Hey everyone :)

Here it is, the first chapter of the "Freedom" sequel. I spent the whole day translating it because I was so excited to show it to you. But before starting, I have some important things to say:

First of all, this story is originally written in German and I do the translation on my own. So I´m already sorry for every kind of mistake. You can find the link to the original version on my profile.

Second: for this story I do a lot of research about the historical and culture background because I want it to be as realistic as possible. Of course I am not an expert and there can be some mistakes or parts, where I used my freedom as an author. Especially the research about the mohawk culture is important to me, because it helps me a lot to keep Connor in character. At least, I hope so. ^^ So if there is anything I have to explain about the background of the story, I will put it into notes at the end of a chapter. But you are also free to ask me, if there is anything you don´t know or understand. As long as I can explain it, I will.

I do not own anything of the AC-universe!

I hope you enjoy reading. :)

New life and new old problems

April 1784

The spring sun was shining bright and warm from the light blue sky and a light wind carried the scent of grass, flowers and the sea. It was a beautiful day and lost in thought, I paused in my work, leaned my weight on the broomstick in my hand and let my gaze roam over the homestead´s paths that led past the tavern.
The people passing by all had a smile on their lips, greeted friendly and attended to their work, full of beans. I could hear the splashing of the river nearby, that crossed the homestead. Just as the regular sound of the lumberjacks' sawmill. Everyone was busy but it was so peaceful at the same time and again I knew exactly why I had felt comfortable and had settled in so quickly.

Three months ago, Maria and I had arrived in America and right from the beginning, it had been easy for us to feel like a part of the community. Maria had moved into a small house on the edge of the homestead and was helping out the tailor Ellen in her shop. I lived, together with Connor and the boy Caleb, in the manor but in the beginning, I´d had problems in occupying myself.
I had taken care of the household but had noticed quickly that I hadn´t a talent for it. As the spoiled daughter of a merchant, I only knew the word "housekeeping" as giving orders to servants. I never had been forced to lift a finger and when I had helped the old Noel in his house, not so long ago, he more had been a help for me than the other way around.
Now I was on my own and that was mainly because I had too much pride to ask for help. I expected myself, as a woman, to do the household on my own. At least Connor was busy enough and Caleb also should be able to take care of other things.

But sometime I had realized that I was untalented in being a housewife and should ask for help and so Corrine, the innkeeper of the homestead, had offered to me, that I could help out in the inn and she shared her experiences with me in return. At least it gave me the feeling that I wasn´t completely useless and furthermore I got in touch with the settlers and the sailors who were visiting the inn.
The latter were mainly crewmembers of the Aquila, the ship under Connor´s command and they still remembered the day, when I had sneaked on board, dresses like a man. They had taken it amiss but in the meantime they seemed to have forgotten their resentment.
They were forgetting many things when you served Ale to them.

Anyway, I really enjoyed the work in the inn, even though it was connected with sweeping the interior and the terrace in front of the entrance door, which I was doing right now.
I disengaged from my relaxed position, readjusted the scarf on my head, that was supposed to curb my hair and took the broom.
While I swept the dirt away, that had been brought up by the guest´s shoes, a carriage rumbled on the backyard of the inn. It was Oliver, Corrine´s husband, who had run errands in Boston with Caleb. When I raised my head shortly and looked to them, I saw the eleven-years-old blonde jumping from the load bed and eagerly helping the elderly innkeeper with unloading the boxes and barrels. He was a good boy. Always working hard and in a good mood and you could almost forget that he had lost his grandfather and with him his whole family only a few months ago.
But he was happy to be here and I was happy that we had taken him under our wings. He was a sunshine and even though I really wouldn´t say that I had maternal feelings for him, he had grown dear to my heart. Although we hadn´t really liked each other after our first meeting. But I´d had more than one first meeting like this during the last year.

With a smirk on my lips, I put the broom aside and went back into the inn. There were only three sailors sitting in one of the corners. But it was almost lunchtime and then the people were certainly going to find their way here. A delicious smell was already flowing out the kitchen and I followed it with determination. Corrine stood behind her big stove and fried a great amount of meat in a cast-iron pan. The fat sizzled and it smelled so good that my mouth was already watering. I went and stand beside Corrine and glanced curiously into a pot in which she was boiling potatoes.
"Is that rabbit?" I pointed at the pan and Corrine nodded.
"These beasts are breeding quickly lately. Warren was often complaining about them gnawing at his vegetables and almost every day, Connor is bringing some, too when he comes back from the woods."
I nodded and leaned my hip against the counter while I was watching Corrine frying the meat.
"Can I help you somehow?"
"You could pour off the potatoes, darling. But please take care of your fingers."
Smirking I took a towel, wagged it in front of her nose and grabbed the heavy pot with it to carry it to the sink.

Unfortunately Corrine´s concerns weren´t unnecessary. When I had cooked with her the first time, I had courageously and thoughtlessly grabbed a hot handle, without protecting my hands. The upshot was that I had almost spilled the whole pot of hot water and had sustained blisters on both of my hands. Like I had said it: I wasn´t a talented housewife but in the meantime there was a light at the end of the tunnel.
Without an accident, I poured off the potatoes when a blonde whirlwind stormed through the door and stopped in its frame, sniffing.
"Is lunch ready?", Caleb asked excited and even jumped from one foot onto the other. Chuckling I put the pot aside while Corrine raised the wooden spoon and wagged it towards Caleb.
"How often do I have to tell you, that you mustn´t run around like that? One day you will knock somebody over who´s carrying hot water." She pointed at the door. "You will get some. Sit at the bar and wait."
The boy sulked but pushed off while I was still giggling.
"This boy is worse than a bunch of fleas", the innkeeper mumbled and pushed the pan from the hot plate. "I really have respect for you and Connor that you are looking after him. You don´t even have own children but are already having an adolescent bundle of energy. But maybe it´s a good practice."
She smirked and winked at me, which made me turn away my gaze and stare at the pot of potatoes instead.

I had heard this hint often enough from other settlers already. But I certainly didn´t see Caleb as a practice for own children. God, I didn´t even think about having children with Connor one day. At least we weren´t living together for long yet and until now, we hadn´t talked about our future. We wanted to take it slow in every aspect. To have children, there was one essential step left, for that I wasn´t ready yet at all. Not at least because of my strict education.
I was glad that I didn´t need to explain it to Connor yet because luckily he wasn´t pestering me at all. But every day I was asking myself, for how long we would be able to delay the conversation about our future.
A sigh escape me that was unfortunately heard by Corrine, who looked at me in concern. When I noticed it, I quickly put on a smile and asked her, if I could bring Caleb something to eat. She nodded, filled a plate with potatoes and rabbit ragout and I was almost relieved to leave the kitchen and go back to the dining area.

There sat Caleb behind the bar and beamed when I put the plate in front of him. For a boy of his size, he had a huge appetite and I smirked while watching him shoveling the food into his mouth.
"Do you intend to chew once?"
Caleb raised his head with my question and grinned at me with his mouth full. Reproachfully I lifted an eyebrow whereupon he reconsidered and attended to his meal again. I grabbed underneath the counter, took out a cup, went into the kitchen and finally put the water filled cup in front of the boy.
"Are you done with your tasks?", I asked and Caleb nodded, still chewing. But at least he swallowed his food before he looked at me again and asked:
"Is it alright if I go playing by the river with John and Carl?"
Shortly I blinked in surprise because until now it had been rare that he asked for my permission. He knew that he basically was free to do as he pleases, as long as he didn´t get up to nonsense and behaved.
"If you come back before it gets dark and stay careful, I don´t mind."
Caleb nodded satisfied and in this moment, I really felt like a mother explaining to her child, when it has to come back home. But somehow I was glad that the eleven-year-old had asked for my permission. Didn´t it show that he accepted me as a authority? At least he could reproach me for not being his mother he had to obey.
In a wave of tender affection, I reached out my hand and tousled the boy´s blonde hair which he noted under protest before I made sure that the incoming guests got their meals.

In the evening I bid farewell to Corrine and Oliver, tired but satisfied and went my way back home. The sun was already setting and everything was bathed in a red twilight. The wind became colder but I kept my pace unhurried because I loved this evening atmosphere. When the homestead slowly came to rest and only a few people were walking around outside. They were all at home or at the inn now, letting the day end in cosiness.
When I crossed the bridge, which led over the river, my gaze fell onto Caleb and the sons of the lumberjacks. Laughing and barefooted, they were standing in the water and spattered each other. Shortly I thought about reprimanding them, but I bit my tongue and didn´t. They were children. They were playing and just because I had never been allowed to be so jolly, I didn´t want to take it from them. So I went on again.

At home I went directly upstairs and into the bedroom. I took off my apron and headscarf, washed my face and hands, loosened the hair bun and began to brush my hair. Again I reminded myself, that I should have trimmed it already because by now it fell down to by bottom. But with a smirk I remembered Connor´s almost terrified expression when I had mentioned this plan to him. He loved my long hair even though I couldn´t understand it really, because most of a time I wore it plaited to a braid. But someday we would have to bite the bullet and at least I was going to be glad about not being forced to spend hours in doing my hair anymore. Even now I just plaited it to a loose braid over my shoulder and went downstairs again.

In the meantime none of the one and a half men of this house had returned and so I decided to enjoy the silent around me. In the kitchen I put on a tea, sparked a fire in the fireplace of the parlour and sank onto an armchair with a sigh. My hands wrapped around the cup of tea and my legs cocked under my body, I watched the flames and listened to the crackling and fizzling of the logs.
After a busy day at the inn, such evenings were worth a mint. That was why I sighed quietly when I heard, how the front door was opened and closed. On the basis of the careful steps, that barely made a noise on the floor, I didn´t have to ask who just came back. I saw Connor shortly passing the open door, before he disappeared from my field of vision again and I heard how the hidden door to the training room in the basement was opened.

After that it was silent for some time until the front door opened again and I heard Caleb stumping inside. His shoes landed somewhere in the hallway before he came in and sat down puffing and cross-legged in front of the fireplace.
"Tired?", I asked and disapprovingly raised an eyebrow as I saw how he dampened the floor. He was soaked from his water fight in the river and around him was already a small puddle. He nodded.
"So you can go to bed after you have wiped that up."
Caleb looked down at himself as if he hadn´t been aware that he was completely soaked through and he screw up his face.
"It is going to dry again", he mumbled but I only indicated to him silently, that he should take a cloth from the kitchen and he did. With a grim face he wiped up the water but insisted on hugging me when he wished me a good night. I chuckled, pulled him closer and place a kiss on his forehead, which he wiped away with his hand immediately. Nevertheless he couldn´t suppress a grin before he left the room and I heard him stumping upstairs.

Still smirking I pulled my legs from under my body and with a quiet groan I stretched myself out like a cat. Legs straight, arms stretched up and my head put back. A hearty yawn escaped my lips which seemed to be quite amusing because I heard a chuckle behind me and when I turned around, I saw Connor standing in the door frame. He had taken off his coat, as well as his weapons and the leather leggings which used to cover his thighs. Nothing suggested that he had spent the whole day in the frontier to pursue some assassin businesses, which I didn´t even wanted to know. He looked like he had just come from his work on a field.
"So tired?" A smirk was still gracing his lips as he stepped beside my armchair, hunkered down and grabbed my hand that was laying on the arm rest. Automatically our fingers intertwined and I smirked inwardly, thinking about that this simple touch had been unimaginable a few months ago.

"Very tired but I wanted to wait for you to come out of your basement before going to bed. I haven't been greeted yet." I pushed my bottom lip forward, assumed sulking.
"I am sorry." Connor squeezed my hand gently. "I just wanted to get rid of my things and come to rest."
Worried I regarded his face that was laying in deep shadows through the light of the fireplace. He appeared tired and also depressed somehow.
"Is something wrong? Did anything happen?"
Connors gaze turned towards the fireplace while he shook his head.
"Some troublemakers in Lexington but I think that they will not make any problems again."
"Are troublemakers in Lexington really your business? Don´t the people have...guards who can take care of something like that?"
Connor frowned after my question and looked at me again. I already knew the answer before he even said it.
"When help is needed somewhere, it is always my business."
It was a matter of course for him to sacrifice himself for others. Whether he knew them or not. It was his own strive for freedom and justice and I was actually admiring him for that. But did he really have to frequently get into dangerous situations? Certainly his answer would be "yes" and it seemed like I had to get used to it.

"As long as you are alright", I murmured and reached out my free hand to play with the small plaited braid at his temple and the wooden pearls on it. His gaze became gentler and he shortly raised my hand, he was still holding in his, to his lips.
"You do not need to worry. I do not intend to leave you so soon."
My eyebrows rose. "Not so soon? Is that supposed to reassure me?"
Connor smirked and pushed himself up on the armrest until his eyes were on level with mine.
"I actually do not intend it at all."
"So, never?"
"If you can bear me so long..."
I chuckled about his answer but at the same time, my heart began to race. Again I thought of our still outstanding conversation about the future. But obviously Connor had made a decision on his own and I was willing to agree with it. I never wanted to separate from him, too. But how was this "never" supposed to look like?

Thinking about this question, I bit my lower lip. A typical reaction for me when I was feeling inwardly uncomfortable somehow and by now Connor knew me good enough to know that.
"What is it?", he asked and propped his arms onto the arm rest to bring enough distance between us so that he could look into my eyes. It didn´t really help me to feel more comfortable.
"During the last days I often thought about...how we´re going to live together in the future. I mean, right now it is quite...unattached."
I even wasn´t able to form clear words of how I was thinking. It was incredibly hard for me to talk about it with him, even though I always had strict ideas, or better to say guidelines of how my life had to be like. Everything had changed with Connor and I didn´t know, if my ideas about a future together was basically matching his.
At least he looked at me frowning before I saw something like understanding in his eyes.
"You mean, if we are going to marry?"
I was surprised of how directly he was saying it but I nodded slowly. Yes, I guessed this was what I had meant. But I had the feeling that I had to explain it to him.

"So, please don´t get it wrong. Everything, how it is, is totally fine with me. But you know, I´ve grown up with particular values and traditions and they say that a man and a woman have to get married when they are living together and only after the wedding they are allowed to..." I faltered and felt how I blushed. I really couldn´t start talking about that.
"You know what I mean. Anyway, I only know it like that but I can understand if wedding isn´t part of your culture."
Connor raised an eyebrow after my torrent of words had ended.
"What makes you think that?"
"Well, I thought..."
"That the men and women of my people are living in open relationships?"
The assassin smirked and really seemed to be amused what made me even more blush. It was embarrassing for me to notice, that I didn´t know anything about his people and only had lived on stories and prejudice I had been told over years. I really had dropped a brick.

"We marry, too even if we do not really have a god in front of whom we promise each other in marriage. There is no real ceremony like you have. I once was on a wedding that followed your traditions and your religion. But we celebrate like you and we also think that marriage is a promise and a responsibility you have to nourish and respect and it can only be annulled if the woman wants it for some reason."
He paused and squeezed my hand gently again. "You see, I do understand your thoughts and if it were up to me, I would marry you. I just never considered it because I did not know how important it is to you. Furthermore I cannot step in front of an altar and promise my loyalty to you in the name of your god. I am not a part of your religion and I never will be."
He said this last sentence without regret but as an immovable fact. Connor was right. He wasn´t Christian and I´d never expected him to be baptized for me and adapt to my faith. The only question was, how important was my religion to me? At least marriage was sacred and that was why I actually didn´t want to go without the divine blessing.
But how was a marriage supposed to be, when the man and the woman didn´t share the same faith?

I sighed deeply. "Maybe we should drop the topic for now."
I just was too tired to further think about it. Connor cocked his head slightly but finally nodded and stood up, my hand still holding in his. Gently he pulled me on my feet and wrapped his arms around me.
"I thank you for being so honest. Sometimes I thought that you were feeling uncomfortable", he murmured but I shook my head.
"I´m not feeling uncomfortable. I...you know me. I can´t change who I am. I was always told what is right and I just can´t shake it off. But I think, if I try and take my time, I will..."
Connor put his hand under my chin and looked at me seriously.
"You do not have to change. You have your own values and ideas and that is right. You should not think that everything you have been taught is wrong and that you have to shake it off because I have grown up different. It is not wrong as long as you are feeling comfortable with it."