She had been surprisedto see him standing in the main room in a Patriots uniform. Had she expected that he'd be staying here? No, he was an able bodied man and that meant he could fight, that he would be able to be one more playing piece in this game. She was coming to realize that her life would be nothing but an endless supply of wounded soldiers, and his was fighting for something that ought to have been settled long ago. 
She twisted her hands together nervously. She knew that this could be the last time that she would see him. He'd made a promise to her brother to keep her safe and he couldn't keep that if he was dead. Keziah wanted to go home, back to Boston...hell even back home to her father. She needed help getting there and William was the only help she had. 

Keziah took a few cautious steps closer and reached out to adjust his uniform. She looked away when she caught the look in his eye. She had been married, really married, and knew what that look meant. "William....I can't. Not yet. I don't....I don't know you and this isn't appropriate." Her voice had dropped into a whisper and if any soldiers were to be watching through the few windowd they had, then it would look more like she was giving her goodbyes rather than turning him down. "But...please come back to me. I...I want to go home and you promised that I'd be safe." Her voice broke and she pulled away from him to wipe her tears. "Just come back, okay? Promise me that you'll come back to me..." 

The woman hugged her arms around herself and finally broke down. Her whole life had been turned upside down in a matter of hours and she was so conflicted. She was angry at William, for bringing this mess with him but at the same time she was so frigtened and he was the only thing that gave her a shred of hope. After Keziah calmed down she said that she was going to bed, and that he was welcome to sleep beside her. "Do not make me regret it." She warned. 

Keziah didn't think he'd force himself upon her and she had made it clear that she wasn't going to just spread her legs for him. Keziah...she didn't know what she felt towards him. Everything was just so jumbled up in her head and her heart right now. She grew frustrated with her stay and nesrly threw it across the room when she finally got it off of her. Bloody contraption. The nightgown that she had found in ine of the dressers earlier was just about the right size and she smoothed out the white cloth before falling into the bed. She was asleep a little while later.

_____

When the morning came, Keziah felt nothing. It was as if her heart didn't care anymore and her tears were dried up. She knew that by midmorning she'd have fresh ones to shed. The woman didn't know if William had  slept beside her or if he had even slept at all. Her own sleep had been full of tossing and turning, and once she'd even woken up from a nightmare where Samuel, Elizabeth and their little baby, a little girl in her dreams, had been executed one by one. William had been in her dream too, as a corpse being returned to her covered with a bloodied cloth. That scared her just as much as seeing her family being executed. 

She dressed for the day, debating on if she should break tradition and go without her stay. She hated wearing them. In the end she stuck to tradition and once she was fully dressed and her braided hair was tucked beneath a frilled cap, she wandered into the main room.