Forever Young Birth Of A Nation (34 page)

Celeste handed little Celine to Liri as she
followed Marie down to the kitchen at vampire speed, bounding down
to the landing in one leap, thinking
so I will be prescient as a
vampire also…and I may even see through other’s eyes what they
see!

***

Priscilla departed from the park, still
wondering at what she had just seen. Going over it in her mind
again, she thought
that woman was young, like me. And she did
not do anything really extremely unusual, but yet the way she was
so suddenly up on the back of that park bench, looking all around,
balanced up there so easily as if she was just standing on the
ground instead of the back edge of a park bench. And then suddenly
she was down, just as if it was nothing. What was that all about?
Are there vampires besides those of our coven here in New York
City?

Ian arrived in the outskirts of Boston and
stopped to put on his socks and boots. He appeared to be just
another frontiersman in town for a short while. The run from New
York City had been uneventful and he had taken many shortcuts
across rugged terrain, leaving well-traveled areas frequently. As
always he had relished the solitude of it, the running through the
woods at vampire speed, just being the creature that he was without
having to pretend that he was human.

Approaching Melissa’s cottage, he was
surprised to see the door open and James stepping out to greet him.
“Ian! By heaven man, it is good to see you” he said as the two gave
each other mighty bear hugs and hearty back slaps. Melissa came out
then and came to Ian, kissing him on his cheek “Hello, Ian.”

“Hello both of you. You are a sight for sore
eyes, let me tell you.”

“Well, come in and wash up. We were just
sitting down to eat some stew” said Melissa with a big smile.

James said “Yes, by all means do come in. I
want to hear all about what you have been doing.” The two friends
went in together, James’ arm about Ian’s shoulder as they went
through the door.

As he related the events of the fall and
winter, Ian could not help but notice how happy both James and
Melissa were. He mentioned that he had posted letters to all
parties in England, Scotland, and France before leaving New York
City and told James about how the bank building was now occupied by
British Troops. James had likewise posted two different letters to
Robert Milliken concerning his whereabouts and some information
about the war.

They spent a pleasant evening visiting and
Ian left them around eleven o’clock and spent a good part of the
night roaming about Boston, just getting a feeling for the place
and visiting a few taverns to soak up gossip about the war. The
talk was that Benedict Arnold had driven the British out of
Ridgefield Connecticut. Enlistments were up everywhere as a result
of Washington’s forces taking Trenton, New Jersey on the day after
Christmas and beating the Hessians in their own camp. There was a
general air of hopefulness regarding the outcome of the war,
although it was generally acknowledged that it would be several
years away. As Ian heard the bits and pieces of various events
being discussed about different tables in different taverns he
visited, he came to realize that the thing that had changed since
he had been in America was that not only was there a strong feeling
of resentment and outrage, but now those emotions had been joined
by hope.

It was believed that the British fleet was
completely occupied now with holding New York City and they had a
large fleet commitment in the general area offshore some distance
from Philadelphia too, but had not yet tried to seize the city.
Rumor had it that the British were eyeing Savannah which was a
large-scale exporter of cotton. From studying a map of the colonies
and territories, and his recollection of the exact size of their
fleet, it occurred to Ian that the British fleet had to have pulled
a lot of ships from somewhere to arrive in New York with four
hundred ships last year. He knew from scuttlebutt at the taverns in
the area there that the British had to keep a lot of ships there
simply for housing alone since one fourth of the city had burned
down. Pondering that for a while, he wrote three letters.

One was to Eduardo Vasquez, his former
father in law in Spain. Another was to Roberto Rodriguez, the
wealthy banker and close friend in Spain. The third one was a
letter to King Charles III in Spain, care of his daughter Theresa.
In those three letters he wrote just a general hello and he asked
as to their health, and in particular the health of the grandniece
of the King, whom he had saved from wasting disease. In each letter
he wrote of his suspicions that the British were now stretched thin
and that it might be possible for Spain to get Florida and Alabama
back from them, or to use that as a diversion for a real attack on
Gibraltar to finally drive the British from the southern tip of
Spain itself, long a Spanish sore point.

In all three letters he freely admitted that
he was helping the Americans in their fight for independence. These
letters were not encoded in any way and were guaranteed to put a
price on his head if they fell into the wrong hands. He would have
to be very careful of who he picked to carry them over the sea.
Writing another letter to his Mother, Aunt, and Uncle in Edinburg
he packaged it separately. Included in it was a note to Angus to
deliver a coded letter to Henri and Marie by any way feasible. In
that one, he asked that a family member arrange to be at the port
of Nantes to await the Spanish correspondence. That whole package
was sealed and addressed to Angus in Edinburg.

He would have to decide what to do and
whether or not to chance sending the three to Spain via the
Lafayette courier network. The problem was how to get it directly
to Henri not going through Robert Milliken. It would be asking too
much of Robert to pass along something as explosive as the three
letters to Spain, given his position in England. It was possible
that he might well end up burning them instead of sending them.
Finally he wrote two more general letters, one to all of his family
in France, care of Banque de Lafayette in Paris, and the other to
Robert Milliken and Margaret care of Edwards and Milliken Bank of
London. Those two and the package for Scotland would be sent to
Milliken in London by any ship he could find going that way.

The next day he headed for the harbor area
and spent three quarters of the day before finally finding a ship
which had just gotten in and had by luck eluded the British at sea,
coming through at night. The captain was one of the twelve that
Robert Milliken had recommended and Ian sent the three family-only
letters by him. Keeping the others he turned his steps toward
Faneuil Hall to see what else he could learn. He resolved to burn
the three Spanish letters that night if he could not solve the
problem of how to send them rather than to leave them sitting
around at the tenant house he was still renting.

Upon entering the place, he walked to the
bulletin area to look at recent postings. He spent a half hour
there reading bits of news and speculation before getting a tankard
of ale and a table near a window.

For some reason unknown to him he had been
thinking a lot recently about Cosette. The day before in Central
Commons Park he had had the strongest thoughts of her ever while
walking away from the bench where he had been reading the New York
Gazette. It was uncommonly strong, the remembrance of her and he
keenly felt his grief anew at the recollection. He had to admit
that for the most part, he had been so busy in the New World that
he had not had time to grieve for his loss of Alandra. That was one
aspect of his coming to America that he had been correct about, but
this thing with Cosette had been growing of late, and yesterday
moved it out of the realm of his unconscious to his conscious
thoughts. He was puzzling over it when a hand fell on his shoulder
and a familiar voice sounded in his ear “Ian McCloud! By heaven it
is good to see you man!”

Turning he saw Paul Revere the silversmith
standing with a surprised smile on his face. Standing, Ian extended
his hand saying “Hello, Paul. It is good to see you too. Pull up a
chair if you have the time.”

Sitting then, the two exchanged news and
Revere was quite interested to hear what Ian had been doing while
he was gone. Ian caught him up on events beginning with taking Moon
Owl home and right up through his recent visit to New York and
everything in between. Revere had news about the war in the south
and how the redcoats had stirred up the Cherokee Indians to fight
for them and to attack settlers and farmers in North and South
Carolina. This had stirred up massive outrage among the people down
there and hatred for both the British and the loyalists. The
loyalists who furnished information to the British regarding who
was known to be on the side of the rebels were becoming as hated as
the British Army itself by now, being that many deaths and home
burnings were due to their activities.

Ian mentioned that he wanted to get some
correspondence to France and was afraid to try for fear of it being
intercepted. He divulged the gist of what he had proposed and
Revere’s eyes widened as he said “You have met the King of Spain,
Ian?”

“Well, yes. I was married to the daughter of
their ambassador to France, Eduardo Vasquez before she died in a
carriage accident. I know another influential man there too who is
a banker.”

“You did business there then?”

“Well, yes. I am a senior officer of Banque
de Lafayette and a close friend of mine entertained the royal
families of Spain, France, and England. That was when I met Charles
III of Spain. He is a really nice fellow, a lot warmer than either
King Louis or King George.”

Revere was suitably impressed to hear the
three most well-known monarchs in the world described on a personal
level. He seemed lost in thought for a bit, and then he said “You
know, Hancock might be able to help in this thing. He knows more
shippers than anyone else in the colonies and he knows who is not
friendly to the British Monarchy in particular.” Lowering his voice
he leaned toward Ian and continued, saying “It is suspected by some
that Mr. Hancock has had his hand in smuggling for a number of
years, ever since relations with the British have deteriorated. If
so, he has made a pile of money because he is quite wealthy and
travels about often with a company of bodyguards.”

Ian thought a while and then said “I never
thought of it, but of course we had to have safe passage arranged
for Ben Franklin in order to get him to France. I should have
realized that someone in America would know how to get a message to
France.”

“I am telling you that Hancock is the man
you need, and I will be sure to tell him about this.”

“You remember my companion James?”

“Yes. He was with a girl, Melissa,
right?”

“Yes. I will leave my letters with him and
he can give them to Hancock if he shows up while I am gone.”

“You just got to Boston. Where are you off
to now, Ian?”

“I am going to the land of the Seneca to see
Monique; you know, Moon Owl.”

“Ah, yes; delightful lady, just a pleasure
to be around. When do you leave then?”

“Well, I will be buying some things I
promised her for the cabin we built her and then I will be off;
maybe a matter of a day or two. I will leave you their address and
if Hancock can help, then James will give him the letters. They
must be taken to the port of Nantes where I will have a special
courier waiting daily beginning in, uhmm, say two months from
today. I really think that Spain might well enter the war on our
side given the right encouragement. Who knows but that hearing from
someone who the King has met personally might tip the scales in our
favor?”

***

Captain Jonathan Siebert looked up adoringly
at Yvonne as she dressed; clasping his hands behind his head and
saying “Do you have to go already? I mean, Grundy will be at that
tavern until they toss him out. He has become quite the drinker
since his run of bad luck and all.”

“Oh, Johnny, I did promise Stefan that I
would get this information for him as soon as I was able. I do hate
to miss my chance tonight. Look at it like this; if I take care of
it tonight, I can spend more time with you next time.”

“What about Stefan?”

“What about him” she said, coming to the bed
while bending down to give him a kiss, and then saying “What he
does not know won’t hurt him. He has his thing to pursue and I have
you.”

Reaching up to caress her breast he said
“You surely do, Yvonne. Never have I met a woman like you.”

Laughing playfully as she pulled away she
said “Save your strength for next time, lover. You will need it.”
Giving him one last smile, she left the rented room at the Inn,
closing the door softly behind herself.

***

Lieutenant Harold Grundy sat morosely at New
York City’s Red Eye Tavern and Inn, having his third drink of the
evening. About that time, a rowdy group struck up a ditty and began
to sing it. At first Grundy just sat there sipping his ale but then
the words got through the mild alcohol-induced fog and he realized
that the song was about the day he and Ian McCloud fought a duel at
Grover Park.

As the song came to a loud conclusion, he
seethed with rage. He had just pushed back his chair to get up,
deciding to walk over to the group and see who would stand up and
fight him since they all thought the song was so funny. About then
he felt a light touch on his arm and a sultry voice said “Let it
be, Colonel Grundy. We have matter too important to discuss to wait
on you brawling with some drunken sailors.”

Turning around he saw an exotic looking
red-haired beauty staring at him with the most intriguing green
eyes he had ever seen. Dumfounded, he stared at her as she said
“Aren’t you going to ask me to sit down? I see a dozen men right
now who want me to join them at their tables.”