The True Heroine

More detailing about how she deals with the death of her mom and with the new baby would definitely enhance this story.
Great start 1

August 182

My name is Lola. I am not a rich girl, or a beautiful girl, just the daughter of a poor farmer. My father is a hard-working man. I'm sure that he loves us, (my mother, my siblings and I) but he spends all day working in the fields and when he comes home he is too tired to do anything but eat his supper. 3

My mother is a hard working woman as well. She is a beauty too. I wish I inherited her looks, but I didn't. 4

It is rumoured in the village that my mother was once from a wealthy family. She had suitors from far and wide come to beg for her hand in marriage. But my father was just the poor farmer who helped work the land.
One day, when my mother was out riding, she fell off her horse and my father found her. He had never seen her up close before, but as soon as he saw her, he fell in love with her. He had been watching her for some time. My mother's beauty was known far and wide and my father had been curious to see whether the rumours were really true. He took her to his little cottage where she lay till she was strong enough. When she opened her eyes, his was the first face that she saw. She fell in love with him too. He may have just been a poor farmer, but he was no ugly duckling himself. Most of the girls in his village had all asked him to walk them home on more than one occasion. My mother thought he looked kind and gentle. She reached up to touch my father's face and then...her father burst into the hut. They had been searching for her for a day and when he found her in such a compromising position, he was furious. He threw my father off his land and locked my mother up until they were sure she wasn't pregnant. When she was finally allowed out, she was thin and pale and would see no suitors. She looked like a ghost.5

Finally, when no one was looking, my mother managed to slip away and find my father who had been living in the village, hoping for a glimpse of her. Together, they ran away and had my brother, John.6

Now, we all live together on our little farm. Of course, most of that story is purely from my imagiation and what I heard from some of the gossips in the village. There could be nothing more romantic about my parents' marriage then my grandfather choosing my father out of a line of men and telling him to marry my mother. And there could be nothing myseterious about my mother besides the fact she came from the next village over.7

Anyway, my brother Andrew is the one whom I am closest too. He is a year older than me and my best friend. When we were younger, he always stopped the bigger boys from bullying me. 8

The twins come next. We wouldn't be able to tell them apart if one wasn't a girl and the other a boy. There is Polly and Peter. They both have auburn hair and green eyes. They are always up to something and can seem to communicate without talking. It scares me sometimes, but I do love them and they don't make me feel uncomfortable on purpose.9

That is my family, although Mama is pregnant and going to have a baby soon. It should be in a week or so. I can't wait!10

August 2511

My mother is dead. I can't believe it. It's amazing how much things can change in a week. I now have a baby sister but no mother. She's so beautiful, and cute and...perfect! I'm not sure I should have had to give up one to have the other. Papa is distraught and won't get out of bed. The baby (who I have named Grace) cries every night. I've managed to get her to drink out of a bottle with milk from the cow inside. It's up to John and me now. He has to run the farm. I have to be a mother.