History Has Its Eyes On You ~ A Hamilton Fanfiction (Book 1, Act 1)

Mr Reed

°~27th September, 1781~°

°~12:11a.m.~°

(Y/N POV)

"Sophie, wake up!"

I jolted upwards. I must have dozed off, though I couldn't even remember it. The last I recalled, I was speaking to Alexander as normal. Without a care, I leaned my back against his chest and let my head fall onto his shoulder. "Nmph, are we there yet?" I slurred. My eyes fluttered.
"Yes, almost. The redoubts are centralised at around 75° from here." His arm pointed exactly in that direction, but I was too tired to register it.

"Mm... When we get there, can we sleep?"
"Of course you can. I'm sure General Washington won't mind."
"N' what about you? Don't you need..." My head tilted sideways as I started drifting off again. Alexander pulled me back up, mildly startling me to consciousness.
"I won't need any sleep." he assured.
"You haven't had any sleep in..." -I rubbed my eyes- "In days."
"Currently, sleep is what will hold me back and I cannot give into it."

"Ugh..." I hung my arm around his. "Sleep please."
"Y/N, do you realise where we are?" Alexander muttered.
"War."
"Precisely. War. A woman like you should be in the comfort of your home, deep within the endless void of your dreams. But no! You chose to be out here, in the cold!"
"Mm, well, so long as I have someone to talk to..." By now, I was basically hugging his arm like it were a teddy bear.

"We can camp here!" Washington declared. It's strange how when you are tired, everything seems ten times louder than it really is. I groaned, stroking behind the horse's ear.
"You must stay awake until we set up camp, is that alright?"
"Mmmmmmm..." I responded to Alexander. "Make it quick."
"As swift as a flash of lightning."

The horses were steadied to a halt. Alexander released the reins and hopped off; he lifted me off directly after. I latched onto his arm again and widened my eyes. At last, my mind was registering. We were amidst a woodland where bats squealed among the trees. It was a frightening setting, but we outnumbered anything that could possibly threaten us.

There were thousands of us. As I'd suggested, the majority had collected something warm for the night, whilst others brought small tents. Those who held candles (rather a lot of people) contained them in glass lanterns. One, so that the smoke wouldn't give away our position, and two, so that the woodland wouldn't burn down. That would be disastrous.

Alexander took the blanket wrapped around the horse. "Take this. It will keep you warm." He layered it around my shoulders.
"Thank you..." I yawned.
He grinned. "I'll collect our supplies from the carriage. You wait here." He held his lantern up and dodged past the incoming cavalry. I sighed, watching my breath drift off into the air.

"Miss- Miss Hamilton?" A man of his late 40s or so approached me in the darkness.
"Yes?"
He smiled, rubbing his hands together. Not from the cold, from the nerve. "This is... most inconvenient, I-"
"No, please, continue!" I implored.
"I just... I want to thank you for everything you have ever done. Your name sure was declared throughout the future!"

He anxiously laughed to himself. "F- Forgive me, Miss, you... don't remember me, do you?"
I shook my head. "I'd hate to say so, Sir."
"Oh, that's alright! I'm Noah Reed. Not much over a year ago, you saved my son and I from those Redcoats. You may not recall it, but he... He passed away."

There was so much occurring at this moment that it was hard to recall anything. Fortunately enough for this man, I did. His son had been fatally shot on the carriage leading us to our escape. I envisaged the moment when I saw him die in his father's arms. There was nothing that I could do for him. I was powerless.

"Yes... Yes, I remember. I sincerely hope that you have been aging well since, Sir." His face was pale, unlike last time when he had the slightest bit of spirit.
"Can't say I have, Miss. My wife... My wife left me after hearing of his death. Placed the blame on me, I suppose. Though she is happy now with a newborn child to call her own."
"I am dreadfully sorry, Sir..."
"Don't you be sorry, Miss. You gave him freedom. That's all he ever wanted."

With reluctance, Mr Reed sighed. "We all must mourn some day. I want to make him proud, as I'm fairly sure that you make your father over there."
"Oh no, he's my uncle." I corrected him.
Mr Reed nodded. "My mistake, Miss. Yet it is no mistake that you would make history, I knew that much from the very beginning!"
"Should I take that as a compliment, Sir?" I joked.
"I certainly would."

He stared at the ground. This man had clearly lost his dignity. Why should a woman leave her husband merely after the death of their child? None of it made sense and I could only sympathise with him. "Miss, if you are ever in need of a favour, do not hesitate to ask me. You have done me the world of good already."
"Thank you, Sir. I pledge the same to you."
"No, no. You've done your part, now we must do ours in return." Mr Reed tipped his cap. "Goodnight."
"Goodnight."

The passing of time continued and remarkably, Alexander arrived with our baggage. "I'll set up our tent. Would you mind taking care of the horse? Hitch him up somewhere appropriate?"
"Yes, of course." I threw the horse's reins around its head, dragging him off further beneath the woodland. If I could find where all of the other horses were being kept then I would keep him there with them.

I emerged further, quickly realising that I hadn't any source of light. "Great..." I listened out for noise instead. There were sounds, like leaves rustling, to my right. My eyes adapted to the darkness and I searched. A horse. It was saddled, so definitely one of ours.

A peculiar thing beside it was a man, with his head held against the tree. His hand was latched around the bark and he uttered words that were unfathomable. Jibberish, complete nonsense. Instantaneously, he stopped and glared at me. Right now, I didn't give a damn who it was and just knew that I had to get out of there.

I jogged to the left, abandoning the man at the tree. There were voices this way, multiple voices. I peered through the trees for precautions: a group of horses clustered into one. Perfect.

I checked behind me: no followers. Good. At least I was safe. I secured the horse around a firm tree branch. The other men seemed to have candles, therefore I followed them. They likely didn't have any recognition of who I was, but what did it matter? I only needed to get back to Alexander.

Just...

...Who was that?

~~~~~~~~~~

Hello everyone. I'm sure that you're all aware of the terrible things happening in the world right now. The Australian bushfires, rising tension between countries... Can we please all keep in mind those who are unfortunate enough to have been affected by these recent circumstances. It's a shame how the world has come to this and with all my heart, I wish that we could all be treated as equals. Sadly, that is not how society seems to work. So please, keep these people, humans and animals, in your thoughts. Even if it's just for a minute. Thank you.