I would be taking my father's horse with me to battle; it was faster, stronger and trained more expertly.

I pleaded for him to understand why I had to go. Père had spent all of his life strategizing for the army of the colonies, but his life came to an abrupt end before we could be freed. I needed to finish his work, and I wouldn't stop until we were living in an independent nation.

I signed my letters and sealed them, leaving my letter to Nael on my desk for him to find and taking my letter to General Washington with me to mail.

I next crept to my wardrobe, taking only the pants that my father had purchased for me at my request along with some ruffled shirts and packing them into my trunk. I slipped into one of the outfits, and glanced at myself in the mirror. I saw looking back at me not the young woman who would cry for her father, but a strong twenty-one year old who was to free her new land.

I knew it was impractical, but I also slid in my journal with two of the letters from my father that I had saved during his travels expertly tucked in the pages, along with two bottles of ink and a quill.

I picked up my trunk and crept down the stairs. I pulled my father's horse to the front of the house and slid a pack with my father's musket onto it. I would also put my trunk in, after taking some money and food for the long journey from Virginia to New York.