Innocence Lost

Chapter Sixteen

Benjamin Martin found his son leaning against a tree near where they'd tied up the horses.

"Want to talk about it, son?" the elder Martin said. "You haven't said much since the British released you." Scratching his head, he said, "I would have expected that you would have been glad to see Anne home at last."

"You saw her condition?"

"Yes, I did."

"She's carrying Tavington's bastard!"

"You don't know that," Ben noted.

"Tavington told me so himself when I was locked up."

"I would hardly take the word of that man," his father said. "I'd advise you just to wait until the baby is born. Then you'll know." Putting a hand on Gabriel's arm, he continued, "And if it turns out that Tavington told you the truth, well, you must remember that Anne didn't have any choice in the matter. I'm sure he had to have forced himself on her."

"Maybe." Gabriel said, unconvinced. "I don't know what to think anymore."

Inside the house, Anne turned to her aunt and said, "I'm going to go upstairs and unpack my things. If Gabriel decides he wants to talk to me, he can come up there."

Anne had acquired quite a few belongings during her time with Tavington. He'd turned out to be quite generous, usually bringing her something when returning to the Sizemore's from forays into the countryside. Though Anne suspected that much of it was plunder, she never asked him and he'd never told her. She'd also accumulated a decent wardrobe, as Tavington had enjoyed dressing her nicely.

After hanging up a few dresses, Anne hid the money Tavington had given her in a concealed drawer in her desk. The desk had belonged to her father, who'd given it to her when he'd gotten a new one for himself. Anne wanted to keep this money to use for the baby and she was afraid Gabriel might take it to use to buy more guns and other supplies with. Though she hated to deceive him, she was determined that the baby would come first and would want for nothing.

She walked to the window after she'd secured the money and looked out at the ruins of the burned church . Tears came to her eyes as she remembered that horrible day. Deep in thought, she did not hear Gabriel open the door.

"What are you thinking about," he demanded. "Are you longing for him?"

Anne jumped, startled. "What?"

With a snort, he continued, "Did he get tired of you? Is that why he finally let you go?"

"Why are you acting like this?" Anne whined. "You don't have any idea how awful these last months have been for me!"

"Not too awful, it would seem," Gabriel observed as he picked up a gold bracelet, a ruby ring, and a solid silver hairbrush from a small table near her bed. Holding the items up with one hand, he demanded. "What are all this things? Payment for services rendered?"

She was speechless, not quite believing that it was her beloved Gabriel speaking so spitefully to her.

"You know that all this stuff is stolen, no doubt from Patriot women," he said. "How does it feel to wear jewelry that belonged to women who were most likely murdered by your lover? Or didn't you ever think about where it came from?" Throwing the jewelry down contemptuously, he said, "You‘ve changed! You‘re not the same girl I married!" He threw open her bedroom door, slamming it behind him as he left.

Ben Martin was sitting in the kitchen, drinking a cup of coffee with Mary when Gabriel came stamping down the stairs.

When she saw the look of rage on Gabriel's face, Mary looked at Ben in dismay. "I have some chores to do, so I think I'll leave you two to talk."

After she'd left the room, Ben turned to Gabriel. "Have a seat, son. Let's talk for awhile."

The younger man obeyed, but remained silent.

"It seems that your reunion with Anne didn't go well," Ben said.

"You could say that," Gabriel said with a snort. "I went up there to apologize for the way I'd acted when we first got here..."

"And did you?" his father interrupted.

"No," Gabriel said. "When I opened the door, I saw that Anne had several fancy new dresses hanging up, and a few pieces of expensive jewelry on a table by her bed; jewelry I couldn't afford to buy her. Things that Tavington had to have given her." Clenching and unclenching his hands in anger, he continued, "Everything became clear to me then. She's been Tavington's mistress. I've lost her; she doesn't love me any more."

"And you're going to let it go at that?" Ben asked. "You're going to let that bastard win? If you love her, you have to fight for her." Putting a gentle hand on his son's shoulder, he said, "You still love her, I know you do. And she's still the same woman you married; she loves you. Don't let Tavington ruin your marriage."

"It may be too late to save it," he said, still hurt and confused.

"Only if you don't try, son," Ben said.

"It won't be easy."

"Nobody said it would," his father agreed. "Lord knows, marriage isn't easy even under the best circumstances." Rising to his feet, he said, "Why don't you go take those supplies we got up to Billings? I think I'm going to have a little talk with Anne while you're gone."

"All right," Gabriel agreed. "I'll take care of it."

A short while later, Ben Martin knocked on the door to Anne's room.

"Come in!"

Ben found Anne staring out the window as he came into the room.

"Oh, Mr Martin," Anne said. "I thought Gabriel might have come back."

"I sent him over tllinllings on an errand," Ben explained. "I thought it would give us a chance to talk." He looked around the room and quietly noted the fancy clothing and expensive jewelry that Gabriel had spoken of.

"Yes, I'd like that."

"I've got something for you," he said, reaching into his pocket to pull out the pendant he'd originally given her on the day she'd married Gabriel. "I've been carrying it around all this time, saving it for when you could finally come home."

Anne's eyes lit up at the sight of the pendant. "Oh, I thought I'd never see that again. I had no idea where I'd lost it."

"I found it outside the remains of the church that day," Ben said quietly, as he stood behind her fastening it back on her neck. "Ths ths the first inkling we had that you'd escaped the fire."

She turned away, tears welling as she thought of that dark day.

"How did you find out what happened to me?"

"Little Betsy Greene saw Tavington take you out of town on his horse," he said. "She hid in her parents' root cellar when the Green Dragoons put everyone in the church."

"Gabriel is acting as if I went off with Tavington willingly," Anne said, turning away. "I don't think he loves me any more."

"You know, he saie sae same thing about you," Ben told her. "You were with Tavington for a long time and you came home with child. Deep down, Gabriel is afraid that you fell in love with Tavington and forgot all about him."

"I could never love Tavington!" Anne cried. "How could I, after what he did to my parents?" Her voice dwindling to a whisper, she said, "But I did what I had to do to survive. Dreaming of finally coming home to Gabriel is what kept me going all these months."

"Did you tell him that?"

"I tried to, but he wouldn't listen!" she said. "I don't know what to do!"

"You can't give up," Ben said firmly. "You married Gabriel for better or worse, and right now you're having some of the worse. Who knows where Gabriel's mother and I would have ended f wef we'd given up every time things got bad." Leaning closer to Anne, he continued, "There's a very good reason why there were four years between Gabriel and Thomas. I won't go into a lot of detail, but suffice it to say that I did something to cause my wife to turn her back on me for those years. It was a bad time for both of us, but we eventually reconciled and realized that we still loved one another very much. We stayed the course, and that is what you and Gabriel must do as well."

"I'll try if Gabriel does," Anne said.

"Have faith," he said. "I know the two of you can find your way back to one another."