Hearing that Boston was pretty much gone crushed her. She sat there dumbly, staring down at the little baby in her arms. This little girl was an orphan and it made her heart heavy. Having lost her own mother, Keziah knew that there would always been questions that Rose Anne would have. What was her father like? Her mother? Had they loved her? Well Keziah could already tell her those answers. Samuel was a good man who always tried to help those he could. Elizabeth was a beautiful woman who had been Keziah's dearest friend…and yes, they had loved Rose Anne even before she had been born. 

She tried to picture the baby with Samuel's features. Dark hair like her own, like his, and the gentle dark eyes of her brother. Samuel must have praised God that she took after her mother. They had joked that they already had one mousy little thing (Keziah) and they didn't need another in the family. She took a deep breath and looked up at William when he spoke of Rose Anne needing a father. Well, he was right there. At least in the sense that she needed a father to keep the boys away until she was old enough to marry. Keziah gave him a look that was a cross between a glare and embarrassment. 
She didn't [i]need[/i] a husband. She could live her life out here, on this old farm as a recluse, that way she didn't need to explain to people how she had a child but no one to support them. 

Keziah sighed softly, moving to burp the baby. Even her brother naming the child was unusual. Given that many children died so young meant that names for them didn't come about until the parents were sure they wouldn't die. Even then there was no guarantee that the child would reach adulthood. Samuel must have thought that they were all going to die. That made Keziah tear up. She didn't think that she had any more tears until that moment. She glanced down at the baby as she burped her over her shoulder before glancing back at William. 

"I don't know how they do things in your time." She admitted, "You never told me that much about it. What you ask of me is a lot. I have lost my brother, and my dearest friend so soon. I need time to grieve." Keziah knew that some men would find her to be unreasonable for making so many demands. "And surely they want you to fight for them." There was the question of him going back to where he came from. Keziah didn't want to set herself up for disappointment, to build something with him and to have him gone in the blink of an eye. 

And she told him this too. She told him about how scared she was that he wasn't going to be there, that he wasn't [i]supposed[/i] to be here with her. Sure she fancied the man; he was nice and quite a good story teller and he had fulfilled his promises to her as best to his abilities…but would he always be here with her? When Rose Anne had burped, she cradled the child to her chest as she waited for his response. "If you can stay, here with me. Here with [I]us[/I]," She gestured down to Rose Anne, "Then...I would ask that we can court. I still do not know you as much as I would like." 

Keziah felt a pit form in her stomach when she realized that perhaps she had presumed too much and he had been talking about one of the soldiers he was with. There was no going back now and she couldn't think of a good apology, so she sat there quietly with red cheeks. If she wouldn't have had Rose Anne cradled in her arms she might have run away.