010. Years - Prompt Table for The Crucible on fanfic100
It only took four years from the time John died to the time when she married again. For one of those years Elizabeth was still in jail. John, her first husband, who had lived his last moments as the greatest person Elizabeth would ever meet was hanged on the 19th sunrise of August, 1962, a date which would never leave her mind. He would be one of the only three to be eventually written a reversing attainder - only he, Rebecca Nurse and she, Elizabeth Proctor would ever receive one even though so many great others had lost their lives too, people like Giles Corey... It was 11 years too late, but still, it meant a lot when it was finally handed down. His sons liked to look upon it when they were all old enough to understand and once they had risen above the scorn they had once laid on it.
She gave birth to her next son, whom she named John after his father on the 17th of January, 1963 while she was still in prison, awaiting her own death with those who had been accused or who had given themselves in for a lie.
The waiting seemed to be for nothing though, when she was eventually freed along with 152 others who were still alive and waiting alongside her. That was in May of the same year.
She was finally free, although now only known as a 'dead woman' simply because legally, she no longer existed. She couldn't regain her dowry or the possessions or the land Proctor and therefore she had once owned even though it was now basically widely accepted that innocent people had been wrongly convicted. Neither the Government nor the Church would ever easily admit they were wrong, and Elizabeth felt foolish for ever hoping such a thing could happen.
The rest of her time she spent trying to raise the children who thought her long gone, just like their father. It took a while to heal what they had gone without and also to help them come to terms with what had happened. Rebecca Nurse, Mary Warren… the faces they had grown up knowing were now gone. She left the small town of Salam for everything was at loss after so many years of houses and farms being left to ruin and, with her children, made a new life for them elsewhere.
A man named Daniel Richards then came into her life. They met and were then married in Lynn, Massachusetts. He was a strong man, just like John but so different in every other way. He took her into his arms, as well as the children she had bore to John and the son he had to his first wife. He welcomed them all. He was kind, softly spoken, and intelligent but also commanded the attention of everyone with only a few simple words, however quiet. There were flowers in the house almost every day and fresh bread too, for Elizabeth had learned long ago that such things counted. Never again would she keep a cold house for she never knew when their time together could come to an end. Never again - not ever. That was the most important lesson she taught her children and she repeated it over and over to young Sarah in particular. Love while you can, even when hope and trust were lost, for in the end it is the most important thing in the world. Elizabeth only wished she had known that in her younger days or that John, who had known, had taught her that.
She gave birth to her next son, whom she named John after his father on the 17th of January, 1963 while she was still in prison, awaiting her own death with those who had been accused or who had given themselves in for a lie.
The waiting seemed to be for nothing though, when she was eventually freed along with 152 others who were still alive and waiting alongside her. That was in May of the same year.
She was finally free, although now only known as a 'dead woman' simply because legally, she no longer existed. She couldn't regain her dowry or the possessions or the land Proctor and therefore she had once owned even though it was now basically widely accepted that innocent people had been wrongly convicted. Neither the Government nor the Church would ever easily admit they were wrong, and Elizabeth felt foolish for ever hoping such a thing could happen.
The rest of her time she spent trying to raise the children who thought her long gone, just like their father. It took a while to heal what they had gone without and also to help them come to terms with what had happened. Rebecca Nurse, Mary Warren… the faces they had grown up knowing were now gone. She left the small town of Salam for everything was at loss after so many years of houses and farms being left to ruin and, with her children, made a new life for them elsewhere.
A man named Daniel Richards then came into her life. They met and were then married in Lynn, Massachusetts. He was a strong man, just like John but so different in every other way. He took her into his arms, as well as the children she had bore to John and the son he had to his first wife. He welcomed them all. He was kind, softly spoken, and intelligent but also commanded the attention of everyone with only a few simple words, however quiet. There were flowers in the house almost every day and fresh bread too, for Elizabeth had learned long ago that such things counted. Never again would she keep a cold house for she never knew when their time together could come to an end. Never again - not ever. That was the most important lesson she taught her children and she repeated it over and over to young Sarah in particular. Love while you can, even when hope and trust were lost, for in the end it is the most important thing in the world. Elizabeth only wished she had known that in her younger days or that John, who had known, had taught her that.