Forever Young Birth Of A Nation (61 page)

Li said “So we can expect him to show up
either at the Marquis de Sade’s home or in London at Miles Edwards’
home?”

“Correct. And that is why we are going to
Lacoste soon.”

“You think he’ll go to the Marquis now?”

“No. but if he does, don’t we all want to
have someone there to catch him?”

Heads nodded as eyes glowed, and Henri
continued saying “Aimee, I know that I told you this but I wanted
to say it in front of everyone here. Marie and I are very proud of
you and how you took care of the children in Marseille and how well
you pretended to be human while those others were here.”

Aimee beamed then as Jennifer laughed and
pulled her close, kissing her. Sophia noticed Marie seemed detached
and wondered yet again what was bothering her.

Marie sat thinking
when Ian finally goes
to New York City it will only be the beginning of sorrows.

***

Cosette and Priscilla ran at a ground-eating
pace and were in southwestern Connecticut by the following evening.
During the night the two bathed and hunted. They had made their way
west to the Hudson valley north of Manhattan by the next morning.
Approaching the river, Cosette stopped them, seeing a British war
sloop anchored there. She peered closely at it and saw the name HMS
Vulture painted on its bow. Turning to Priscilla, she said
“Something is amiss here. That ship is vulnerable sitting here in
patriot territory. Let’s prowl around and see what we can
learn.”

Within an hour, the two had been on both
sides of the river twice and had seen no one about. Cosette
pondered the enigmatic circumstance of a British War ship being
this deep in American territory and finally she said “This ship
must have brought some British here for some sort of espionage. We
need to report this. I am going upriver toward Tarrytown. You go
south toward Manhattan and see if you can find any militia or
American regulars about. If you do, tell them what is here. We will
meet back here late today, say at sundown.”

“Mightn’t we attack the ship ourselves? We
could swim to it and take those on deck quickly enough.”

Staring out at the ship Cosette said “We
could, but this might be some of the British deserting to our side.
Best if we get the American Army involved. I will see you here this
evening.” Turning she ran to the north as Priscilla ran to the
south, both paralleling the Hudson valley road.

Cosette had come some six miles upriver when
she spied two men talking. One had the uniform of an American
officer and the other wore a British officer’s uniform. She
strained her hearing and twice heard the names ‘Andre’ and ‘Arnold’
as the two talked. They left that area then and went toward a small
town which Cosette learned was West Haverstrom where the two
entered a house near sundown.

She rocketed away to the south and was back
at the war sloop a bit after sundown. After hunting nearby and
getting two rabbits, she drained and refilled two of her flasks and
settled down to wait for Priscilla.

A half hour later, Priscilla arrived, coming
to the brushy place where Cosette waited when she hissed at her.
The two exchanged information and Cosette learned that Priscilla
had found some American regulars and had told them about the war
sloop. They had been quite excited and quickly had sent word to a
Colonel James Livingston.

“Well, Prissy; we can do no more good here.
You had better be getting back to New York City now. Just follow
the river to Manhattan. Where it divides, just bear east, toward
your left. I am going back upriver to watch that house where those
two went. Something is amiss here and I’m curious.”

“I want to stay, but you’re right. I’ll go”
she said as she came and hugged her. “Goodbye.”

“Goodbye, Prissy. Be safe and keep your wits
about you.”

***

Early the next morning Cosette saw the same
two men talking and walking about. Suddenly came the sound of
cannon booming to the south of them, off in the distance. Cosette
was sure that the Americans had come to fire on the war sloop.
Whatever the case, the two men looked agitated and both went inside
for some fifteen minutes. The two emerged again, but this time the
British officer was wearing ordinary clothing. The two shook hands
then and he departed on the road south to Tarrytown. Cosette
figured that the officer knew that his transportation was not
waiting for him at the river and hoped to make it back to New York
City in disguise. Still, it could be that he was a defector and
acting as a double agent just like Priscilla was. She decided to
run ahead of him and alert any militia or American regulars she
might see.

As she neared Tarrytown she spied three men
armed with muskets walking north toward her. Walking up to the
three she introduced herself and related what she had seen.
Enthusiastically the three listened to her information. The one who
seemed to the better educated of the three identified himself as
John Paulding and wanted her to stay and identify the man. It was
clear that they might even try to take her into custody if she
refused, so she agreed to remain in hiding nearby with Paulding to
watch for the man.

The two had no more gotten hidden than the
British officer came riding into the outskirts of Tarrytown,
heading for the Hudson valley road to go south. The other two of
Paulding’s companions stopped him and had him dismount. Paulding
and Cosette both walked out of the bushes alongside the road and
approached the man who had identified himself as John Anderson.
After talking to him a bit, Paulding turned to Cosette and asked
her if she knew this John Anderson.

“I do not. I only heard the names ‘Arnold’
and ‘Andre’ mentioned, and I took it to be that this one was Mr.
Andre and the other one was Mr. Arnold.” The three then searched
the man and his saddlebags. Finally Paulding had the man remove his
boots and there were several sheets of paper with drawings of West
point and all of the cannon placements and the size of the garrison
as well as information on supplies on hand. The man was arrested
and taken to the Continental Army headquarters near Tappan.

The three had thanked Cosette and she had
departed, not knowing that the ‘Arnold’ she had seen this one
talking to was none other than General Benedict Arnold and that the
plans they had found in the man’s boot was Arnold’s attempt to
extract payment from the British in exchange for information on how
to attack and take the vital river fort of West Point on the
Hudson. If the British had ever gotten the word that the place had
been allowed to run down to where it could be easily taken, the
American Army might well have lost West Point, and control of the
northern Hudson valley.

General Washington himself had just gone to
West Point and was incensed to find that Arnold was not there and
appalled at the state of things. By the next day after that he had
heard what had happened and an arrest warrant was issued for
Arnold. He barely escaped to New York City in time to avoid being
hanged as a traitor. The one they did catch was later hung as a spy
being as he was out of uniform and in possession of incriminating
evidence.

Ian and Moon Owl had made it to where he had
built the log bridge across the ravine and the two decided to camp
in exactly the same place as they had been with the other captives.
Ian had seen where a party of undetermined size had passed south
recently and took it to be the Seneca war party going toward the
Shawnee village. The two decided to keep heading north into Seneca
country the next day and continue on until they got the captives
home safely.

It was a peaceful night and Ian relaxed
somewhat now knowing that a Seneca war party was between his group
and the Shawnee. He and Moon Owl caught fish and rabbit for the
captives. The two got into a routine of kissing the two little
girls after they were rolled up in their shared blanket for the
night. The women watched this nightly ritual with great curiosity,
and they had seen that at times Moon Owl would kiss Ian or that as
times he would smile at her and kiss her after they talked about
something. At other times one would speak and approach the other
and they would smile and hug each other which was a very curious
thing to the women.

Most of the days the two little girls were
either riding on Moon Owl’s or on Ian’s shoulders. The group had
traveled steadily with little time for stopping during the daylight
hours up to now. From here on, Ian thought to relax the rigorous
discipline and allow more time for resting along the way.

During the night, he and Moon Owl had gone
out to reconnoiter the area three times just to be certain that no
hostiles were approaching their camp. The two always made a habit
of hunting and bathing during the night when the others were asleep
wherever they were camped. The group was in high spirits and always
did as asked without complaint, knowing that they had been rescued
against all odds and were going home made them a happy group, easy
to manage.

Some two weeks later Ian led the tired group
into the Seneca village that was their home. Two thirds of the
braves who were still alive had gone looking for them and had not
returned yet. It was a tearful but joyous reunion and the village
celebrated that night. The Sachem invited Ian to sit at the fire on
his right hand at the council.

“I am honored to sit at the council fire of
the Seneca, but I cannot.”

“Why can Night Stalker not sit at our
fire?”

“My wife killed four Shawnee braves herself
and it was her who went into their long house and cut the bonds of
your women while their braves slept next to them. I will sit at
your council fire if she can sit with us. Otherwise, we leave
tonight.”

The Sachem sat impassively then, looking
from one to the other of the elders. Five of the seven nodded and
he spoke then “The wife of Night Stalker is welcome at the council
fire.”

Ian and Moon Owl both came to the head of
the circle and there the two of them drew their swords and placed
them on the ground in front of where they sat, a gesture of peace.
The Sachem then looked at Moon Owl and Ian intently, saying “Never
have I seen two like you. May I hold the sword of Moon Owl?”

She looked gravely at him and nodded so he
picked it up and hefted it, passing it to the others who also
hefted it and examined it closely. They were impressed that a woman
could wield a heavy steel weapon such as that and none had ever
seen a short sword before. The Sachem then said “How did Moon Owl
take the lives of the four Shawnees?”

She spoke then saying “Like my husband, I
took their heads.” There were some muttered comments then and
nodding of heads as one elder said “I wish that I was young again
and could have been there to see that!” and the others nodded
agreement. It was a pleasant and at the same time humbling
experience for Moon Owl. Never in her wildest dreams had she ever
thought that she would sit at a council fire with the council
members themselves.

The pipe was smoked and Moon Owl smoked it
too which was a thing that was unheard of. Later the drums and
flutes were brought out and the village lifted their voices in song
until late into the night. Roast venison was brought and porridge
made of native corn, hickory nuts, walnuts, and rabbit meat.

The next morning they made ready to depart
and all of the young women and the six little girls came to say
goodbye to them. Ian and Moon Owl embraced each one and they got
down on their knees to embrace the little ones. Several of the
women kissed both of them and the children did too, much to the
surprise of the villagers, being that kissing was a thing unheard
of among them.

The Sachem agreed to send a messenger to the
village of Tall Elk to inform them that the captives had returned
and that Moon Owl and Night Stalker had gone south for the
winter.

It being late in the fall of the year, the
two decided to just go toward Valley Forge by way of Morristown New
Jersey to get their wagon, oxen, and tent. They hoped that James
and Melissa would join them again to hunt meat for the army.

***

Sheriff’s deputy Lucas Ross stood looking at
the body lying behind a livery stable. He had been sent for only
two hours after it had been found with instructions from the
sheriff himself not to move it until Ross had seen it.

There was the same circular bite mark
directly on the Carotid Artery as he had seen a few years earlier
near the Millhouse home. His report to the sheriff on that one had
been duly filed and largely forgotten what with the British
invasion of New York City until this one had been found.

As he stood there looking down at the
victim, a muscular young man around twenty five years old, he
thought
a human mouth made that wound no doubt, just as it did
the other one. There can be very little blood remaining in that
body. Look at him, whiter than even a corpse could be. The coroner
told me that the other one hardly bled when opened up. How did a
human mouth pierce the skin and artery so accurately and look at
how the man’s clothes are barely disturbed! It is as if he was held
so tightly that he couldn’t even struggle. I may have to have a
talk with Cosette and Stuart about this the next time I see Laura
if not sooner. No, I won’t make a trip just to do that. Laura might
take it that I suspect them in some way. But then I do suspect
them, just not as killers. I just know that they know something
about this that they didn’t share with me. What is it? And what is
it about Cosette? There is some quality, something unique about her
that I just cannot put my finger on.

***

Marie came to the children’s room, finding
Liri and Celeste with them and Aimee reading them all a testimony
from the Bible. She walked to the two children and kissed them
both, sitting down on a sofa nearby.