Chapter 21: A Brother's Protection

Gabriel stood there as Sarah gripped his arm to keep him from attacking Tavington. The two men glared at one another and Sarah just stood there waiting to see if it was all right for her to let go of her brother. When she did, he just stood there. For some reason he didn't do what sarah expected him to, he just seemed like he was in a state of angry shock.

"So, you stole my sister's heart like you stole my brother's life?"

"I didn't steal anything that didn't want to be stolen."

"How could you say that?!" and then it happened, Gabriel wrapped his hands around Tavington's neck and began to strangle him. Sarah screamed and ran to Jean's study, grabbing him and pulling out and down the hall into the parlor, where the two grown men were fighting like a couple of boys.

"Should we just let them fight?" Sarah asked frantically, "Do you think he could kill him?"

"I wouldn't underestimate your brother," Jean joked.

"Well, do something!" Sarah shouted as she looked up at Jean who seemed amused by the whole thing rather than worried.

Jean sighed and immediatly ran over to the two men, tearing Tavington off of Gabriel and nearly throwing him into the sofa. Emma watched from the top of the stairs with her mouth gaped open. She had dropped a basin of water, which was now threatening to roll down the steps and clunk one of the fighting men on the head.

"Oh no," Sarah said as she watched Tavington lunge at Gabriel again, this time catching Jean up in the fight.

Samuel and Nathan were both laughing hysterically as they emerged from the outdoors and came upon the sight. Sarah yelled and screamed for them to stop, too fearful to throw herself into the fight. Now, all the mixture needed was her father and the greatest battle would break out.

"At least none of them are armed," Charlotte said as she stood next to her step daughter.

At this time, Margaret came running down the stairs in a tizzy, nearly tripping on the water basin Emma dropped and threw herself into the group of men, grabbing Gabriel and pinning him down like she used to whenever they would wrestle and joke around but this time Margaret was serious.

"Stop it! stop it all of you, right now!" Margaret's voice carried through the whole house, "You're all acting like idiots!"

Jean grabbed Tavington by the cravat and threw him onto the couch, threatening him to stay there unless he wanted another black eye and, the once great colonel acted like a little boy who had just been apprehended for getting his best frock coat muddy and glared up at the Frenchman with contempt as he rubbed his eye.

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Sarah had another bowl of broth for her father, who seemed to a bit more cheery that day. He had heard what happened from his room but was unable to get up and watch it for himself.

"You should have seen Jean, Papa," Sarah laughed, "He gave William a black eye, which I don't think will go away any time soon."

The thought brought a smile to Ben's lips.

"Gabriel just jumped at him like a lion," Sarah explained, "and had him in a choke hold that no man could get out of and then-."

Margaret walked in and sat down, "I tackled Gabriel and pinned him to the ground."

"All your practice came to use today, then, did it Margaret?" Ben joked.

Margaret just smiled and nodded, not laughing at all. Sarah just gave her a look of confusion and took the tray of dishes as her father finished eating. Margaret followed her closely in tow as she left through the door.

"Why did you let Gabriel attack him?" Margaret hissed at Sarah, "You shouldn't have allowed it!"

"My dearest Margaret," Sarah said as she entered the kitchen, "Gabriel was bound to it sooner or later."

"And now my fiance has a large black eye!"

"Oh, it'll heal," Sarah joked, "And that wasn't Gabriel's doing, mind you."

"Oh, yes, it was that belligerent French friend of father's that you are marrying very soon."

"You're not proving your maturity to me by whining like this, Margaret," Sarah apprehended her little sister, "Let it go."

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Sarah groaned as she sat in front of the fire that night. She was flipping through a book she found on the desk and was trying to get her mind off of the problems her family faced. She heard the door click and looked up, knowing it was Jean. He was always in his study late at night and it also the only time her and Jean could talk without her little brothers and sisters spying on them.

"Oh, this is so troubling," Sarah said as Jean sat down next to her, "I just grabbed this book to try and get my mind off of it all and it's not helping at all. What is this?"

"A book about my family history," Jean took it. Sarah nodded. It was one hundred pages of hand written names and years. The second she opened it, she lost her ability to forget the scandal her family had fallen into. Jean opened it to the last page where the writing ended and put it on her lap. She realized what he was showing her. She saw her name scrolled beside his with the year but the date wasn't written. She couldn't help but look above her name, where his late wife's and children's names had unfortunately been marked through with a black cross beside them, symbolizing their death with the year and date of the tragedy. She frowned, seeing that the black ink was quite new and that even though years had passed, Jean still remembered the exact date of their deaths. He had finally brought himself to accept what had happened and to face it.

"I'm very sorry about what happened to them, Jean," Sarah whispered as she stroked the page, "Her name was Angelique? That's a beautiful name. Perhaps one child of ours could be named after her."

Jean's eyes lit up. He knew Sarah wanted to marry him but they hadn't had too much time to talk about a day. She had been too busy with worrying about her sister that she hadn't been able to talk about anything else.

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OK, it's been quite a while, I know. Sorry about that. I'm trying to find more inspiration for this story, so ideas about the plot and such would be heartily welcomed. I'll try to get another chapter up soon. Thank you for your patience :)