The peaceful, simple days didn't last long in the colonies. Around the time the Muddlemore's had their picnic, the British had imposed taxes on tea and paper, while ignoring the colonist's requests to be represented in Parliament in London, causing dissent in the colonies. That's called "taxation without representation" and it's not fair.

A few months after the Tea Act was passed, colonists in Boston dressed up as Native American's, raided ships in the harbor and dumped tons of tea chests into the waters.

By early 1774, fighting had broken out in the colonies as the colonists sought to reject the authority of the King and establish a new government that fits their needs.

Unfortunately, soldiers from Britain had been coming to the colonies from left and right trying to take out any colonist who had lived there and any loyalist who crossed the king. On board ships, many people had been getting plagued and died before they could make it to land, many black people had been taken from their families and sold to slavery and free thinkers weren't doing any better.

As for the Muddlemore's, they had to lay low and hide in their home whenever redcoats were attacking. They were all frightened and a little scared to go outside because of the redcoats, so they seldom went out into town except to the market for food. Anytime one of the adults went outside, the other one had to stay inside with the girls. Things weren't easy for colonists since the Boston Tea Party had begun and everyone rebelled against King George III.

That morning, Amelia went to the market accompanied by Boo, leaving Jonathan to look after the girls at home.

"Daddy, I wanna go outside and play" said Maggie.

"Me too" Sarah pouted "I don't want to stay in here all day"

"Sorry girls" Jonathan said "But you know the rules; no going outside when it's this risky. You know those redcoats are out there and the bell tower could make two signal lights at any moment, don't you know"

"Daddy's right" Jeanette nodded "Mama and Boo are out there right now, and papa doesn't want us to be in danger, so we have to stay inside"

"Why thank you, Jeanette my love" Jonathan kissed Jeanette's forehead.

"Suck up" Sarah folded her arms.

Outside, Amelia and Boo were on their way back to the manor. Along the way, the passed by a trio of redcoats rounding up a man suspecting of passing intelligence to the rebels led by Lieutenant General George Washington.

"Redcoats" she whispered "Come on Boo, let's hide until they go away and it's safe for us to pass"

"Meow" Boo whispered.

As they were speaking, the man was pleading his innocence to the redcoats.

"Please, you've got to believe me!" The man pleaded.

"Rubbish!" The sergeant retorted. "We have evidence of your involvement in the plot against the King!"

Just then, a rock was thrown towards the redcoats.

"Hey lobsters!" One of the defiant citizens armed with rocks moved towards the redcoats. "Why can't you pick on someone your own size?"

The other citizens shouted in agreement and started throwing things at the redcoats as well.

"Oh my god" Amelia whispered from her hiding place "Look Boo! Those rebels are standing up to those redcoats. That is so brave of them"

Boo nodded.

It was then that one of the redcoats managed to aim his weapon towards the sky and fired it as a signal of their need for backup.

Hearing more redcoats coming, Amelia said, "Let's get out of here before this turns ugly, Boo."

Boo nodded in agreement.

As more redcoats arrived at the scene to restore order, no one saw Amelia and Boo leaving.

After sneaking away for a while, they had finally made it back to the manor, safe and sound, but petrified.

Jonathan went over to open the door and was relieved to see his wife and Boo with their groceries.

"Heavens to Murgatroyd" he said as he approached her "Amelia, my darling you're alright"

"Yeah, we sure are, dear" Amelia nodded as she panted. "We saw the townspeople starting a riot when a band of redcoats tried to detain a man."

"Heavens to Dr. Ben Franklin" Jonathan gasped "This riot has gotten scarier, don't you know"

"Indeed, dear" Amelia agreed.

"What're we gonna do?" Jonathan asked Amelia "More redcoats could be out there and attack more colonists. They might even hurt the girls, we can't risk that"

"So what do we do about it?" Amelia asked Jonathan "We can't hide forever and we can't risk losing Maggie, Sarah or Jeanette"

Jonathan thought for a while.

"I have no idea" he replied "But we really need to find a way to go into town without attracting any unwanted attention"

"Maybe we should tell the girls?" asked Amelia "It could encourage them to stay inside all safe and warm"

Jonathan nodded. "I guess that's the only way for it to work."

"Girls" Amelia shouted "Come here, please"

The girls came downstairs to their parents.

"Mom, dad" Sarah raised an eyebrow "What's going on here?"

"Did we do something wrong?" Jeanette asked, looking somewhat fearful.

"No" Jonathan shook his head. "We need to speak to you on something important."

The girls sat down to hear what their folks had to say.

"What's going on, papa?" Jeanette asked her father.

"Well" Jonathan said with utmost seriousness "You're mother was in town earlier today and she saw something..."

Jonathan turned to Amelia, who took a deep breath before replying.

"A band of redcoats were arresting a man and a mob of angry citizens took matters into their own hands." Amelia said. "They threw items at the soldiers and a riot broke out."

Jeanette gasped and put her hands on her mouth.

"Oh my god" said Sarah "That's horrible"

"What does that have to do with us?" asked Maggie.

"We need you girls to stay safe at home." Amelia said. "Your father and I can't risk us attracting too much attention if we all go into town together."

The triplets looked at each other and nodded understandingly.

"That's our girls" Jonathan smiled.

Amelia then hugged the girls and started kissing their heads a million times each.

"Good girls" Amelia smiled as she kissed her daughters each in the forehead.

"I hope we've made the right choice" Jonathan thought to himself "I would hate to see the girls die, despise it even"

"So what are we doing now?" Maggie asked.

"We are going to have to do some quiet indoor activities until there are no more redcoats" Jonathan said "I'll have to keep watch on you three"

The triplets nodded.

"I'll be in the kitchen making dinner" said Amelia.

As Amelia went to the kitchen to make dinner, Jonathan went to the living room and sat in the armchair to read the newspaper.

As for the girls, they went upstairs to their room to play some quiet indoor activities.

Reading the newspaper, Jonathan noted that there has been an increase in dissent against the King.

Since the rebellion against the king, word got out that the king had been sending more and more soldiers to take colonists and beat them up or worse.

"Hold on to my horses" he exclaimed "This got hairier don't you know"

Just then, Jonathan read another article saying that General Washington has been rumored to be starting a revolution against the British to free the colonies and for Liberty, freedom and integration for everyone in them.

"Hmmm..." He thought to himself as he read the article.

"Jonathan" Amelia called out "Can you get the girls? Dinner is ready"

"Sure thing, Amelia" Jonathan said as he got up from his chair.

Putting the paper on the coffee table, Jonathan made his way to the stairs.

"Maggie! Sarah! Jeanette!" He called out. "Dinner's ready!"

A minute went by before Jeanette replied, "Coming, Daddy!"

The girls came downstairs to have dinner with their folks and sat at the table.

Meanwhile, at the local British Army detachment across town, the redcoats were questioning the prisoners.

"So, you colonists have dared to question the ways of the king?" asked one of the redcoats.

"Yes" said a rebel "Because what the king is doing to all of us is wrong! People shouldn't pay taxes for everything, black people shouldn't be sold to slavery and we should have independence in this world! The king is an idiot and if you think what he's doing to us is right, you're sadly mistaken"

"Huh, so I've heard" The redcoat in charge snorted.

"You rebels know anything about this conspiracy to overthrow the King's authority?" Another redcoat asked.

"We'll never talk!" A second rebel replied defiantly. "We don't know anything, but we'll gladly take part in it."

"Oh really?" the redcoat in charge seemed like he had heard enough before ordering the other redcoats "Send these rebels to the interrogation cells below and use your powers of persuasion to loosen their tongues!"

"Yes, major!" One of the redcoats saluted before they get down to work.

The soldiers grabbed the rebels and started to take them down to the interrogation room, where they would be tortured.

"Keep this up and I'll make it to lieutenant colonel" the head solider thought evilly.

The major then got down to doing some paperwork after making the sinister thought.

"Dear King George III" he wrote on the paper "We have found more rebels in the colonies and we have captured and are going to take care of them. We will conquer all thirteen colonies or my name isn't Jeff Iverson"

After writing the letter, he thought. "Once I get more information on the conspiracy, His Majesty will sure reward me dearly!"

As he was writing the letter and made the thought, you can hear cries of torture coming from the interrogation room.

It was then that one of the redcoats burst into the room with an excited look on his face.

"Major Iverson, sir!" The redcoat reported. "We've got some information His Majesty sure will like to hear about."

"Oh, is that so, corporal?" Iverson asked, raising an eyebrow. "Tell me about it."

The corporal wasted no time telling him the information he extracted from one of the prisoners and Iverson nodded in approval when he finished.

"Excellent work, Corporal Jacobson" Iverson said. "I'll put a good word forward for you for your upcoming promotion to sergeant and His Majesty will sure be happy to hear about this."

"Thank you sir" Jacobson saluted.

"Now bring them in" Iverson demanded.

"Right away, sir" Jacobson turned and returned to work.

Jacobson and the other soldiers brought in the handcuffed and beat up rebels and threw them down to the feet of Iverson.

"Bout time, too" he smirked "So spit it out. What do you know? No tricks or else!"

The soldiers pointed their guns right at the rebels.

"Okay, okay" the first rebel quivered with fear "We'll talk"

"Good" Iverson grinned "So tell me. What do you know?"

The rebels told the redcoats about this one manor in town that was used as a hideout and was a meeting place between Washington and several high-ranking figures involved in the conspiracy.

"So, Washington has a resistance, eh?" asked Iverson "Perfect. You know, if you had just cooperated before, you wouldn't have been tortured so much. But then again, I would have killed out anyway"

"What do we do with these rebels, sir?" One of the redcoats asked.

Iverson thought for a while before replying, "Send them to the holding cells. We'll place them on the noose at dawn!"

"You got it" said the soldiers as they took the rebels away.

After the rebels got taken, Iverson gathered up the other soldiers to make his announcement on the attack.

"Alright men, listen up!" Iverson said "As you all have known by now, there's this manor across town that is serving as a secret meeting place between high-level figures involved in the plot to overthrow His Majesty's government. You know we can't allow that to take place, do we?"

"No, sir" The redcoats replied loud and clear.

"Right" Iverson nodded as he pulled out a map of the area where the manor in question is located and continued. "So I want you all to group up into squads. Each squad will keep a sharp eye on the manor while hiding in the nearby woods in rotation for every eight hours. If you see any suspicious activity coming out from the manor or recognize any high-ranking rebel member in the perimeter, signal us and we'll move in. Understood?"

"Yes, sir" The redcoats nodded.

"Good." Iverson said. "Each squad will be under the command of a sergeant or a crown sergeant and..."

As Iverson continued on, we zoomed in towards the map Iverson was using with the manor in question circled. From the top view, the circled manor appeared to be the Muddlemore Manor.


Author's Note:

It looks like the war begun between England and the colonies, and it would seem that