That´s why I´m here

I eventually broke the silence to learn something about the others. Jamie and Jacob willingly gave me information, while Deborah was more reserved. So I learned for example that Jamie had worked as a doctor´s assistant and had supported and treated the homeless and sick in the affected district after the great fire in 1776. Jacob was a former Hessian soldier, the explanation why I hadn´t recognized his German accent. He had been supposed to fight with the British in the War of Independence. But he had left the service after his arrival in America and tried to create a new life for himself and his family, who he had brought here by now, too. The house we were in was his.
I didn´t learn much about Deborah, except that she was exerting herself for the poor in her city. Their stories were totally different from each other, but all three of them had one thing in common: They had met Connor in different desperate situations, he had fought alongside them and had offered them to join the brotherhood. Once again I was made aware how much Connor had done for other people in the past and this knowledge made me feel an incredible warmth and affection, that I was already feeling for him anyway. I was proud of him.

After all my questions, I neither was spared by some. The others knew nothing more about me than my name and that I was married to Connor. At least Jacob and Jamie were interested in where I came from and when I mentioned that I had spent most of my life with a templar, they were all the more interested. Even Dobby, but she seemed to be more sceptical about me after this information.
"You´re a templar?", she asked, almost shocked.
"No. My uncle was a templar. I may have had much to do with templars, but I was never a part of the order and especially didn´t support their ideology."
"But you´re supporting the brotherhood?"
Dobby´s question made me stumble. I actually never really thought about if I was supporting the creed and the ideals of the assassins. I had been by their side in the past and also stood by Connor. But I did the latter because I loved him and it was my duty somehow. But was I a supporter of a whole brotherhood and its values with that? Thinking about it, I knew too little about the assassins to say that. I knew more about the templars.

"I think I´m impartial", I answered. "I´m supporting Connor when I can, but sometimes I don´t know what he´s doing in the name of the brotherhood."
Dobby stared at me as if I had just got a second nose. It seemed like my answer wasn´t enough for her.
"You´re married to an assassin, a grandmaster of the brotherhood even, without supporting what he´s doing?"
"First and last I´m married to a man", I replied irritated. "I´m supporting him as good as I can, but when it is about the brotherhood, I fear that I can´t be a help to him anyway. Otherwise I wouldn´t be here but with him."
"That´s true." Dobby snorted almost scornfully and leaned back in her chair with her arms crossed. Whatever I had done to her, she didn´t like me and reminded me of the female assassin in London again. She´d had a similar opinion about me. She had claimed that I, as a spoiled merchant´s daughter, would never be able to understand what it meant to fight for something. I had proved the opposite to her in my own way, but I had the feeling that I didn´t need to tell that Dobby. Like her, I crossed my arms in front of my chest and stared at some spot on the opposite wall while I saw from the corner of my eye, how the two men looked us women over and then gave knowing gazes to each other. Good that they didn´t comment on our argument. So we shrouded ourselves in silence again and it became almost depressing. But this time I didn´t have any ambitions to break it. I didn´t need to anyway.

Just when my anger about Dobby had slightly faded and I began to worry about Connor again, a muffled noise sounded over our heads. Then steps. In an instant the assassins were on their feet, had taken their weapons and took position by the staircase that was leading upstairs. I had stood up, too but stayed where I was and watched the scene tensely. If it should come to a fight in this small space, I didn´t want to stand in anybody´s way. But it shouldn´t come so far. When steps sounded on the staircase, the assassin relaxed noticeably and I also uttered a quiet sigh when Connor appeared on the stairs and looked down at us shortly, before he finally came downstairs.
"It is too easy to open the roof hatch", he told Jacob, as if it was the most common thing on earth that you entered a house over the roof. But I didn´t wonder about it. At least he had climbed through the window of my bedroom when we had met for the first time. And after that he had come into my room like this twice. So when it was possible, Connor wasn´t a friend of doors but Jacob didn´t seem to mind.
"I will have a look at it at the next opportunity", he smirked and they all returned to the table where I sat down on my chair again. But not without looking Connor over. His sleeves, especially at his hidden blade, were stained with blood that was already dry. On the white of his shirt shined some bloodstains as well but Connor himself seemed to be unharmed.

While the others also took a seat and we all looked at him curiously, he propped his hands onto the backrest of a free chair and looked around.
"On the way here I saw two men of whom I was sure that they belong to the gang we are looking for. I followed them and was not wrong", he told with a clam voice. "They disappeared inside a warehouse at the harbour and when I followed them, it looked like they have their hideout there. I found some boxes with stolen goods but also some maps like those I have seen in Philadelphia. But this was not the most interesting thing." Connor made a short break in which we looked at him even more curious, if this was even possible. Was he tantalising us on purpose?
"The men´s names were Jameson and Garfield, as far as I understood it during their conversation and after I had taken care of them, I found their sea chests with their personal belongings and both of them possessed British soldier uniforms."
"Redcoats?", Dobby asked. "Are you sure? Do you think the uniforms belonged to the men?"
"I watched them long enough. They behaved like soldiers, not like common bandits."
"Even if that is the case, they certainly weren´t soldiers anymore", I said, shaking my head. "King George had to withdraw all soldiers or the peace would have failed. If those men were still here, it certainly wasn´t at royal behest."
Jacob nodded. "Maybe they were deserters who left the sinking ship right before the war´s end."
"But it´s certain that those bandits are well organized and that more than a few men are belonging to them. At least they are spread out over three towns. Somebody with great influence must be pulling the strings and who says that they are not British? Maybe they want to halt the peace somehow?"
"And that´s why they are attacking simple settlers?" I couldn´t stop my voice from sounding mocking, after Dobby had voiced this guess. I agreed with her, when she said that somebody with influence was behind the gang but I doubted that the British were the ones pulling the strings.
"A peace treaty was signed and the king would be stupid, if he would risk this peace. The war has cost the kingdom a lot of money and the people were anything but pleased about it. If he would risk the peace here, he would also risk the peace in his own country."

A thoughtful silence followed after my words and at least the men looked like they believed me. Jamie nodded and murmured: "There would be certainly more interesting aims than simple settlers. But who could be behind it? The templars?"
This time it was Connor, who shook his head. "I doubt it. The templars are doing everything to support the patriots. If they would cause trouble in the settlements, they would harm their own interests."
"And none of the men seemed to be a templar, if you ask me", I added. "They didn´t even know that Connor is an assassin. When one of them was in his armoury and saw Achilles' robes, he didn´t know what he had in front of his nose. He even thought that Connor was some sort of soldier."
Silence again, before Dobby began to speak. "Did you found out something else? Did they say something that could help us?"
Connor nodded slowly, his thoughtful gaze directed at a spot on the tabletop. "They were supposed to watch over the stolen goods in the warehouse, which are going to be picked up in the evening. I wanted to return then. If we know, what happens to the goods, we will probably learn more about the gang´s intentions. Because I am sure that their attacks are not about the haul, regarding to their proceeding."
"They want to sell it, most likely. I will ask around among some traders, if they got offered more valuables lately, if you don´t mind." Dobby had stood up and seemed to be full of beans. Connor just glanced at her and nodded, whereupon the woman left the house through the backdoor.

Jacob and Jamie also offered to ask around in other parts of the city and so this little meeting was finished as sudden as it had begun. Connor and I stayed behind and while I was sitting silently on my chair and tugged at the pleats of my skirt, Connor stood there, still leaning against the chair and I felt his gaze on me.
"If you have to go somewhere: Yes, I will be a good girl and wait here and won´t get up to anything", I said, without raising my eyes. I didn´t like the thought of sitting alone in somebody else´s house, but I doubted that Connor would allow me to stroll through the city. At least some bandits were walking around here, even though I didn´t believe that they could become dangerous to me. New York was big and full of people and soldiers. They would be barely able to kidnap me from the street or attack me without somebody stopping them. But this didn´t seem to be Connor´s concern.

He pulled away from his posture and approached me, which made me looking at him now. His hand grabbed into his coat and he took out a folded letter and gave it to me, after he had sat down next to me.
"Do you know anything about it?", he asked and I took the letter with a confused expression. It was folded several times and the seal, which was supposed to close it, was already broken. Slowly I unfolded the paper and skimmed through it. It was the order to watch over the stolen goods in the warehouse and that the addressee of the letter was supposed to tell a certain Vares, that the writer of the letter was expecting his visit. Nothing that caught my attention except of the name maybe but I had never heard it before.

Confused I raised my eyes from the letter and looked at Connor, who shook his head when he noticed my confusion. "Not the letter", he said and took the paper from me. He laid it onto the table and folded like it had been before. But now he put the wax seal back together as good as possible and pointed at it. I pulled the letter closer to me and bent over the seal, frowning. There were a few pieces missing but I gasped as I recognized some elements of the emblem. The forehand of a horse whose left foreleg strode out. It had a laurel wreath in its mouth and some sort of sash on its back, most of its parts already missing. Nevertheless I could still see the curved, lower parts of a letter and I didn´t need to see the complete emblem to know exactly how it had used to look like.
"That´s my family´s emblem", I whispered and stroked with a finger over the waxen horse head. I had only seen this seal when my father had wrote important correspondences. My uncle had never used it because it mainly belonged to the business my great-grandfather had built up in the past and as the second son, Richard never had anything to do with it. Furthermore he had always insisted that he wanted to make a name for himself and wouldn´t need the family´s emblem for that. It was so long ago until I had seen it the last time, but it seemed like Connor had recognized it, too because he nodded.
"I saw it on your father´s last will and I recognized it immediately. Are you really sure?"
I nodded but frowned deeply.

"But who´s using it? I have no relatives anymore and actually my father was the only one using it." I grabbed the letter again and turned it over, as if I could get a hint to its writer like that. But of course there was none. It wasn´t even signed. I thought about my own question but no satisfying answer came to my mind. My father´s signet ring, the only one that was still existing, had disappeared after his death but nobody would have an advantage in using it and nobody would use somebody else´s family emblem to sign his correspondences.
"Are you really sure that you have no cousins or other relatives who could use it?"
I nodded. "I´m the last of our name." To say that was a stab to my heart because I had never really thought about it. I had always been used to have no other relatives but my uncle since my grandparents' death. At least on my father´s side. I had met my mother´s family only briefly but because my mother had been French, her relatives were living in France and it were over twenty years since my last visit there.

"Do you think, somebody is using my family emblem on purpose?", I asked with a dull voice and felt sick with the thought that somebody was probably ordering attacks on other people in the name of my family.
"I do not know", Connor said honestly and laid his hand on mine, which was still holding the letter. Gently he loosened my fingers from the paper where they had really clawed at and intertwined them with his. "But I will find it out. I promise."
I nodded and sighing I propped up my head with my other hand. "Sometimes I get the feeling that everything purposely becomes more complicated than it already is."
"But maybe there is an easy explanation for everything. Do not drive yourself crazy."
Connor stroked one of my strands of hair behind my ear and put the letter back into his pocket before he stood up and pulled me onto my feet, too. "I got a room in a tavern. I will take you there."
"And what shall I do there?", I asked, while he led me through the backdoor to Cobalt, his fingers still intertwined with mine. Connor let my hand go, patted the horse´s neck and began to saddle it while he answered me.
"Well, I thought you want to rest."
I frowned. "It´s midday. I don´t need to rest. I need some fresh air at best."
"And I want to know where you are when I go to the warehouse later."
There was the rub. Of course. Connor didn´t like the thought that I could stroll through the city alone.

I sighed but for once I decided to say nothing more about it. Instead I followed Connor when he grabbed Cobalt´s reins and went back to the street through the small alley. Form Jacob´s house it wasn´t far to the tavern Connor had chosen. He tied Cobalt in front of the building, took the saddlebags and I followed him inside. The innkeeper seemed to recognize Connor and nodded at us, before we went upstairs and Connor led me into a room where he put the bags onto a chair, while I closed the door behind me and sat down on the foot of the bed. I stroked over the blanket and suddenly, I thought of how long it had been since I had slept in our own bed and some kind of homesickness spread inside of me. The longing for my familiar environment, for my friends, even for the simple duties I had to fulfil. Although Connor was with me at least, I felt out of place in this city. There was nothing I could do, while Connor already knew what he had to expect today. Well, I could try to talk Connor into letting me have a walk. But what benefit would I have except of fresh air and exercise? New York wasn´t quite a beautiful city I wanted to take a look at. Strictly speaking, it was only a city like every other city. It wasn´t different to Boston but at least it was more beautiful than Philadelphia.

"Are you well?" Connor had pushed the hood off his head and sat down next to me. I nodded and raised my eyes to give him a faint smile.
"I´m just glad when we´re home soon. I miss Davenport."
"I promise, we will set off as soon as possible", Connor said quietly, put an arm around me and pulled me closer. Sighing I wrapped my arms around his waist, leaned my head against his shoulder and closed my eyes for a moment. We sat there like this for a while and I listened to Connor´s regular breathing, enjoyed his closeness and hoped that his mission by the warehouse tonight was going to be successful. But especially that he would come back in one piece.
"I wish I could help you to find the gang", I broke the silence with my quiet voice and spoke out the thought I had since the short dispute with Dobby. It nagged me that I basically was going to sit in a safe room again, hoping for his return while Connor was probably risking his life. But there was nothing I could do. I could only wait for him and treat his wounds when it was necessary. Or in the worst case, mourn him. But I didn´t say that, even when Connor seemed to misunderstand my words.
"You already did. You told us what you knew about them and with that you excluded where we do not have to search for them. Leave the rest to us."
I nodded but bit my lower lip, feeling uncomfortable and knowing that Connor couldn´t see it.

When there was a knock on the door, we pulled away from our embrace and Connor stood up, his hand resting on his tomahawk when he granted access. It was Dobby who pushed her head through the open door and looked at Connor, then at me.
"Apologize for the disturbance", she said and I believed to hear a bitter undertone in her voice.
"You do not disturb." Connor put his hand off the weapon and indicated to Dobby that she should enter. "Did you find out something?"
The female assassin´s gaze slid to me with his question, as if she didn´t want to say anything as long as I was around. But when I didn´t make a move to stand up and Connor didn´t say anything about my presence, she nodded.
"It looks like they have a trader in the city who´s buying the stolen goods off them and sells it again. I was in his store and it seems like there is nothing fishy about it."
"Did you talk to the trader?"
Dobby shook her head. "Of course not. I didn´t want to warn him if he should come to the warehouse tonight. But maybe he can still be useful to us."
Connor nodded and his fingers began to play with the strap the tomahawk was hanging in. He seemed to think about something but then he looked at me.
"Do you think you are alright?"
When I nodded, he turned towards Dobby again and pulled the hood over his head. "Show me the store. I want to have a look at it myself."

Before Connor had left with Dobby, he had told me to lock the door while I was in the room. After that, I had sat alone on the bed for a moment and had stared into space. It had been midday and I hadn´t known what to do with myself. So I had forgotten every concern for a while and had left the room and the tavern to have a walk around the block. I had kept away from all dark alleys and backyards and had followed the stream of people in the streets. When I had started to think that I knew the block by heart, I had returned into the room in the tavern and had looked for another activity. Had brushed my hair with my fingers, thanks to a missing brush and certainly had done it several times without a mirror. Sadly enough I had felt proud about it because now I knew how to do some hairstyles without a mirror at last. I ignored the fact that I actually didn´t know if they had looked good.
I was glad when it finally became dark and after I had eaten something in the dining area, I had finally withdrawn into the room, undressed down to my shift and slipped underneath the blanket. I wasn´t tired but talked me into thinking that it was better to sleep than sit there awake and think of Connor, who could be in the warehouse right now or already in a fight. Again I thought that I wanted to be with him and help him. But it would always be only a wish. I couldn´t be a help to him when it became dangerous. With this quite dark thought, I closed my eyes and fell into a troubled sleep of which I didn´t know how long it was going to last.

A knock on the door woke me up and I felt uneasy when I saw that Connor hadn´t returned yet. But who was knocking at our door in the middle of the night? I sat up slowly, not sure what to do. But when Dobby´s voice sounded behind the door, saying my name, I was on my feet immediately, turned the key in the lock and opened the door. Dobby stood in front of me and I had to admire her for her strength because she had Connor´s arm over her shoulders and obviously had to support him. He was hanging there like a wet rag and seemed to be only half conscious.
"What happened?", I asked shocked and Connor raised his head and blinked at me, when he heard my voice.
"It is alright", he mumbled but obviously had to concentrate on each word. "I am fine."
"You´re not", Dobby growled and lugged him over the threshold towards the bed. Connor put one foot in front of the other, but his walk was slow and unsteady. "A guy has struck a gun´s handle over his head during the fight. Made him become unconscious for a moment."
"I was not unconscious. I am fine, damn it", Connor swore and almost fell backwards onto the mattress in the same moment when Dobby sat him down on the foot of the bed.
"Yes of course, you pighead." The female assassin pulled the hood off his head and now I saw the laceration on his right temple. It wasn´t quite large but was bleeding heavily. The blood had already run over Connor´s cheek and now dripped down on his pants when he bent forward, as if he hoped that it was easier to keep his balance like that.

"I will check if I can find something we can treat him with downstairs", Dobby told me and left the room. I stepped to Connor and put a hand under his chin to lift it and have a better look at the wound.
"Do you have other wounds?", I asked and Connor shook his head, just to close his eyes afterwards and utter a quiet curse. I could well imagine that his head was throbbing and that he felt dizzy, but I didn´t say anything about it. When Dobby returned with some rags and a bowl of water, I took one of the rags and pressed it against the wound. Ignoring Connor´s short wince. The female assassin stood next to me with crossed arms and scrutinized Connor, who had his eyes still closed and swayed slightly back and forth.
"Did you find out something?", I asked into the silence and it was Dobby who answered.
"The trader I had talked about really is a fence for the stolen goods. But he bought them far below their price. It didn´t seem to be important to the bandits anyway."
"So it isn´t about the gain."
Dobby shook her head. "When the trader was gone, one of them left to bring the money to their boss. We followed him to a house where he gave the money to a man called Vares. We thought, we had found the boss but unfortunately they detected us, we had to fight, kill Vares and the other men there and then we found out that Vares wasn´t the mastermind behind everything. He had started to write a letter but couldn´t write more than an announcement of his next visit. He couldn´t tell us anymore where and when."
"So we have nothing again?" I squinched up my face and began to soak another rag with water to wash the blood off Connor´s face. The wound wasn´t bleeding anymore and didn´t seem so bad that it needed to be stitched. Hopefully it would be enough, if I wrapped one of the rags around his hand for the night.
"Not quite." Connor´s voices sounded muffled but he didn´t seem to be as dazed as I had thought. "We found a coded message. Until now we do not know what it means, but I am sure that it can help us. Mr. Faulkner will have a look at it, as soon as we are back in Davenport. He knows a lot about something like this. We will set off tomorrow morning."
I frowned. "If you are able to do so."
Connor gave me a serious look but still had to blink multiple times. "I am fine", he growled and I let him believed that.

After I had wrapped one of the rags around his head like a bandage, I accompanied Dobby, who wanted to bid farewell, to the door. We stepped into the hallway and with a last glance at Connor, who was sitting with his head down on the bed, I closed the door behind us.
"Thank you for bringing him here", I said and gave a faint smile to Dobby. She shrugged her shoulders.
"It was a matter of course. I´m here to help him in such situations." She nodded at the door. "But my competence ends here. From now on you have to take care of him." And with these words, she left me alone. My gaze followed her before I went back into the room, where Connor was still sitting more or less straight.
"Come. You need to rest", I said quietly and for once he didn´t protest. He let me take off his weapons and helped me more or less to free him from his leggings, shoes, the coat and the bloodstained shirt. He also didn´t say anything when I helped him to stand up and led him to a side of the bed, where he lay down with a groan. I lay down on the other side, spread the blanket over us and checked the fit of the rag around his head once again. When I ran my fingertips through his hair, he grabbed my hand shortly and squeezed it gently.
"Niá:wen", he thanked me and I forced myself to smile.
"That´s why I´m here."