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Luisa rolled her eyes as she watched her brother from the other side of the ballroom. He had always had this effect on ladies. They would always fall for his–lame, in her opinion—tricks. She always found him disgustingly charming. After the war had begun, his charm had gone up by a few degrees—all thanks to the soldier uniform.
Luisa herself had quite many soldiers approach her that night, but had turned them all down. Their lack of interest regarding matters that kept her up at night was all it took for them to get rejected by her. Although her father wanted to hurriedly find a husband for her—a brave soldier, in particular—there was none who would attract any of her attention.
She moved her gaze from her brother to take another look around the room.
She turned her head indifferently, soldiers all over the room, seducing ladies, when her eye spotted a lonely soldier on the other corner of the room. It seemed to her that the young –and if she was being honest, handsome soldier—had been watching her for a while.
She took a better look at him; the low candle chandeliers surely made him look more appealing with all the freckle spots on his face, the ever-so-gentle gaze, and the beautiful—so beautiful, ginger hair tied in a loose ponytail.
Luisa could feel his eyes on her, examining her in her entirety. She suddenly felt too self-conscious in her silky pink ball gown. The young man flashed her a toothy smile which Luisa found magnetizing. She felt the need to go to him.
As she paced slowly toward the mystery man, a soldier approached her and stepped in front of her, stopping her in her tracks.
‘Burr?’ she asked, surprised.
The man tried to start a conversation with her, as she impatiently looked over his shoulder to find the man who had been watching her.
To her dismay, he had moved from where he was. Luisa looked around in hopes of finding him, but was unsuccessful.
The man in front of her continued bragging his accomplishments during the war, and Luisa flashed a fake smile his way. She once again averted her gaze from Burr, only to look back at him, when the mysterious redhead had come behind him and tapped him on the back. The redhead flashed him a wide grin, and the bragging man retired elsewhere.
The redhead took one of Luisa’s hand and kissed it dearly.
The mystery man lifted his head to say, ‘you strike me as a woman who’s never been satisfied.’
Luisa found this particularly bold—she would have none of these guys’ wits, she thought. She came from a respected family, after all, and most of the people in the room ignored the fact that she’d had an expensive education. ‘I’m sure I don’t know what you mean, you forget yourself.’
‘You’re like me, I’m never satisfied,’ the person opposite her replied, the voice coming out disappointed. Luisa felt that the last drop of annoyance leave her body at the change of tone.
‘Is that right?’ she asked concerned.
The redhead didn’t spare a moment, ‘I’ve never been satisfied.’
She extended her hand. ‘My name is Luisa Alver.’
The stranger took it and kissed it once again. ‘Denis Hawthorne.’
Luisa appreciated the move, but the name still ringed no bells. She couldn’t help but ask. ‘Where’s your family from?’
‘Unimportant. I’m here to make a name for myself,’ he cleverly replied with a smirk.
Luisa felt challenged. The person in the blue and white uniform was too mysterious for her not to feel so.
She asked the redhead about the war, about George Washington, and his feelings about the nation’s state. The redhead’s replies were given in, what Luisa found to be, complete honesty.
Throughout their conversation, he remained always very humble and never asked her anything indiscreet.
Among other things, Luisa appreciated her companion’s passion for life and freedom—the way he shyly lowered his eyes when she thanked him for his service. ‘If it takes fighting a war for us to meet, it will have been worth it,’ the redhead had wittily replied, and Luisa’s breath was taken away.
Luisa should have expected it for him to actually ask her to change the subject. The stranger smiled warmly. ‘Shall we discuss anything other than the war?’
Luisa shook her head lightly in appreciation. ‘You know,’ she started seductively, ‘I’ve reading Common Sense by Thomas Paine—’
A familiar male voice interrupted her before she could finish her sentence. ‘Luisa!’
She turned around to see who was calling her. ‘Can I meet you out in the garden in five minutes?’ she whispered to the stranger. The redhead nodded with a smirk.
‘Dad?’ Luisa grabbed her father by the arm and led him away.
He turned his head to her. ‘Did I interrupt something?’ he asked, alarm in his voice. ‘Was he trying to seduce you?’
‘I can’t even have a nice conversation with a stranger? I’ve told you, time and again, conversation between a man and a woman doesn’t have to always be romantic.’ She internally groaned at her father’s stereotypical mindset.
He tried saying something to her, but she let go his arm and stopped in her tracks. ‘I need to get some air. If you’ll excuse me,’ she said, feigning trouble breathing.
She almost raced to the front door and got out. She turned left.
Much to her relief, the redhead soldier was waiting by the golden garden arch gate.
‘So, where were we?’ she asked after approaching the soldier.
He smiled before replying. ‘I believe you were about to tell me your views on Common Sense.’
‘Is this a topic you’d be interested on?’
‘I might have some rather controversial views on the issue,’ he said seductively, and Luisa pursed her lips in reply, before beginning to speak.
Luisa was amazed to hear that the stranger shared the same opinion on women’s role and purpose in the eighteenth-century society—the same thirst to see their peers consider women equal to men.
She couldn’t help but ask how come he held so innovative views. Her question sent her companion into a brief state of careful consideration.
‘Well, about that…’ the shy soldier finally mumbled, puzzling this way Luisa.
In one smooth move, the soldier let his hair down, a hand passing through wavy hair to help it fall on either shoulder. Luisa watched entranced. The soldier smiled shyly, face facing the ground. Luisa brought her fingers on the soldier’s jaw and slightly pushed, so she could look into the fascinating pair of blue eyes.
Something had suddenly changed in them, but Luisa found them equally breathtaking.
‘So, you’re—’ Luisa was still processing the data when she spoke, ‘you’re a woman.’
The person opposite her spoke, the voice now coming softer, more enchanting. ‘I, uh—I guess I’m not the man you’re looking for.’
‘Well, you’re the only one who’s earned my interest tonight, or any other night, if I’m honest. I’m sure you can explain.’
The mysterious woman continued in her soft voice. ‘George Washington wouldn’t let me enlist. I had to find another way to have my way,’ she explained calmly, as if it made perfect sense. ‘I just want to see this nation rise above its current state. I don’t see why I can’t breed the same interest for my country as a man does.’
‘You asked George Washington to let you fight in the war?’ Luisa asked astounded. She shook her head, a smile spreading on her face. ‘You surely are more courageous than what anyone in there thinks.’
The woman chuckled shyly.
Luisa scratched her head as they walked by some flower beds. ‘So, what should I call you?’
The undoubtedly bold woman stopped in her tracks to pluck a bloomed rose from a rose tree. ‘Call me Rose,’ she said, offering it to Luisa, who bit her bottom lip.
‘Rose,’ Luisa echoed, looking at the pink flower in her hand. ‘Tie your hair back up,’ she commanded. She continued in a softer tone, when the stranger looked back at her surprised. ‘It would make more sense to anyone in this ballroom if I was caught with Denis Hawthorne than Rose.’
Rose did as she was instructed.
‘So, was any of the things you shared with me earlier true?’
‘All I’ve shared with you tonight is true. I do come from a family of French immigrants, and I do admire educated women’s company.’
The women found a bench behind the tall green walls of freshly-trimmed bushes and seated themselves there.
Luisa was still trying to process the revelation, when she realized it. ‘So, after tonight, you’re going back to the war?’
Rose nodded yes.
Luisa tenderly palmed Rose’s right cheek and whispered, ‘you trying to get yourself killed?’
‘I’m more than willing to die,’ the redhead instantly replied. Luisa shook her head once again. This one’s could prove to be a handful, she thought and chuckled. She remained staring into the redhead’s eyes.
‘I never doubted that,’ Luisa whispered, lowering her eyes.
Maybe it was the magical atmosphere—the flowers all around them, them safe from prying eyes in the bushy labyrinth, or just the, unmatchable in wits, person sitting inches from her, but Luisa felt the urge to lean in and brush her lips against Rose’s.
She was unsure of how Rose would respond to the kiss, but she turned out to be quite responsive. The redhead extended one arm around Luisa’s waist and pushed their bodies closer together, before taking Luisa’s face in one of her hands and guiding her lips into a deeper kiss.
Luisa found Rose’s lips to be particularly intoxicating, sending a cloud of haze up to her mind. Her hands fell on the hem of Rose’s jacket, tugging slightly.
To her dissatisfaction, Rose pulled away from the kiss after a few precious seconds of bliss.
‘I apologize,’ she said, not looking at Luisa.
Luisa herself found that weird. ‘For what?’
‘You might be thinking I fooled you into believing I was a man to get you to kiss me.’
She lifted Rose’s face once again, fingers on her jaw, eyes staring into the redhead’s eyes. ‘You had already told me you were a woman when I kissed you, didn’t you?’
Rose’s trembling-blue eyes was all she saw before diving back in to kiss the redhead for the second time that evening.
A mere brushing of her lips against Rose’s was all she did before she came to husk concerned, ‘unless this is not okay with you.’ In all the adrenaline rush, she’d forgotten to ask the other woman her thoughts on the kiss.
‘Apparently, I’m okay with a lot of things,’ the redhead replied, tugging at the hems of her jacket.
Luisa laughed and Rose joined in.
The clock on top of the tower next to the ballroom rang eleven, and Luisa knew it was past time she returned home. But, she didn’t want to let her exceptional company behind.
‘Escort me home,’ she said, a newly-found flare of courage in her loins. The woman opposite her cocked one eyebrow. ‘You’re leaving for the war, come spend some more moments with me.’
Rose came to kiss Luisa tenderly after climbing up the water pipe next to her room’s window. Luisa moaned into the kiss and broke away to say, ‘help me move this.’ She motioned to a heavy mirror furniture. The redhead did help her move it behind her chamber’s door, and got back to kissing.
Luisa’s hands gripped at Rose’s jacket, taking it off her and dropping it to the floor. Luisa’s hands untucked Rose’s shirt and slid her hands up the woman’s torso, to the point her hands were met with the bandages on her breasts. Luisa’s hands tried removing them, before she broke away from the kiss to give it the required attention.
Rose carefully removed them, before helping take Luisa’s pink dress off.
When Luisa was in just her white undergarments, she asked Rose to lay on her bed. As soon as she made sure Rose was all comfortable, she came to hover over her.
Rose tugged at Luisa’s white undergarment dress and brought her in for another heated kiss.
Luisa massaged the red spots around Rose’s breasts, the ones produced by the long-term use of the bandages. She felt the redhead’s tongue shyly poke against her lips and she gave Rose access, meeting her tongue halfway.
Neither closed an eyelid that night. They laid in each other’s arms, kissing, discussing quietly, as the nightingales chirped the most amazing of songs Luisa had heard ‘til that day.
‘It’s almost dawn,’ Rose announced, sitting up on the bed.
In the next few seconds, she commenced binding her breasts with bandages.
Luisa didn’t give it too much thought before saying it. ‘Don’t go. To the war, I mean.’ Rose remained silent, but turned her head to look at Luisa, who only then realized what she was asking. ‘I’m sorry, this was very selfish of me.’
‘I will come back for you,’ Rose said, in what Luisa found to be a flash of ambition. ‘I will,’ she reassured when Luisa remained looking at her in wonder.
Luisa chuckled. ‘What?’
‘We’ll get a little place in Harlem and we’ll figure it out,’ the woman continued. She came to hold Luisa’s hands in hers. ‘Just you and me. I know you want this. Say yes,’ the woman said in the most seductive of voices.
Luisa’s eyes softened after hearing this. ‘How—I mean, I can’t say no to this,’ she chuckled. She came to help Rose tuck her shirt in her pants, her hand not-so-accidentally brushing against Rose’s crotch.
‘Luisa, I’d love to stay more, but,’ the redhead breathed, but Luisa stopped her with a kiss.
‘Don’t forget to write,’ Luisa purred, giving Rose her hat.
Rose smirked at Luisa, climbing on the window to slide down the pipe next to it. She tipped her hat before making her exit.