Kate frowned. “What are you two talking about?”
Harry chuckled. “When General Gage needed people to help his soldiers build the wall, the Patriots made sure he got the kind of help we think he needs. The Patriots don’t want the wall built. The Patriot workmen work slowly, do sloppy work, and tip over carts filled with supplies, but they make it all look like accidents. They even sunk a barge of bricks.”
Kate couldn’t believe her ears. “I thought the bargeman ran into an unexpected reef and lost the bricks.”
Harrison grinned. “That’s what we want people to think. We don’t want Gage finding workers who might truly help him.”
“Of course,” Colin muttered, wiping clean his needle. Kate just pinched her lips together tight. She wasn’t sure what she wanted to say, but she knew that whatever it was probably wouldn’t have been the right thing.
Lieutenant Andrews stopped by then to check on Larry’s leg. Kate thought it was a nice thing for a busy officer to do. She wondered what Lieutenant Andrews would think if he knew why Larry had taken the job on the Neck!
Later, Kate walked with Harry and Colin to the printing shop through the narrow streets. As always, they had to make their way between redcoats. When they reached the shop, Paul Revere was waiting for them.
Harry shook Paul’s hand heartily. “Welcome back! Have you brought news of the Continental Congress?”
“That I have.” He stepped past Harry, Kate, and Colin, closed the heavy wooden door, and leaned against it. “There are serious things we must talk about.”
“Yes.” Harry leaned back against the printing press and crossed his arms over his long brown vest. “General Gage didn’t like the Suffolk Resolves you took to the Continental Congress. He believes they come too close to declaring war on Britain. On September first, he sent redcoats across the river. They took Charlestown’s ammunition.”
That had changed everything in Boston, Kate thought. It had made everything worse between the redcoats and Patriots. People in all thirteen colonies were mad as hornets that the redcoats had stolen a town’s arms. From the time the first English came to America, towns always had to be ready to protect themselves. No one should take their guns and ammunition! The Patriots were right about that much. Kate settled down on a three-legged stool in the corner of the room. As always, Mr. Revere seemed to barely notice she was there. At least that meant she could listen and think … and try to make up her mind whether Harry and Mr. Revere were right.
Harry told Paul Revere about the Charlestown raid. Thousands of Massachusetts men had grabbed their guns and rushed from their villages and farms to help Charlestown. They were too late. The redcoats were already back in Boston.
General Gage was afraid the angry men would take the Neck road into Boston and attack the redcoats. His men had taken four cannons to the Neck to keep them out. Then his men had ruined Boston’s cannons so they couldn’t be used against the redcoats. He even sent a letter on a ship to England asking the king to send more redcoats to Boston. General Gage was building the wall on the Neck because he was afraid.
“Gage started the wall to keep armed citizens out, but it will also keep redcoats and townspeople in Boston.” Paul Revere turned his three-cornered hat in his hands. “People are upset about Charlestown, but maybe it’s a blessing to the Patriots.”
“How?” Harry asked.
“It showed us that we need to warn the other towns when the troops are getting ready to leave Boston.”
“How can we do that?” Colin asked. “The redcoats won’t tell Patriots the army’s plans.”
“That’s why we need a group of watchers. Men to watch the army and see when they’re getting ready to leave town, men to listen to everything redcoats say for a hint of their plans. Next time Gage plans a raid on a town’s gunpowder, we want to get the news to the town first.”
Colin shifted uncomfortably. “Can we do that?”
“We must. We’ll need a small band of trusted Patriots, about thirty men. Everyone will be sworn to secrecy.”
Harry nodded eagerly. “That’s a good plan. We can call the group the Observers.”
“We’ll need a place to meet. What about this shop?”
“No.” Harry shook his head. “Redcoat officers are already suspicious about us. They’ll be watching the shop.”
Colin cleared his throat. “Thirty men meeting in a home or shop would look suspicious, wouldn’t they? What if they met at the Green Dragon Tavern? Harry goes there all the time.”
Paul Revere rubbed his thumb across his chin. “You’re right. No one would think anything of men going to the tavern.” He grinned at Colin. “Are you ready to be a Son of Liberty?”
Colin blinked. Kate knew he wasn’t sure how to answer. Sometimes Kate suspected her cousin was almost as confused as she was. “I–I already help Harry and Father print things for the Sons of Liberty.”
“You can be a far greater help to us if you’re willing.”
Colin gulped. “I wouldn’t hurt anyone or their property. I want to be a doctor. I want to help people, not hurt them.”
The silversmith nodded. “I respect you for that. You won’t be asked to hurt anyone.”
“Then …” Colin straightened his shoulders as though he had reached a decision. “I’ll be glad to help.”
Paul Revere rested a hand on Colin’s shoulder. “As a doctor’s apprentice, you have good reason to be about Boston. Dr. Milton is a well-known Loyalist. British officers like and trust him. No one would suspect a boy in his shop of spying for the Patriots.” For the first time he glanced over at Kate. “You’re Dr. Milton’s daughter, aren’t you, lass? Can we count on your help?”
“S–spying?” Kate’s voice was a squeak.
“If you don’t want to, you needn’t.” Revere’s calm voice reassured her.
Kate’s eyes met Colin’s. He nodded, as though he were answering a question she had asked without speaking, and she tried to ignore the painful way her heart was thumping. Maybe it was time for her to make up her mind for herself, once and for all, the way Father had said.
“All right,” she whispered. “I’ll be a Patriot spy.”
Harry moved closer. “You’ll need to keep your wits about you all the time. Never breathe a word about what you’re asked to do to anyone but Paul and me.”
“Harry is right,” Mr. Revere said. “With General Gage and his army getting so jumpy, there’s no telling what might happen if you’re caught.”
“We’ll be careful.”
Kate swallowed the lump that suddenly formed in her throat, but she still couldn’t find her voice. She let Colin speak for her. “Tell us what you want us to do.”
“Nothing right away, but be prepared. I’ve plans for you. Until then, keep your ears open around the redcoats. Pass along anything you see or hear to Harry.”
“Yes, sir.”
Kate felt like she’d just stepped off a cliff and could never again get back to safety.
CHAPTER 7
The Warning
Colin and Kate waited, frightened and excited, for their first orders as spies. A month passed, and they still hadn’t been asked to do anything scary for the Patriots. They hadn’t heard the redcoats whisper any secrets, either.
Sitting in her aunt and uncle’s parlor, she glanced across the room at Colin. They had always been close, but now their secret was pulling them closer than ever.
The room was filled with family tonight. Kate’s family and Harry’s family were here. Shadows danced and darted over the families while they worked.
Colin and Harry sat close to the fireplace. They needed the light to repair the wool carders, pulling out broken wires and putting new ones in their place.
The soft whir of the great wheel as Colin’s mother spun the balls into yarn was a pleasant background to the family talk.
The family used to buy much of its yarn and material, but the harbor’s closing had changed all that. Most Patriots had agreed to make their own yarn
and material, called homespun, instead of buying it from Britain.
Kate and Colin’s sister, Isabel, were carding wool into soft balls. The wool cards were wooden paddles with hundreds of short wire teeth. The wool was placed between two cards and combed to remove dirt and tangles. The cards’ teeth made a scratching sound, like Liberty’s claws when he pawed at a door to get out.
“It’s so nice to spend an evening with family instead of strangers!” Kate said, pulling a fluff of wool from between her cards.
“I think it was wonderful of you to take that family into your home,” Eliza said, looking up from her mending.
“Yes,” Susanna agreed. She was making a pair of breeches for Colin, which he badly needed. “But it must be difficult having strangers living with you.”
“It certainly is!” Kate said.
“Remember, Kate, it could have been our family chased from our home,” her mother reminded her. Mama sat at the small clock wheel, winding the yarn from the great wheel onto small wooden reels.
No one said anything for a minute. Everyone knew Mama meant if the Patriots were chasing Loyalists from their homes in other towns, it could happen in Boston, too. And everyone in the room except Mama was a Patriot.
“The Patriots are wrong to chase people from their homes,” Colin’s mother said quietly. “We can all agree on that.” Everyone nodded.
Raised voices came from the hallway.
“It sounds like our fathers are arguing again,” Kate said. She sighed and her eyes met Colin’s. She saw the same pain and fright in his eyes that she felt when their fathers fought. She wasn’t sure why it frightened her, but it did.
She took a deep breath. It had been such a pleasant evening, with everyone working together and visiting. Now the day would end unhappily.
Uncle Jack and her father entered the parlor, still arguing. They stopped nose-to-nose and toe-to-toe. Dr. Milton waved a copy of the Boston Observer in one hand. “How can you print such things?”
Uncle Jack crossed his arms. “We only printed what the Continental Congress in Philadelphia said.”
Dr. Milton’s eyes sparked. “You printed that Americans should not buy anything from Britain until Parliament gives up the tea tax, reopens Boston Harbor, and lets Massachusetts be run by its old charter.”
“It’s a peaceful way to try to get Parliament to change its mind,” Uncle Jack observed. “What’s wrong with that?”
Dr. Milton shook the paper right in his brother-in-law’s face. “It’s what you printed next that’s wrong! The congress said if the redcoats attack people here, the other colonies will send troops to help Boston.”
Uncle Jack grabbed the paper, crumpling it with one hand. “You think that is wrong?”
“They’ve almost declared war on Britain, on our own government!” Dr. Milton pushed his wig back from his forehead.
Kate choked back a giggle when she saw how funny Father looked with his wig sliding off the back of his head, but at the same time she was feeling sick to her stomach at the word
“war.” Everyone seemed to be using that word these days.
“John Hancock is the leader of the congress,” Colin’s father said. “He says we should ask God to forgive the sins that have caused our trouble with Old England. And to ask God’s help in becoming friendly with England again.”
Kate took a deep breath. “That sounds like the Patriots want peace, not war, Father.”
Dr. Milton snorted. “Don’t be fooled, Kate. The congress also said it’s a Christian’s duty to fight bad leaders. But the Bible says we are to obey our leaders.”
“The Bible also says that rulers must be just and rule in the fear of God,” Uncle Jack argued. “God wants kings to treat people well so they can live in peace and have good lives.”
Harry stepped into the argument now. “Until King George rules the way the Bible says he should, we will serve no king but King Jesus.”
That’s the Patriots’ slogan, Kate remembered. The words always sent a shiver of awe and pride through her. It seemed a great thing to choose to serve Jesus. But she knew the words only angered Loyalists like Father and Mama. After all, they served Jesus, too. They just disagreed on the way to go about doing that.
Father’s fists bunched at his sides. “The congress called the king a tyrant.”
Uncle Jack’s face grew red. “When a king uses his power to hurt people instead of help them, he is a tyrant.”
“Bah!” Dr. Milton waved both hands at him. “You make your living with words. You can make anything sound true. It’s treason to declare war against the king. Treason! Until you admit as much, we’re no longer friends!”
“That’s fine with me!” Uncle Jack roared.
Father grabbed Kate’s hand. “Come, Kate, Rosemary. We’re leaving.”
Kate tried to keep up with her father as she stared back over her shoulder, her wide eyes meeting Colin’s. She tripped over her skirt and petticoat, and her stomach jolted. Colin’s stomach clenched. What she and Colin had feared had happened—their fathers’ arguments had broken their friendship.
Before the Miltons could reach the door, a loud pounding sounded outside, as though someone was insisting on entering. Kate saw that Colin had grabbed the candlestick, and now he pushed past them to answer the knocking. When he opened the door, the breeze blew the flame sideways.
Kate peered past her cousin’s shoulder. There was no one on the door stoop. Only a house away, though, she saw two redcoats walking swiftly. One looked back over his shoulder with a wicked grin. Lieutenant Rand!
Why had he pounded on the door if he didn’t want to come inside? A flutter caught Kate’s eye. A handbill nailed to the door! Colin yanked it off and turned around.
“Who was it?” his uncle asked.
Colin didn’t say anything. His face was very white. Kate looked down at the paper in his hands and saw a skull and crossbones. It made her skin crawl. She looked up at her father. “What does it mean?” she whispered.
Father’s face was grim, but he didn’t answer. He hesitated in the doorway, as though uncertain whether they should go or stay. Uncle Jack and Harry had come into the hallway from the parlor, and now they pressed closer to see the paper Colin held in his hand. Colin set the candlestick on a small, round piecrust table beside the door. Kate suspected he didn’t want anyone to notice how badly his hands were shaking.
Colin read the paper aloud. When he got to the end, his voice was shaking as badly as his hands. “‘If fighting breaks out between the Patriots and the British troops, the Patriots’ leaders will be destroyed,’” he finished.
Uncle Jack grunted. “Destroyed is a nice way to say they’ll be tried in England and hung as traitors.”
“Unfortunately, they are traitors.” Kate thought Father’s voice sounded more sad than angry now.
The paper listed Sam Adams, John Hancock, and a few others.
“Is that all it says?” Harry leaned over his younger brother’s shoulder.
Colin shook his head. “There’s a little bit more. ‘Those trumpeters of evil, the printers, will not be forgotten.’” Kate leaned over his arm and saw that a list of Patriot printers followed. Uncle Jack’s and Harry’s names were at the top of the list.
CHAPTER 8
A Secret Code
Destroyed! Hung! Threats against her own uncle and cousin! Fear swept through Kate like a wildfire. The skull and crossbones seemed to laugh at them in the candlelight.
Uncle Jack picked up the paper, holding it so the candle’s light fell on it. “So, Harrison, it’s come.” His voice was heavy.
“Yes.”
Kate stared at them. How could they sound so calm? Hadn’t they heard what the paper said? “Father,” Colin said, his voice cracking in the way Kate knew he hated, “they’ve threatened your life and Harrison’s.”
His father, still bent over the paper, glanced at him from beneath thick black-and-gray eyebrows. “Before we can be hung, we must be brought to trial and found g
uilty of treason against Britain and the king. We have only printed what the congress and others said. We haven’t said we agreed with them.”
“That’s why you’ve been so careful,” Colin said slowly. “Sarah said you were a coward, that after General Gage brought so many troops, you didn’t dare say what you thought.”
“I hope we haven’t been cowards. I like to think we’ve been wise. I’ve always believed that if we printed the truth, people would be smart enough to decide for themselves whether the king and Parliament were right or whether the Patriots were right. A few years back, you’ll remember I hadn’t decided what I felt was the right course of action.” Uncle Jack glanced at his brother-in-law, who still lingered by the doorway. “The Loyalists have several reasonable arguments, and I wanted to be sure I was not making a commitment out of emotion.” He shot his oldest son a rueful smile. “Your older brother was quite impatient with me, if I remember correctly.”
Harry grinned sheepishly.
“As England repeatedly infringed on our rights,” Uncle Jack continued, “I came to believe in the Patriot cause. But I still was careful to print all sides of an issue in the paper. If we printed our own opinions, Harry and I could be found guilty of treason. It might come to that yet, but I hope not.”
The air coming through the doorway was cold, but Kate felt suddenly damp with sweat all over. “Will you be arrested?” she asked in a small, scared voice.
Her uncle smiled at her. “We can only wait and see.”
Harrison patted her shoulder. “I’m sure whoever wrote this is only trying to frighten us.”
Uncle Jack nodded. “General Gage has tried to buy us—to pay us—to print only things the British government liked. Lieutenant Rand threatened us the other day. Now this.”
Colin stood up a little straighter. “I think Lieutenant Rand nailed this to our door. I saw him on the street.”
His father sighed. “It would be like him to use his position to try to bully us. Thank God all the British officers aren’t like him.” He folded the paper in half and turned to look at his wife through the parlor’s open doorway. Kate saw that her aunt and the other women were sitting frozen, their faces very white. “Don’t fret over this,” Uncle Jack said, his voice strong and calm. “We are in the Lord’s hands.”
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