Forever Young Birth Of A Nation (41 page)

“That is what I was trying to say. It was as
if she kept asking if she might see this and if she might see
that.”

“Exactly. The whole experience was
beautiful, Li. I really did not want her to leave my mind. She is
like an angel of some kind, a miracle child. I was at peace when
she came…..I don’t know what….maybe knocking on the door to my
consciousness? And I was at peace when she departed.”

“Yes. That is the way to describe it best.
She is a living miracle.”

It was dusk as an officer of the Continental
Army stopped at the checkpoint leading to General Washington’s
tent. After a brief password exchange the officer parted the flap
and entered the tent, standing at attention saying “Colonel Butler
reporting, sir.”

Washington glanced up as he folded a
document and put it into his breast pocket. “At ease, Colonel. What
have you to tell me about New Windsor?”

“It was full of Tories and they had indeed
been recruiting local Indians to wage war on our people, sir;
Tuscarora I think. I burnt the place down and those who escaped are
scattered.”

Washington nodded, satisfied and said “That
was a scurvy business, shameful really that those Tories could do
such things to their fellow countrymen. Well done, Colonel Butler.
That will be all unless you have something to add.”

“Well, I do sir. It might be that area would
be a good place for us to use as a post from time to time, being
maybe twenty miles or so north of West Point. The British will
investigate it at some point and will dismiss it as being worthless
being destroyed and abandoned. What better place to locate a post
that we can use now and then?”

“So we do not build it up or anything that
would cause Tory spies to report it, but we just use it from time
to time? I like the idea. Anything else?”

“No Sir.”

“Very well Colonel. Dismissed.”

“Good evening sir” said Butler as he saluted
smartly and departed. Washington followed him out through the
entrance of his tent only to see a friend approaching. He called to
the guards to pass him through and asked them to expand the
perimeter around his tent, moving them further away from it.

Shaking hands with the man, he said “Please
be seated Ben. I will return shortly” as he gestured toward a chair
in his tent. He went to the door and walked around his tent once,
checking to see that his hand-picked guards were stationed all
around it, some thirty feet distant. He called to each by name and
nodded as they turned and saluted. To each one he said “Maintain
this perimeter. Lives depend on you now.”

Rejoining Tallmadge, he seated himself and
pulled a document from his pocket, spreading it on the table
between the two of them.

“What is this General Washington?”

“Lower your voice please, Ben.” Tallmadge
nodded as Washington continued “This is an organizational diagram
of a spy ring that I want you to create, Ben. It is to be centered
in New York City to spy on military installations and activities
there.”

“I see no names here, only numbers.”

“Correct. There will be no names ever used
in any correspondence. None among them will know who is a spy but
each one will know who his contact is. It is best if they only know
the number that is assigned to that contact.”

“Who assigns the numbers, General?”

“You organize it and I will assign a few
numbers. You assign a few; just your contacts and no others. The
others will assign their own numbers for their use. They only need
to know the numbers that have already been assigned to prevent
duplications.” Pausing for emphasis he looked at Tallmadge with
that peculiarly direct gaze for which he was noted and continued
“However they do not need to know who those numbers are. Each field
agent is to know only their number and the number of their contact.
I want you to institute a system whereby agents will leave messages
for others in pre-arranged places. These Dead Drops will be used
extensively for daytime transfers. There are to be no lists or
records on paper of this organization.”

“That is best, General. I will be 413. That
is the number of my daughter’s birthday.”

“I will be 711, which means nothing to me.
That is best, really. You are to get any and all information on all
British fortifications and activities of all kinds in New York City
and the surrounding area. They will be ferried north across Long
Island Sound to a hand-picked squadron of my dragoons who will wait
for the information. They will always know where my headquarters
are from time to time as that may change, but will know nothing
about the documents they carry, which will mostly be sealed
packages. I encourage other methods of passing intelligence along
too as you may devise. Simply advise me of what it may be as you
incorporate it.”

“Do we write to each other, General?”

“No, Ben. We only speak face to face.”

“I see. Best that way I suppose” he said as
he nodded.

“You will be my spymaster, Ben. Are you up
to it?”

“Yes I am, God willing. Sir, we have women
who are very dedicated to our cause. I suggest that we use them.
They are far less likely to be suspected of espionage than men
are.”

Washington sighed and nodded “Yes. I hate to
drag women into this thing, but we need every advantage. Very well,
Ben; use the ones that you judge to be up to the task. We have to
guard their names even more though. The very thought of a woman
being arrested and tortured…..” he broke off here, shaking his
head. Looking up again at Tallmadge he said “We might assign a
number that only designates that the person is a woman to another
of our spies.”

“One number for all women we enlist? I will
incorporate that too, sir. What do we call this thing?”

“We call it nothing for now. It is best that
way.”

“Very well. I will report back in say two or
three months directly to you” he said as he started to reach for
the sketch on the table. Washington placed his large hand atop
Tallmadge’s hand and shook his head saying “Nothing on paper, Ben”
as he took the sketch and held it over oil lamp on the table. The
two watched it burn and then Tallmadge stood and extended his hand,
saying “I leave for New York City tomorrow morning, General.”

Washington said “No Ben; you leave tonight
because you were never here.” He gave a rare smile then and
extended his hand, his steady blue-eyed gaze fastened on
Tallmadge.

***

Ian and Moon Owl were just finishing her
stretching exercises. He had begun that from the first, recalling
what Li had taught him about the importance of being limber and
imprinting that trait.

Her imprinting had gone very well. The
rented tenant’s house on the farm west of Boston was a perfect
place, being isolated enough that no one could easily observe
anything happening there. She accomplished four days on her blood
fast, and was able to tolerate direct sunlight for some two hours.
Ian had praised her for that, telling her that only four of the
family could tolerate it for very long.

James was privy to the process and it was he
who supplied the various foods and things that Ian wanted from time
to time. Melissa was not told that Ian and Moon Owl had returned to
Boston for fear that she might come to the place to visit Moon
Owl.

Ian had instructed her in basic firearms
usage, loading, cleaning and shooting. She was also given basic
swordsmanship lessons as well as hand to hand combat training and
knife fighting as all members of the Lafayette family had had in
France. Her faint spells and the pain of her body adjustments were
much like Ian’s had been. He was with her always and would always
hold her during bouts of severe pain like when he was stretching
her limits to tolerating sunlight and during the frequent bouts of
pain during her blood fast.

During this time he taught her to speak
English and to read and write it as well. After she had learned
that, he taught her German and Spanish and how to be able to read
and write those as well, but not as thoroughly as he had taught her
reading and writing in English.

They lay in the shade, listening to the
sound of a meadowlark singing as Ian absently stroked her hair, her
head pillowed on his chest. “I need to teach you how to be clumsy
now that the more important things are done.”

“Why?”

“You may need that skill to deceive another
vampire one day.”

“But you said that you and James are the
only ones in America.”

“Well, we may be, but that can change.
Besides” he said with a gentle smile “You are going to Europe with
me some day, remember?”

“You mean I will need it there?”

Laughing warmly he cupped her chin in his
hand and kissed her tenderly, saying “You may not need it for a
hundred years, or you might need it tomorrow. Who knows? I will say
though that I have used it and I was glad that Marie taught me so
very well.”

“I do want to meet her and the others.”

“You will love them, and they will love
you.”

She rose up on one elbow and looked at him
“Will they truly, Ian?”

“Who could
not
love you?”

She raised his hand to kiss it and said “Do
you believe that one can love another at first sight?”

Thinking of Alandra and even more so of
Cosette, he weighed that and carefully said “That can happen…so,
yes.”

“Did you feel that the first time you saw
me?”

Deliberately pausing he looked skyward as if
he was trying to recall the incident he then looked directly at her
and said “No. I saw someone who needed my help.”

She nodded and moved back into his arms, her
cheek against his chest as she said “I was afraid at first, but
then I saw how you killed him so easily…I mean he was so much
bigger than you. Still I wondered at first if you would do the same
things to me…but only for a bit. I could see the concern in your
face when you gave me your shirt and tried to speak to me. I…I just
knew then that you would not harm me. I began to love you as we got
near Boston I think, and I knew that I loved you by the time we
were living in that house. I knew it when you left to hunt game for
Henry Knox.” She paused and took his hand, kissing it as she said
“I am glad you told me everything about yourself that evening.”

“I have come to think that maybe that is the
best way to…get through a situation like that…I mean…I did not want
to drive you away, but I was…I don’t know…I did not want to deceive
you. I want you to know that I had already become so glad that you
were wintering with us, and James felt that way too. It would have
been so dreary without you, even before we became lovers. So you
meant that much to me even then.”

“I hated it when you left and my heart sang
to me when you returned.”

Kissing her he said “I could tell that. You
had suffered so that I thought it would be really cruel to lie to
you. I do not like telling humans about myself. And I hate the
lying too. Humans can be killed for even knowing about us in
Europe.”

She rose up on one elbow again, facing him
“Truly? Killed just for knowing that vampires exist?”

Nodding somberly he said “There is a
Supreme Council
of vampires in Europe who take that sort of
thing very seriously. You would not believe how far they can reach
to do what they think needs to be done in that regard.”

“You sound as if you know a lot about
them.”

“Well, I have met each one of them on one
occasion and I know three of them very well, like friends.” He
fastened his gaze on her then saying “I respect what they do and I
try to help them to control rogue vampires when asked. I have
nothing to do with killing humans though.”

“Have you not had to kill British
soldiers?”

“I have not killed anyone in this war. I
just do not feel right about that…killing people who are soldiers
and who would likely rather be in their home country than here. It
just seems wrong. Anyway there is plenty of time for you to learn
even more about that when we have been over there for a while.”

She laid back again, her head on his chest
“I am not afraid to go. I am starting to look forward to it. Do men
walk about on stilts truly and light lamps at night in Paris, or
were you teasing me?”

“They do that there and now in London too.
Say, I have an idea for this coming winter.”

“Oh, let’s not talk about when you will be
gone.”

Laughing then he said “I want you to come
and stay with me.”

In a flash she was up and had rolled astride
him, laughing “No jokes now, Ian. Tell me truly.”

“No jokes. I have an idea for a tent we
could make to live in. We could make it here and test it. Then when
we leave we take the covering with us and cut fresh saplings for
the frame when we reach the army.”

Throwing back her head she laughed, shaking
her hair. Then she leaned down and kissed him and said “Oh I love
it already! Can we have a stove too?”

“Why not? I have an idea for how to do that
and even how to keep rainwater from leaking around the smoke
stack.”

“Oh, oh, oh! Can we have a tub too? Tell me
we can!”

Laughing heartily he said “Shall I bring a
piano too?”

She collapsed on to his chest then, both of
them laughing nonstop.

Hearing the big brass door knocker, Thelma
Millhouse waved the butler aside, answering the door herself. A
slender woman with brown hair and hazel eyes in her early thirties
stood there, smiling.

“Anna Strong! Come in here right now, woman.
I have not seen you in a year!”

“I moved back home to Setauket, Thelma. How
have you been?”

“Oh fine, fine; Setauket? My, that is fifty
miles from here isn’t it…uhmm …halfway up the coast of Long
Island?”

“That is it. It is very quiet there; local
fishermen and a few British soldiers for patrolling the coast.”