Tomorrow

Beauty and the Brit

Lieutenant Thomas Answorth's POV

*Not historically accurate*

"Charge!" Washington screamed and the wannabe U.S. and French soldiers raided in towards us. I loaded my musket and aimed at the midst of the army. The cannonballs skyrocketed and already wounded soldiers were escorted out by nurses in cots and gurneys.

"Go for the weakest point, Thomas," Charles Cornwallis, British General, ordered me and his horse whinnied when bombshells exploded all around us. "This isn't your first battle, son. You should be used to the tricks of war by now."

"First and foremost, you are not to be mistaken as my father. You're my stepfather," I said and he quickly opened his mouth to protest. "There's a difference. And there are no 'tricks' on the battlefield, Charles. It's all just shoot, kill, dodge, kill again. Pointless much."

"How dare you speak of my profession in that way! Not only mine, but your duty as a British citizen, too," he said and I rolled my eyes at this. Now I'll get the huge 'mid-battle speech' for the fifth time this week. "Your father would have adored your devotion to defending your country, that is if you had it. I pour my soul into this very war and you take it as if it's a game!"

"It very well may be! I did not choose to join the military. You made the bloody decision for me!" He stiffened and I didn't bother adding that "he pours his heart and soul" into killing innocent people for a living. I inched my way away from him and dodged a few gunshots while at it. All these French use are fancy swords and rifles, yet they still are an enormous nuisance to our units.

My stepfather's words swirled through my head. My father didn't want me to be defending our demeaning monarchs. They put him in prison to rot away forever. He would've wanted me to run away to a free country. Not to defend those who killed him for peaceful protest.

I was bored out of my mind as I simply dodged exploding grenades and bombshells soaring through the air. I know, crazy to be bored in the middle of a great war, right? Wrong. I have no light in my life but simply my dreams of myself sweeping a beautiful maiden away from this disgrace of a country, leaving the war itself for all eternity and then some.

Then everything around me froze. No more bombs or rifles or gunshots. I slowly pulled the trigger of my musket blankly at French officers when my eyes met with that amazingly beautiful maiden. With eyes as graceful glowing as the sea, a woman about my age was aiding a wounded soldier by her side. She had on a long white dress with a white bonnet on her head, and was covered in the blood of fighting soldiers. Her long hair flew in the wind and she stared into my eyes with such emotion.

I stood there, love shot like an idiot for too long. A sudden flash of pain whipped through my chest and blood started pouring out. I looked in front of me and saw a man on a white horse with a powdered wig aiming his rifle straight at me. He gritted his teeth. His wooden teeth. I had been shot by General George Washington. He shouted out to me,"there is no such thing as happily ever after, Answorth." My stepfather noticed and ran over to me as I stumbled to the ground. He shot Washington a glare, viscously mouthing the word "you". My stepdad and Washington used to be great friends when George was still a Redcoat, and since he rebelled they've been the greatest rivals known to mankind. Quite comical, I'd inquire.

The beautiful nurse approached Washington and started screaming her lungs out. He threw her off and retreated to the east battlefield. Then, she came running across the battlefield and straight to me. I couldn't believe it. A beautiful rebel nurse running to my side at my time of death. "Bridget Washington," the woman pronounced as she rummaged through her medical bag. "My father tells me all about you when you were just a kid."

"You are George's daughter?" I questioned in moderate disbelief and she nodded. Damn.

She was  the maiden of my dreams. The one that is run off to a free new world with. Away from this war.

"I can't believe he'd shoot you like that," she said and placed some type of alcohol on my wound. It stung, but I stayed strong and bit my lip. "He'd always tell me that you were an amazing child." She rubbed a wet cloth on my bleeding wound and the pain was near unbearable. "Oh, this war is so bloody pointless."

She was that maiden. I managed a faint nod in agreement. But I was growing weaker by the second. Seconds felt like minutes. Minutes, bloody minutes, they felt like years. I didn't care as long as I've found that maiden. And Bridget was by my side. My world slowly began to fade away and she went into panic. Rebel forces rioted the word "traitor" back and forth at poor Bridget. We ignored them. George and Charles were fighting face to face and one on one aiming at one of us every second. "No, no, Thomas! Don't die now," Bridget said over tears and everything became a blur.

She leaned in and kissed me. I was almost gone when I stood up with her in my arms. "Maybe there will be a happily ever after all." She dropped her medical bag and held my hand as we walked away into the sunset, away from this crazy war. Ignoring the troops rioting at us, screaming words I won't mention, we walked on anyways.

"In the free world," Bridget said and squeezed my hand. In the free world it is.

~

Five years later

"I do," I proudly answered.

"Yes," Bridget stumbled. "I mean, I do."

"And I pronounce you, Thomas Answorth and Bridget Washington, free man and wife," the preacher said and everybody clapped wildly. Believe it or not, Charles and George sat next to each other.

"I knew Thomas was a good boy when I first saw him," George said to my stepfather.

"I guess Maryland isn't that bad of a colony after all," Charles mused; George hugged him abruptly.

"Let's put the past behind us," George said. Charles handed him a pair of brand new cherry tree wooden teeth and they both started crying. It's amazing how two frenemies can reunite and make up in such a way. What really amazes me is how two rebellious worlds can collide and become one beautiful pair. What is the most glorious, precious thing that I can cherish for years to come is the freedom that I've fought against all these years. The freedom of the wondrous land of America.

We've all fought our own battles. Friends achieved friendship once more, we all are earned freedom in this New World, our countries obtained their peace-

And the Beast gets Beauty.