Forever Young Birth Of A Nation (35 page)

Nodding, he sat again as she put her tankard
of ale on the table and pulled up a chair.

‘Who are you?”

“Someone who has something you want.”

He insolently let his eyes roam all about
her body then, not even trying to mask his lust. She merely laughed
then, saying “not that, Harold; or at least not yet.”

“Then what?”

“A way to repay Ian McCloud for what he did
to you.”

He sat still then, staring at her as the
rowdy group started to sing another ditty and the sounds of a
lively and busy tavern surrounded the two. Then he said “You have
my undivided attention.”

Having left the package of the three letters
to Spain with James and warning him to hide them extremely well, he
had bought some things that he had promised Moon Owl and had bought
a pack horse and a saddle horse. Both animals were unshod, Ian
having that done several days before departing. He had been
traveling for some three weeks now and had made it to the land of
the Seneca, having never seen a single soul since leaving the
farmlands just west of Boston. The trip west through the Mohawk
River valley was as picturesque as he remembered.

If the Mohawks had seen him, they never got
close enough for him to know it. He came to the last small ridge
that separated him from the Seneca village and paused there to give
the villagers time to know that someone approached. His vampire
hearing made him aware of stealthy footfalls all about him so he
lifted his voice and said “Do my brothers the Seneca hide from
me?”

“I hear the sound of one who I know” said a
voice from the forest. “It is the voice of Ian, the Night Stalker.”
Stepping into view was none other than Tall Elk, a smile splitting
his face. Ian kicked back both feet at once in an eye-blurring
motion as he leaned forward, resulting in him instantly being in a
handstand on his horse’s back and then bending at the waist, he
gracefully dropped to the ground beside the horse like a cat, a
dazzling smile on his face. “Tall Elk looks like he is younger than
when I was here last. I wonder if he has been dancing to the music
from my singing box while I was gone.”

Laughing then Tall Elk approached and
extended his hand and each man grasped the other’s forearm in a
traditional tribal greeting.

“It is good to see you, Night Stalker.”

“It is good to see you, my brother and it is
good to stand breathing in the land of the Seneca, where the air is
sweeter. You have been well?”

“I have, and so has Moon Owl.”

Touching his chest Ian said “That speaks to
my heart, Tall Elk.”

“Come. We will smoke a pipe and celebrate
your return. Did you see Mohawks coming here?”

“Not a one.”

Laughing then Tall Elk said “We caught a
young Mohawk brave who had blundered into our land and he never
offered a fight at all. He said he knew that the land of the Seneca
was where the glowing eyes lived now and he was afraid of
them.”

“What did you do then?”

“We told him that we would let him go in
peace and promised that we would not tell the glowing eyes he had
trespassed if he would first do a dance to honor the glowing
eyes.”

Turning to Tall Elk Ian threw back his head
and laughed heartily, shaking his head and then he asked “Did he
really do a dance then for you?”

“No. He did a dance for you, Night
Stalker.”

Laughing once again, Ian said “I would have
loved to have seen that.”

About then he became aware of a group of
people ahead and saw the villagers approaching with curious looks
and some smiles. Suddenly Ian saw a commotion back in the ranks as
Moon Owl forced her way to the forefront. She broke into a run,
laughing as she threw herself into his arms, kissing him all over
as he whirled around, lifting her like she was a child and laughing
merrily.

“Ah lass, how I have missed you!”

“Oh, Ian! It has been too long!”

“It has lass, it has” he said as he picked
her up and carried her in his arms as if she was a twig. “I have
brought some things that you want.”

Kissing him almost non-stop she said with a
laugh “You have brought yourself and that is what I want most!”

He bent to whisper in her ear as he carried
her along, saying “Then I hope you are well rested because I have
thought of nothing but you for three weeks.”

***

The courier hastened to the private entrance
of Banque de Lafayette in Paris, carrying a pouch that was reserved
for only the most urgent correspondence. After being screened by an
Adept vampire at that post, he was allowed into the rear room of
the bank that was the nerve center of the Lafayette courier system.
Handing it over to another Adept vampire, the courier went to take
nourishment and wait for any return correspondence to take back to
England. Himself an Adept vampire, the courier was one of only a
very small number of special express couriers employed by Henri
Lafayette

To be sure, Henri would share his special
express services with other well-connected Adepts throughout Europe
if asked, and especially those who like him were judges on the
Supreme Council. Favors were usually granted, no questions asked
with the unspoken understanding that those favors would be returned
with no questions asked. So very shortly it was deemed urgent
enough that another Adept vampire would carry it himself to Henri.
For reasons that the Adept vampires in Henri’s employ did not yet
know, Henri had been using a young female Adept to maintain
constant contact with his communications hub and who knew where
Henri was at any given time, day or night. All of them knew that
something was afoot, but they knew better than to ask. When it was
time to bring them in on it, they knew that they would be told what
it was that was so urgent. Never in their memory could any of them
recall such a flurry of high-urgency messages to and from the
Lafayettes.

Jennifer Amsler was honored and pleased
beyond her ability to express it at having such a pivotal role to
play in the vital communications. She was the end courier who
maintained contact with Henri at all times and she alone among that
network knew that Henri Lafayette and Harold Laforge was one and
the same person. So it was that Jennifer was the constant
communication link to Henri and so it was that she found herself
taking a most urgent communique to him that day.

As she hurried to deliver the message, she
thought
how strange and how wonderful my life has become. Not
four years ago I was a tavern wench in London and now I am a
trusted member of the Lafayette inner circl
e. Today she did not
wear a disguise as she sometimes did. Most of the time she appeared
to be an older lady when she delivered a message, but sometimes she
would be disguised as a young man for a few days at a time. The
disguises were adopted by them, knowing that they were being
watched by an investigator from London.

Today that investigator had been given the
slip and she needed no disguise, so she quickly went to the Inn
near the village of Passy where Henri sat in conversation with an
elderly gentleman that day. Henri was in his disguise today as
Harold Laforge and as she approached, that gentleman looked up and
smiled, saying “Good morning Miss Anjolie.”

“Good morning, Doctor Franklin. I hate to
interrupt your meal, but I have an urgent communique for Monsieur
Laforge. Good morning, Monsieur Laforge” she said as she handed the
pouch to Henri.

“Please excuse me, Benjamin. I promise you
that this will be brief” Henri said as he opened the pouch and read
the contents.

Henri,

Both Moreau and Edwards have vanished
overnight. Suspect they are enroute to France to pre-arranged
meeting with their investigator.

Robert

Looking up at Jennifer, Henri said “Please
wait for me outside Miss Anjolie.”

“Dr. Franklin, I do apologize for that
interruption, but I have nothing new to add right now anyway. So if
you have nothing else, may I take my leave sir?”

“Indeed Henri. And thank you for keeping me
informed of what the ministers in your government are saying about
our struggle in America. We are grateful for your help, sir. And I
would like a chance to avenge myself of you at chess when you can
arrange it.”

Smiling affably Henri nodded and said “Done
then. I look forward to it sir.”

“Before you go sir, however did you ever get
so many contacts in government and such a beautiful assistant
too?”

“Now Ben, you know perfectly well that a
wise man once wrote
‘A small leak can sink a great
ship’.”

Throwing back his head in an
uncharacteristic manner, Franklin laughed heartily saying “Nothing
stings like having one’s own words used to thwart them!”

“I read
‘Poor Richard’s Almanac’
Benjamin, and I was impressed enough to memorize it” said Henri as
he donned his hat with a congenial smile, saying “Until next time
then, monsieur. Bon jour.”

“Bon jour, Henri.”

Outside he joined Jennifer, who had been
casually appearing to read a newspaper while in reality scanning
everywhere to detect anyone who might have been following them. She
looked at him questioningly as he beckoned to his driver. Turning
to her he said “Moreau and Edwards are on their way here, or are
here already. I need to get out of this disguise and send an
encoded message to the family in Zurich.”

“Celeste should be through with her
imprinting
by now. I wonder how it went for her.”

“We will hear soon enough. But at least we
know that her gift came through intact. That was wonderful to hear,
was it not?”

“It was. Do you think the Americans did well
sending an older man here to get support for their cause?”

“I think they sent the smartest, shrewdest
man in America to do the most important job ever. His success or
failure will determine the outcome of this war according to
Ian.”

Ian had brought a box of good quality
hunting knives as gifts for the braves and had brought a box of
hair brushes for the women of the tribe. Included among the gifts
was a really extra-large packet of fresh tobacco which was well
received.

As he worked with Moon Owl installing a
window she said “I think that Tall Elk feels awkward receiving so
many fine gifts from you.”

“Nonsense. Be sure to tell him that among my
people, I am a rich man. They have given a gift of great honor in
adopting me. And besides that, I have the love of the prettiest of
all the women of the Seneca.” Pulling her to him closely he kissed
her tenderly and said “What more could I want?”

“Mmmm…what I want is for the sun to hurry
and go down so we can lie together again” she said with a saucy
smile.

Pulling back a bit from her he looked at her
in mock seriousness as he said “Why Moon Owl! Shame on you! You
kept me busy half of the night and I was already worn out from
traveling”

“Hah! If you were so worn out how could you
have done what you did? Mmmm! The memory still warms me!”

“Why Moon Owl, listen to you! Hush now lest
your people hear you talking that way.” Both of them laughed then
and he said “No one said we have to eat lunch here today.”

“Then what is keeping us here, love? These
windows will still be here when we return” she said with an impish
laugh.

Within a half hour the two were some eight
miles from the village at a small waterfall of some fifteen feet
height. They made love then slowly, relishing every moment and
taking all of the time to explore every feeling of wonderment. Moon
Owl wept tears of joy afterward as she held Ian’s hand to her lips,
saying “My heart sings when we are together like this. I am
complete with you.”

“Moon Owl, I am so happy now, that sometimes
I can scarcely believe that such bad things have happened in my
life.” She dozed off then as he held her close, and he drank in the
beauty of the setting, the sound of the waterfall, and the clean
smell of her hair as he held her.

Later when they had eaten, Ian took a good
look around the area and said “I am going to make a rope swing
here. We will bring strips of rawhide and I will weave a rope to
place in that tree there” he said, pointing to a great sycamore
with a trunk some eight feet thick. He stood then and stripped off
his clothes and bounded to three rocks and at the base of the falls
he bounded to the top. Turning around, he dove off, doing a double
somersault. Surfacing he beckoned to Moon Owl who said “I cannot
swim, Ian.”

Laughing he came ashore in a bound and
proceeded to undress her. Then he gathered her in his arms and
kissed her, and taking the same path they were atop the falls in
four bounds. He walked upstream then, carrying her some sixty feet
to a sunny place where a creek entered the river. There was a
relatively calm backwater of some four feet depth and some thirty
feet across just back from the junction of the two streams and the
water was not nearly as cold there. Standing her in the water he
kissed her gently and began to teach her how to float first on her
back and then on her stomach, holding her breath. After some two
hours she could swim well enough to come to him across the small
pool.

She swam up to him and put her feet down,
drawing near as he put his arms around her and kissed her gently.
“You are doing well. That is really all there is to it. Now let us
teach you to dive off of the falls” he said with a laugh as he
picked her up and bounded out into the river and toward the edge,
leaping from rock to rock. She shrieked with laughter and said “Oh
Ian! No…no…” She screamed all of the way down as he shouted “hold
your breath!” and when they came up she said “Oh it is so
cold!”

Gathering her into his arms and rolling onto
his back he swam rapidly to near the shore and then turning while
still holding her he bounded out of the water, wrapping her in a
blanket and drying her in the sunshine. He pulled her to him then
and began to kiss and caress her. They made love then, a bit more
urgently than before.