Forever Young Birth Of A Nation (30 page)

About then Melissa came to Revere with a
hand held mirror and James asked him to wrap it. Asking about the
wall mirrors while he paid Revere, he was given a price on them.
Revere continued to talk to Ian, but included the other two also,
speculating on the British and how they might attack New York City.
James stepped away and came back holding a wall mirror and said
“Wrap this too, Paul. We want it, don’t we Melissa?

She turned wide-eyed, putting a hand over
her mouth and saying “Oh James! Really?”

“Really.”

Ian laughed then and turning to Revere he
said “We had better get out of here before James spends all of his
money.”

Revere laughed in turn saying “What is your
hurry? I have a tea set that I just know Miss Willocks would
love.”

James said “Oh I am sure of that! Especially
as popular as British tea is in Boston” as everyone laughed
together.

Opting to pick up the wall mirror later, the
trio departed from Revere’s shop and as they walked, Ian said “I am
of a mind to go to New York. It may be that I can be of help to the
Continental Army there.”

“When are we leaving then?” The question had
a double meaning as James wondered if Ian needed his help or if he
could stay with Melissa. She looked anxiously at Ian, as if she
sensed that he was the leader in things of this nature even though
she had never been told that. She just seemed to know it.

“I will go alone. You two have been apart
too long for you to run off with me somewhere, James. You remember
the carpenter in Hoboken?”

“Yes.”

“I will leave word with him if I settle
anywhere around New York for a while. If not him, then I will leave
word with Bessie at the boarding house.”

Why not just stay at the bank?”

“I am certain that the British are going to
invade New York City. There will be no banking business done down
there.”

“Why not just tell Rebecca or Laura where
you are staying?”

“There may yet be someone watching them.
Best not to cause them get dragged into anything. Grundy may have
friends who are helping him.” He did not have to add that it was
best to stay away from Rebecca now that he was so attached to Moon
Owl.

They said their goodbyes then and Ian turned
to go to the tenant house where they had all stayed the past
winter. He had paid the lease up until the end of this year and
used the place only for storage of his things and for an address
when in Boston.

Within the hour, a tall frontiersman left
the tenant house and began to trot toward the south, a long rifle
slung over his shoulder and a packed ruck sack on his shoulders. At
nightfall, he stopped briefly to remove his boots and socks and
soon he was rocketing through the night to the southwest.

Some five hours later he saw many campfires
in the distance. Certain that it was the Continental Army he
approached warily nonetheless. Hailing a sentry long before he was
seen, Ian asked to see Henry Knox. He was waved on and came to a
tall wooden stockade. Another sentry inside challenged him and he
gave his name and that of Henry Knox.

Within a quarter of an hour he had been
taken into the stockade and to a large tent and as he approached it
Henry came out. Seeing Ian he bellowed “Ian McCloud! Come here
man!” Ian walked to him grinning, and the two gave each other
strong bear hugs, slapping each other on the back grinning.
Stepping back then Ian exclaimed “Why sir, you have gotten a
promotion!”

“So I have, Ian. I am now General Henry
Knox!”

“Well sir, they are lucky to have you. Can I
help in any way?”

“Just rest here tonight with us. We’ll catch
up on things.” He poured himself a glass of brandy after offering
one to Ian and said “I am having a meeting soon with several
officers. Say, I heard a funny story about a British payroll ship
that was robbed in Boston Harbor. They were saying that some
fourteen thousand pounds sterling was stolen by some patriots.”

“It was eleven thousand four hundred sixty
pounds.”

“You seem to know the exact amount,
Ian.”

Ian rolled his eyes skyward and said
nothing.

Laughing now Knox said “Oh my! I would wager
that old King George’s spectacles were covered with steam after he
read that dispatch!” He laughed again for a good while and produced
a handkerchief to mop his brow then.

Ian laughed with him and then said “I would
like to go down to Staten Island and look around. I will report
back by daybreak.”

Looking surprised Knox nodded, saying “Very
well. We can always use the latest intelligence. The British fleet
has been landing troops there for several weeks but there is really
getting to be more traffic to the place now. I should still be here
when you get back. Be careful now.”

Standing up then, Ian took his leave.
Rocketing southward past Hoboken and Newark, he came to where he
would have to swim to Staten Island around an hour later. He was
across in minutes, and after swimming ashore and slipping past
sentries, he ran full out to dry his clothing. Within an hour, he
had stolen and donned a tall lieutenant’s uniform, and was walking
through the rows and rows of tents for several hours. He estimated
that there were some twenty four thousand British regulars and
marines and around nine thousand Hessians too. Staying well away
from sentries he nonetheless was able to make a count of the ships
and came to a staggering number of around four hundred. His keen
vampire eyes easily marked the men of war and numbered them at near
to seventy. Slipping into a tent, he stole a Hessian sword from a
sleeping officer and soon was swimming across to New Jersey. He
rolled up the wet British Uniform and the Hessian saber with it and
stuffing that all into his ruck sack, he donned his wet clothing
and rocketed north to Knox’s location. It was just after sunup that
he came into the fort, hailing the sentries and waiting for an
escort to see Knox.

In minutes he was sitting across from
General Knox. He was introduced to three of Henry’s subordinates,
all Colonels. The next half hour he gave as detailed a report of
what he had seen as possible. One of the Colonels took down the
details and at the end, one of them said “Those are higher
estimates than what we have, Mr. McCloud.”

Ian stood up and walked to the door of the
tent and retrieved his ruck sack. Taking out the British
Lieutenant’s uniform and the Hessian saber, he said “Did any of
your spies bring back anything like this, sir?” The four men gaped
at him unbelievingly, and Henry said “My God Ian! You stole those
last night from that camp?”

Ian smiled and said “Well sir, It was not as
hard as you might think. After all, they were not using them at the
time.”

“Is everyone ready now, Stefan?”

“Yes. Let’s get going. The soldiers are
everywhere and we have only two hours until sunrise.” The American
forces had been pouring in from the north, coming across the East
River from Manhattan via Kingsbridge and by boats too. They had
made two fortified sites nearer to the harbor than the property
that Yvonne had leased. Several days earlier while on a hunting
excursion they chanced on a British encampment to the south of
their home, nearer The Narrows across from Staten Island. They were
establishing a beachhead and daily the numbers of British
increased, but not in staggering numbers. Today was different as
several thousand came ashore.

Fearing an attack on the American forces
immediately to their north with them caught in the middle, Yvonne
and Stefan knew that they must get their coven to safety. They had
to move at night for fear of being stopped and questioned by
British regulars or bands of Tory Loyalists who had turned out to
welcome the British.

Yvonne had found two different barns that
were not in use, the cattle having been sold for slaughtering to
feed the British Army. They were to the northeast some twelve miles
and far enough away from the American fortifications to be out of
the battle area.

Within some thirty minutes the ten vampires
had rocketed to the site and after Stefan reconnoitered the area,
they were waved into the barn. The farmhouse nearby might have been
vacant that night as no light was seen to be burning. Speaking to
the eight new members of her coven, Yvonne said “We stay here all
day, out of sight. We hunt to the east of here, further from the
battle zone. We will wait this out until it is resolved one way or
another. Eventually we can return to our place. Is that
understood?”

The others answered her one by one, some
saying yes and some only nodding. Priscilla only stared at Yvonne,
saying nothing. She
thought look at what my life has become. I
am now a creature of darkness, feeding on other creatures forever.
Would to God that I had never been in that place when Stefan found
me.

***

Ian accompanied Henry Knox and his officer
to Manhattan, to Washington’s headquarters on Broadway Street. Ian
mainly loitered about outside, trying to take in the atmosphere and
the expectations of people he would see. While Ian was gone the
small British presence in New York City itself had evacuated as
Washington’s army approached. He had volunteered to take any
communications to any place at any time, but specified that he had
to work alone. He put it to Henry that there were no men in the
Continental Army who could keep up with him and that they would be
a liability and slow him down.

Knox did not blink at that, believing it
whole-heartedly after seeing what a fine hunter and scout he had
been in the back country of New York that past winter. So Ian
carried messages back and forth from Washington’s headquarters in
New York for some four days. On August 27
^th
, Washington
departed from Manhattan to the area near Brooklyn Heights on Long
Island. He was convinced that only a partial force of the British
was pulling a feint and the rest would attack Manhattan after
Washington responded to the attack on Long Island, so he had
gambled and split his forces.

From the estimated numbers he heard, Ian
feared that the British might go inland somewhat on Long Island and
flank the Continental Army, surrounding it instead of attacking
Manhattan. They would keep their entire force intact and possibly
capture half of Washington’s army including maybe him too. He
voiced that to Henry once before they all departed to Long Island
that day.

***

Two days later by evening it was apparent
that there was indeed a large force of British working to flank
them and Ian feared it could not be repelled considering the
numbers he had seen at Staten Island a few nights earlier.

It had begun to rain off and on and nearly
all of the forces of the Continental Army on Long Island were now
at Brooklyn Heights. Washington had an aide dispatch Ian to alert a
General William Heath to have a Colonel John Glover to be ready to
transport Artillery from New Jersey to Brooklyn Heights for support
there.

After giving Heath the message, Ian added
“If there are no artillery reinforcements, I would not delay
returning here. We may need to evacuate back to Manhattan. I am
pretty sure that we will be surrounded soon enough.”

Not accustomed to a messenger having an
opinion at all, Heath looked keenly at Ian and said “Why do you say
that, son?”

“Sir, I saw the size of their force on
Staten Island. It is above thirty thousand, maybe nearer to thirty
five thousand counting Hessians. If they have not attacked
Manhattan by now, where are they? With that many coming from only
one direction, it seems to me we would be overrun by now. I think
they are circling to the east and flanking us with a large
force.”

Heath looked keenly at him, nodded and
dismissed him. Ian left then, and resolved to begin looking for
anything that would float. With his own eyes he had seen the size
of the forces the British had at Staten Island. They were either
going to invade Manhattan, or they were surrounding Washington’s
forces even now. He figured that he could not go wrong getting all
of the boats he could find along the riverfront and getting them
back downstream to Brooklyn Heights.

Washington had ordered some broken down
hulks sunk in the lower East River to create a navigation hazard
and deny the Royal Navy access to it. That had been a good idea in
Ian’s estimation and he worked throughout the day simply untying
boats wherever he found them and adding them to a string he was
putting together. He brought seven of them to shore not far from
Brooklyn Heights on the only ground that the Continental Army still
held and he gave charge of them to a young lieutenant there, saying
that he was going to keep bringing them in case they were needed.
As the day wore on, he had begun to get a feeling of foreboding
about the nine thousand men trapped at Brooklyn Heights and he
again brought a string of five more boats.

***

The Millhouses, Rebecca, Stuart, and Cosette
all watched across the east river, seeing the smoke of battle and
hearing the boom of cannon near Brooklyn. The rattle of musketry
came now and then as the fickle winds would bring it. From that
distance, no details could be seen, yet those who had come to the
knoll near the shore could not take their eyes from the source of
the sounds. All watched as if at some point, they would suddenly be
able to see something.

Stuart spoke then, saying “Does anyone know
why the British are not trying to bombard Washington’s forces from
this river?”

Thelma spoke then and said “Washington
ordered some hulks sunk at the mouth of the river maybe a mile
south of here. The Royal Navy likely can’t get past them.”

“They have enough of a navy here to have
removed them by now with barges and derricks.”

“There are cannon here, Stuart.”