Fiery Heart(Katie) “Clarence!” Mother yelled. “Get in here this instant.” I smirked, sitting down on the nearest bale of hay and waited to watch the show, smoothing my white milking dress as I sat down. Only moments before, I had found a dead rat in Mother’s shoe right before she put it on. Clarence, my youngest brother, was the one person who could have put it there.

“Caroline, please.”

“But Mother! I was the one who found the dead rat. May I stay and watch the punishment?”

“Oh… well, yes, you may. I have forgotten that you were the one that found it. Are you sure it was poor Clarence though? It might have been…”

“Blaise and Archer were in the field when I left, Mother, and Amanda is down in the city getting supplies for the week. It must have been Clarence!”

Mother sighed and looked towards the barn door, waiting for Clarence to come around. “Things were so much simpler with your father around…”

My throat tightened and I quickly looked away from Mother. Father had died when I was only four. My oldest brother, Archer, had remembered him well, because he had been eight. Blaise had been seven and my sister, Amanda, had been six. Clarence was only two at the time. Now, even ten years later, it was hard to hear his name in conversation.

Archer, who was eighteen, was the oldest in the family. He was the “man of the house” you could say; now that Father was gone. He actually looked almost like Father, I am told. He has straight black hair that hadn’t been cut in a while, so it fell in front of his eyes. His eyes, when uncovered, were a warm chocolate brown that always had joy or laughter floating about in their midst. He was tall and well built from working in the field.

Blaise, the second oldest and who was seventeen, was the total opposite of his brother. He was lean and fit, not a hint of muscle to prove all that work in the field. He had a tan to prove days in the sun though. His hair was blond and curling. It curled up around his temples like a vine curling up to a tree. His eyes were a dark blue, showing his German heritage (my mother is half German, half English. My father was a true Englishman.)

Amanda, my one and only sister and who was sixteen, was the sweetest girl that you could ever meet for miles. She was the kindest person between England and Greece. She was also the prettiest out of the two of us. I had always wished I had had her looks. Amanda had long, curly black hair that formed perfect large ringlets that fell almost to her hips and dark blue eyes that reminded me of the ocean every time I saw them. I envied her long, gorgeous legs that made her almost a few feet taller than most girls like me. She had a haughty tilt to her chin that never seemed to prove anything.

I am the total opposite of my sister, like Blaise was with Archer. I’m fourteen and the second youngest in the family. I have short, straight blond hair that Mother cut almost every other week just because she didn’t want it long like Amanda’s. Every time I turn, I can feel the tips just barely brushing the top of my shoulders. I have dark brown eyes, so dark that people tell me they are almost black, so black that you can’t even see my pupils part of the time. I am very short. Compared to my sister, I came up to her shoulder.

Clarence, the youngest of all of us, is twelve and the most annoying kid in all of Europe. He will pull pranks on just about everyone that he can see in his eyesight. He will talk nonstop until someone hits him on the back of the head and tells him to be quiet. He doesn’t look as bad as he seems. He has tawny hair, but it’s curly like Blaise’s. He is still too young to work in the fields, but he will do chores. He cleans the chicken coop, cleans up cow manure, feeds the animals, exercises the horses, and any other chore that the rest of us just don’t want to do. By doing most of these, he is lean and well fit.

My family and I lived on a farm, just a few miles out from the big town of London. Every week, my sister went to the city and sold the milk from our cows, the eggs from our chickens, the cheese that we made and anything that we had harvested that week. We saved some for ourselves but Amanda normally brought back food and supplies for us.

My brother’s tawny head peered around the door of the barn. He looked at me and scowled, knowing that I was the one who found the rat. He quietly walked up to Mother and stood in front of her.
“I did not do it,” he said automatically. I rolled my eyes and looked at Mother, waiting for a response from her. I wasn’t disappointed.

Her lips pursed together and her eyebrows went up. “What makes you think that you did something, Clarence?” Clarence’s eyes widened and he shot me a look. I shot him a grin and winked, which just put him off. He didn’t show it though. He still looked pretty confused.

“What?”
“Did you do something wrong that I should know about?”
Clarence shook his head quickly. “No, no! I didn’t do anything.”
“Liar,” I muttered under my breath.
“Then can you explain, young man, why there was a rat in my shoe this morning? Hm?”
“I—I—I” Clarence stuttered. He kept on shooting me looks, but I busied myself with straightening out my dress again, smiling towards the floor.
“I-I don’t know.”

“Mother!” a loud, male voice came from outside of the barn. “May I see you for a moment, please?” Clarence let out a long breath and shot me a smug look. I rolled my eyes, but I followed Mother outside to where Archer and Blaise were leaning up against the barn wall, talking in low voices to each other. When we walked out, Blaise looked down and examined his fingernails.
“Is there something wrong, Archer? Why did you call?”
Archer shot Blaise a glare before answering, “We haven’t seen Amanda come home y—”
“Here I am!” my old sister called, smiling. She was panting, carrying a basket filled to the brim with covered goods. “Sorry I am late, but the market caught a bit held up.”
“What happened?” Blaise asked, looking up from his fingernails. Amanda smiled.
“The chief delegate to the king came into town and announced that the king was coming into town tomorrow. I hope that the chief delegate’s son is with him next time.”
“Why?” Clarence asked, leaning up against the barn wall next to Blaise.
“Just because…he’s really nice. I like knowing that at least one of the royal helpers is nice.”
“We grew up with Gavin, remember?” Archer said, looking towards Blaise. “Before his father got that notice, we used to play together all the time.”
“Yeah. He was nice, even back then. Hasn’t he upgraded to a guard now?”
“He’s only fifteen, isn’t he?” I asked, looking towards Amanda.
“Yeah, but you just have to prove that you’re skilled with a sword to become a guard. I can’t wait until I'm in the city for that,” Archer said, thrusting an imaginary sword towards Blaise. Blaise laughed and hit his brother affectionately on the shoulder.
“Maybe you could prove that to the king tomorrow.”
“I seriously doubt that the king will even get near us.”

“Why don’t we head out now?” Mother said. “We could stay at Bradford’s house until tomorrow. And then we could spend the day in the city. I am sure that Bradford wouldn’t mind at all.”

He didn’t. We left immediately after Mother had stopped talking and we made it to Bradford’s before sundown. He even fed us dinner, which was downright kind of him.
“Thank you so much, Bradford,” Mother said. “My boys are really eager to see one of their old friends tomorrow.”
“Gavin, right? Yeah, I heard about King Charles coming tomorrow. Isn’t Gavin one of his personal guards now?”
“Yessir. He is. I bet his father was proud of him.”
“I heard he was. Say, I bet that some of my daughters’ old clothes could fit your two girls there. They have been gone for awhile and I bet you want to look nice in front of the king.” Amanda and I nodded fast, but Mother thought it over.
“Please, Mother?” I begged, looking at her pleadingly. “We would not wreck them, honest."
“Caroline, I don’t know… Oh, fine. You may.”

Amanda let out a squeal. We were so excited because Bradford was a wealthy goldsmith merchant and he was rich. His daughters used to always have the most beautiful dresses on. Bradford showed us down the hallway to where the rooms of his daughters were. He showed us the closet and then left us in peace to find what we wanted to be wearing tomorrow. Amanda and I looked at each other excitedly and then threw open the door of the closet. All of the garments were still there, in peak condition.
We started to look through them. There were so many gorgeous dresses that it was hard to choose just one. I finally saw mine when Amanda pulled out a startling yellow dress with gold trim.

“Do you think this looks good on me?” she asked, but I didn’t answer. I was too busy staring at my dress. I reached into the closet and pulled it out. It was perfect. It was turquoise with a small pattern of birds going around the hem of the dress and there were gems around its neckline.
“That is gorgeous, Caroline!” Amanda said, nearly dropping her dress. I nodded, smiling from ear to ear. This is definitely what I was going to wear tomorrow. I quickly stripped off my traveling cloak and wear and I put the dress on. It was almost my exact size. It was a bit tight around the middle, but it was so beautiful that I didn’t even care that much about it.
“You’re probably going to really impress the king tomorrow, Caroline,” Amanda said, pulling on her yellow dress and looking at herself in the mirror.
“The king is not the one that I want to impress,” I muttered under my breath.

The next morning, Bradford got us up early for breakfast. He was going to give us a tour of that small part of London where he lived. He was even going to show us Pudding Lane, where the king’s personal baker worked.
I couldn’t wait to go out. Immediately after Bradford woke us up, Amanda helped me into my dress and she helped braid a small part of my hair and twist it half way around my head like a small crown of my own. I then helped her braid her hair and twist it up into a large bun on the back of her head. After I was done, she put on a large, gemmed necklace and a few bracelets. I didn’t see anything that I liked so I just put on a simple gold necklace with a small diamond that hung in the center.

We walked out into the kitchen again and my brothers and Mother gasped when they saw us. Amanda just laughed and curtsied in the most regal way that she could, but I was at a complete standstill. I didn’t even know how to act.
Blaise must have read my mind because he walked over and whispered, “Take my arm and I can show you how to act when you are in front of the king.” He held out his arm and I put mine on top of it.
“Just try and walk as gracefully as you can,” he whispered in my ear. I nodded and looked towards Bradford.

“Are we ready to go?” I asked politely. He nodded and opened the door. I tried to walk as gracefully as I could out into the warm September air. I knew I did well because I felt like I was gliding across air as I walked.
“You are doing really well, Caroline,” Blaise muttered. I gave a small nod towards him and listened attentively as Bradford talked about all of his neighbors and what they did in the marketplace and what guilds there were there (not that he was a part of one). He showed us the different merchants there were there like silversmiths, blacksmiths, bakers, and all different types so much so that it gave me a headache when I tried to remember later.

“And here,” he said finally, “is Pudding Lane. Thomas is a great guy once you get to know him. He is not as stuck up as people claim he is. Thomas? Thomas! It’s Bradford.”
The baker popped his head out of the door. When he saw Bradford, his face lit up and he walked out of the house. “Ah, Bradford! How are you?”
“Fine. I am very, very fine. Thomas, I would like you to meet some friends. This is Andrea Farellson and her children, Amanda, Archer, Blaise, Clarence and Caroline.”
“Ah, so this is Caroline Farellson,” the baker said, looking over at me. I blushed and dropped my hand from Blaise’s arm; he shot me a grin. “Why, the chief delegate’s son talks about ye all the time. I never guessed the girl he talked about was so beautiful.” I blushed ever deeper and Blaise nudged me in the ribs.
“Thank you, sir,” I mumbled. The baker just laughed and looked over at Mother. She looked back at him, laughter floating about in her gaze.
“Well, my boys and Amanda are all dying to see him again. Do you think that he could be spared?”
“Most definitely. With how many guards he has, King Charles probably wouldn’t mind if one of them took a break to see some old friends. Especially not one that is fifteen.”

Suddenly, a loud bell filled the warm morning air. Bradford looked over at us, smiling. “Sounds like the king’s here and it is time for us in the marketplace to start working, eh?” We all headed back to the marketplace where Bradford sold his goods. “Now be good, you hear? I do not want to be getting into any trouble with the king.” He tipped his hat to us and strode farther ahead of us, beating us to the square.

Before we even got to the marketplace, I was able to hear the commotion from everyone lining up to talk with the king. We walked out into the marketplace and they had set up a throne for the king in the middle of the square. The entire marketplace was filled up with people from all over hoping to catch even the slightest glimpse of the king. We pushed our way through until we were close enough to see the king’s guards. All of us searched the faces, seeing many that we didn’t know. Archer was a head above everyone here, so he had a step up. He finally saw a familiar blond head and beckoned to him. The teen shot Archer a smile and quietly crept out of the guard place.

We all backed out to the outer edge of the crowd. It was quieter out there and obviously less crowded. We waited for Gavin to come around and when he did, I couldn’t even believe the change in him. His hair was now long, almost covering up his pretty green eyes that always had a fun sparkle in them. He was muscular now, probably from all the training that the guards did. He was taller, almost as tall as Blaise but just a bit shorter. He was a light tan color and he was wearing no armor, just plain clothes. He had a sword at his side, but he didn’t have any other visible weapons on his person.

“Hey, guys!” he said. Even his voice was deeper from the last time that we had seen him. It was as if he had grown up in the past three years. Archer held out his arms and Gavin gave him a bear hug. He went from each person, giving them a hug. “Archer, it’s nice to see you again. Ms. Farellson, you’re looking well. Amanda, looking as pretty as ever. Clarence, are you still getting into trouble? Uh, huh that’s a lie. Blaise, you’ve been working out haven’t you?” He finally got to me and just stared. I looked away, embarrassed, and tucked my hair behind my ear.
“Caroline…Wow. Really, just wow.” He slowly brought me in a hug, but it felt really awkward and not comfortable like the ones that we had had before. I drew back almost a few seconds after he brought me into the hug.

“So… Gavin,” Archer said, breaking the silence between us. “What’s it like being a guard for His Highness?”
“Uh, really great actually. We get to see a lot of action, but the training is a pain. The other guards are really nice to me, now that I’m the new guy. I don’t really want to talk about me. What’s up with you guys? Still live in—”
“Southwark? Yeah. We live bank side now, close to the Thames. We also live close to London Bridge across the Thames. That’s how Amanda gets our supplies—”

And that’s how we spent most of our day that day. We caught up on a lot of stuff that we had missed over the past three years. When he had to leave, it was really depressing, but he had other duties that he had to attend to. That’s what he told us anyways. He gave us hugs goodbye and then went back to keep up with the king’s guard back up to the castle.
Bradford let me and Amanda keep the gowns as long as we promised to wear them every time we came to market, which meant that I would never wear it again and Amanda would wear it every week. We walked back the kilometer it took to get back to our house and then all of us were so exhausted that we fell immediately to sleep.

I awoke to a light at the back of my eyelids. I sat up quickly, knowing that Archer had kicked dust over the coals of our fire last night. I quickly threw a cloak on over my night gown and took off outside. Archer and Blaise were already out there, looking over across the water. I finally saw what had caused that light that had woke me up. London was ablaze with a massive fire!

I turned and saw Mother patting the back of a teen boy, who was hacking and coughing so hard that I thought he was going to throw up. I wasn’t able to see the boy’s face. I walked over to Archer, who was now leaning up against our house wall.
“What happened?” I asked him, looking over worriedly at the boy.
“According to Gavin—”
“That’s Gavin?!”
“Yep. Now, according to Gavin—”
“Why is he here? Wasn’t he supposed to being going back with the king?”
“Yes, he was but his father apparently forgot a very important paper back in the square and Gavin offered to go get it for him. Now, according to Ga—”
“How’d he get here?”
“Can I finish a sentence please?” Archer snapped. I shut my mouth and looked at him, gesturing for him to go on. “Thanks. Well, according to Gavin, it took him about two hours to get back to the square and by that time it was close to one o’clock. He found his father’s paper, but when he turned back around, there was a wall of flames in front of him and behind him towards the river. The river’s flames were small, so he jumped through them and took off towards us.” Archer, finally finished, sat back against the wall, looking satisfied.

I rolled my eyes and leant up against the wall next to him. He wrapped his arm around my shoulders automatically like a big brother would normally do. I leaned into his arm and rested my head against his shoulder.
“Do you think everyone got out okay, Archer?” I asked, thinking of Bradford and Gavin’s father. He hesitated before he answered.
“I’m sure they did, sweetheart,” he said, ruffling my hair. I grinned and walked over to Mother, who was still patting the back of Gavin, who was now heaving. She looked up gratefully as I got closer.

“Oh, good, Caroline. Will you take Gavin inside and get him some new clothes and get him cleaned up? Wake up Amanda and Clarence as well; we are you going to need as many people as we can.” I didn’t ask what we needed them for. I learned never to question my elders.
I bended down towards Gavin’s ear and whispered, “C’mon, let’s get you inside and cleaned up.” He straightened up and I saw that his hair was a bit charred and he had a few burns on his arms and his neck. He smiled at me and I held out my hand. He grasped it and we walked inside the house.
I sat him down in one of our chairs and I got a fire started. I then handed him a cool, wet piece of cloth and handed it to him. He nodded his thanks to me and then started to wipe himself down with it as I walked down the hallway. I knocked on Amanda’s door and told her to get up. I then walked to Clarence’s room and yelled at him to wake up. He stumbled out of his room looking confused and I grinned.
“Mother wants you.”

Amanda walked gracefully out of her room and looked out the window to where the city was burning. Her eyebrows came together and she looked troubled, which was never a good look for her.
“What’s going on, Caroline? Is that the city? Is it on fire?”
“That is the city, it is on fire, and apparently the fire started in Pudding Lane. At least, that’s what Gavin said.”
“Gavin’s here?”
“Yeah, he was caught in some of the flames when he went to get something for his father. He ran to us to get away from the flames and we were the closest people that he knew that were away from the flames and the burning, falling buildings.” Amanda mouthed ah and then walked down the hallway towards where Gavin was.

I looked at Clarence, who was looking down the hallway after Amanda. He saw me looking at him and returned my stare. I shoved him in front of me and he started walking ahead. I looked back towards his room before walking after him.

Amanda had walked out of the house and Gavin was still sitting in the chair where I had left him. I smiled at him and gestured for Clarence to go see what Mother wanted. He shot me a look before walking out the door.
Gavin looked up at me as I walked up to him.

“How you feeling, Gavin?”

“As if someone set me on fire twice and then pounded me with a mallet,” he said sourly and then raised the cloth back up to his head. I grimaced, but I knew that his hostility wasn’t pointed at me. It was, more or less, pointed towards the fire and whoever had started it. “Sorry, I just don’t like this.”

“It’s fine,” I said, pulling up a chair next to his. He shot me a smile before raising the washcloth back up to his face. I grinned with half my mouth and watched the flames of our dying fire finally burn out.

The fire lasted for about four days. King Charles II did something about it that I had no idea what he was even doing. Something about putting up blockades to stop the fire from spreading any farther. I wasn’t listening when Gavin came back and told us about it.

Gavin stayed at our house for about five days because he was sick from breathing in some of the ashes that had been in the air. His family came to visit him on the fifth day and I heard enough of his father telling him he was very sorry and thanking Mother over and over and over and over. Mother finally told him to be quiet and go sit with his son.

Archer and Blaise had actually helped sent up the barricades when they needed to be set up and they both got jobs in the city as architects for the “amazing and creative” job they had done with the barricades. They were happy about it, even though they were going to miss the fields and me, Amanda and Mother.

Amanda had actually caught the eye of a wealthy merchant’s son and was whisked away to stay in the city with them. She had left right after Gavin left, traveling with them to the merchant’s son’s house. She promised that she would be back to tell us all about her fabulous new lifestyle and that she would bring back things that the goldsmith made for us.

I had also caught the eye of someone as well. Gavin started courting me only a few days after the fire. Every time that I went to the new marketplace (now that Amanda was gone, I was the one that had to get supplies), I had to wear Bradford’s daughter’s dress and Gavin would be waiting for me, just grinning from ear to ear as I walked up in my beautiful dress. He always held my hand and we would look up at the clouds. I always thought, Life could not get any better than this.

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