Arrival in New York
In the morning of the following day, I sat in front of Samuel Adams at his desk and we both looked at Connor, who was standing on our right and had rested his hands on the tabletop. He told us about the results of his investigations in the city yesterday, but they weren´t as satisfying as he himself had hoped. The innkeeper in the tavern had claimed that he knew nothing about Nathan and his gang and had almost thrown Connor out. But because he had always glanced to a man in a corner of the room while talking, Connor had lain in ambush in front of the tavern and had waited.
Shortly afterwards, the man, the innkeeper had looked at, had left the tavern and Connor had followed him while he had crossed the streets and alleys of Philadelphia, determined and obviously very nervous. He had made several detours and had looked around before he had disappeared inside a house in one of the outer districts of the city. Connor had climbed through a window and had listened to a conversation between the man and a young woman. They had talked about some targets the "boss" had decided, but they had doubted that they were going to be still successful with this procedure. Successful with whatever. There had been too much defence lately and the woman had talked about important steps they needed to take and told the man that she wanted to travel to New York.
After this more or less informative conversation, they had left and Connor had looked around in the house. He told with no doubt that it had been a hideout because he had found several maps of the northern former colonies and at which Lexington and Concord had been marked. Two of the settlements and towns which had been attacked. Furthermore Connor had found some letters and in one of the newest, New York was mentioned several times where, so it seemed, the gang wanted to plan further steps.
"I already sent a message to my men in New York. They will ask around until our arrival."
With the last sentence he looked at me and I raised an eyebrow in confusion. "Why ours? I don´t want to stop you. I´m wondering anyway, why you are not on your way already. You could be almost there by now."
"And leave you behind?" Connor cocked his head. "And how do you want to get home?"
"With a carriage?"
Connor shook his head. "We will ride together, even if we will need longer like that. The others will get along alone. You will not."
I really wouldn´t sign the latter but I didn´t say anything. Basically I was glad that Connor hadn´t set off to New York immediately and that I didn´t have to travel home alone.
"When do you want to set off?", Adams asked.
"As soon as possible. If you house us one more day, I would say that we will set off tomorrow morning at sunrise. I think the horse needs this one day to recover completely." Connor´s gaze met mine. "Is it fine with you?"
"The sooner we get away from here, the better." I gave a forced smile but then I blushed with shame when I noticed what I had just said. My gaze flitted to Samuel Adams who was smirking.
"I´m sorry. I didn´t mean it like that. I..."
"I don't mind." Sam raised his hands and winked at me. "I know what you mean. I would like to leave this city, too but I think I can return to Boston only in a week."
I smirked. He had often told me that he didn´t like to stay in Philadelphia. He was a convinced politician but the indecision of some other men often gave him a headache. I didn´t like politics because in London I had seen the power games it was connected with. I didn´t want to know how the situation was for the Americans. They had won the war but had to build a state and a government first. Furthermore a mountain of debts had piled up as a consequence of the war and the young nation had to bear it down. And who wanted to serve up horrendous taxes to people, who had rebelled against them in the first place? I didn´t envy anybody for this responsibility.
Sam Adams gave a forced smile when Connor and I left his study and left him alone with an amount of correspondences which had already caused most of his grey hairs, according to him.
"I´m almost sorry for him", I said as Connor and I went down the hallway and towards the front door. I didn´t know where the assassin wanted to go, but because I didn´t know what to do anyway, I just allowed myself to accompany him.
"He chose it himself", he answered when he opened the door for me. "But I really would not envy him either."
"Because you couldn´t sit still long enough to listen to political waffle anyway, am I right?"
Connor gave me a sceptical glance from the side while we walked over the sunbathed front garden together and headed towards the small stable on the edge of the property.
"You are underestimating me. I was even there when they declared Washington to their Commander in Chief and signed the Declaration of Independence. But you are right when you claim that I do not attach great important to...political waffle."
"You never told me that."
"You never asked."
I cocked my head smirking, put it back and blinked into the sun, as if I would wallow in some daydreams. "My husband the politician. Wouldn´t be bad either. Just imagine you in a flouncy justeaucorps with distinguished breeches and a white wig on your head. Then you´re standing in front of old men, who are basically looking like you and rant about taxes, laws and other uninteresting things. Very boring but you would look good at least."
I laughed because this imagination was completely ridiculous and I was more than glad about it. Even though I had seen Connor in justeaucorps and breeches once and he actually had looked very handsome in them. Maybe I should have kept the clothes for him back then...
"I am glad that you did not lose your sense of humour", Connor teased and I grinned at him from the side.
"Why sense of humour? I´m totally serious. If you have enough of being an assassin some day, you should think about a political career."
I laughed again and Connor shook his head smirking, but obviously decided not to say anything more about my nonsense. He opened the gate to the stabled instead and let me go inside first, before he closed it behind us again.
The air was filled with the smell of straw, hay and the three horses which pushed their heads over the doors of their boxes and hummed at us, as if they expected us to feed them. The animals in the first two boxes belonged to the family Adams but the horse in the last box was Cobald, Connor´s horse, who banged his hoof against the door.
"Skén:nen", Connor murmured and patted the skewbald´s neck while he opened the door and pushed himself into the box. "Skén:nen."
Cobalt snorted and stayed still now as Connor ran his hand over his left foreleg and lifted it. He repeated it with each leg while I leaned against the waist-high wooden wall and tickled Cobalt´s ears.
"Is he alright?", I asked Connor when he patted the spotted croup and stepped to me. He nodded.
"The ride was very exhausting for him. I was worried about his legs but I think everything is fine. We should be able to leave tomorrow."
"How long do you think will we be on the road?"
"To New York a week or a few more days, I guess. To Davenport just as long. We cannot expect him to gallop with us both on his back. We will take it easy." He smirked and propped his arms onto the box´s wall next to me. "I neither want to risk that you fall down."
"How kind of you", I teased and had to evade Cobalt´s head shortly afterwards, when he thrust it into my direction. As if he wanted to scold me for my undertone. Sometimes I really got the feeling that animals were conspiring against me when Connor was around.
He pushed the horse´s head gently aside, slipped out of the box and locked the door behind himself, before he leaned against it. "If you want me to, I will organize a carriage for you and ride after you. I guess it would be more comfortable for you", he offered but I shook my head and arched my eyebrows.
"More comfortable? Am I a spoiled, English lady who can´t stay on horseback for two weeks?"
I grinned while a mischievous glance appeared in Connor´s eyes. We both knew the answer of my more or less jocular question but I really wouldn´t mind to travel with Connor on Cobalt´s back. Although it would take more time, but I was already looking forward to spend this time with him.
The next morning, right after sunrise, we stood next to saddled Cobalt and Connor adjusted the saddlebags so that I could sit comfortable behind the saddle later on. In the meantime I bid farewell to Samuel and his wife, who seemed to be really relieved that we were leaving her house. But maybe I just imagined it. At least she smiled friendly when I made a curtsey to her and bowed my head as a sign of my gratitude for her help. I did the same in front of Sam, but he grabbed my hand and squeezed it.
"When we´re back in Boston, you´re always welcome. As well as Connor." He smirked when he looked to the assassin because he knew exactly that Connor would never accept this invitation.
"Thank you", I said nevertheless smiling and Sam nodded.
"Take care of each other. Not only on your way home." He patted my hand for a last time before Connor stepped beside us and the men shook their hands.
"Thank you, Sam", Connor said but Adams waved aside.
"It was a matter of course. Just get home safely and I will ask around, as long as I´m here. Maybe I can learn something about the men you´re looking for."
Connor thanked him again, nodded to Adams' wife and lifted me onto Cobalt´s back.
"Is everything alright?", he asked and when I nodded, he swung himself into the saddle. He waited until I had wrapped my arms around him, before he drove Cobalt on. I gave the Adams a last smile, before we left their property and slowly rode down the district´s street. My gaze slid over the houses and people while we crossed Philadelphia and for a last time, I willingly remembered how I had ridden through the streets with Nathan. How I had stumbled through the streets in the middle of the night. Every memory I wanted to leave behind as we finally left the city and Philadelphia was only distant roofs and smoking chimneys on the horizon. We spent the whole day on horseback, only had a few breaks and even though Connor let Cobalt only walk, we came quite far. Soon Philadelphia had disappeared behind us and we were surrounded by forest where the street was the only path between the trees. We heard the roaring of the Delaware River in front of us, even though it was still a few miles away, according to Connor. The assassin had chosen another route than Nathan and his men. Right now we were heading towards a village called Newtown behind which we would have the possibility to cross the Delaware River. After that, a street would be leading directly to the coast and we would follow it to New York then.
In the evening we finally arrived in Newtown, spent the night in a small inn and set off in the next morning after sunrise. In midday we crossed the Delaware River and from then on, our journey went on in the same rhythm every day. We left mile after mile behind us, always made short breaks from time to time and as soon as it got dark, we set up a camp when no town with an inn was nearby, just to set off again at the break of dawn. The days past like this and even though we didn´t talk much, I enjoyed it because we rarely met other travellers. Most of the time we were alone, surrounded by perfect silence and peace only nature could provide and so I didn´t mind that Connor still wasn´t a communicative travel companion. Leaning against him, I listened dreamily to the forest´s noises, let my thoughts wander and had to suppress a laugh from time to time, when my unusual silence seemed to become eerie to Connor and his hands moved from the reins to my arms around his waist. As if he wanted to check that I really was still there and hadn´t fallen down on our way.
But this silence I was enjoying, was going to be over soon. Around eight days after our departure from Philadelphia, we came closer to New York and when the night fell, we were just a few miles away from the city.
"The moon is shining bright enough tonight to keep riding. Do you think you can still bear about four hours or shall we set up a camp?", Connor asked me when we had a short break and I tried to relax my from sitting stiffened muscles.
"Of course", was my short answer while I rolled my shoulders which caused a silent crack. "Ouch."
Connor smirked about my pain twisted face. "This is what happens when you are untrained."
"Thank you. Next time, I will join you when you´re doing one of your practices. What shall we start with? Log-throwing?" Like a stubborn child, I stuck out my tongue to him which he noticed with an amused shake of his head, before he lifted me onto the horse again and we set off.
But very soon it came to light that my "Of course" had judged my condition a bit too optimistically. When Connor had asked his question, I already had wanted to sleep but I had thought that four hours couldn´t be so bad. But after a short while, I became sleepy and again and again my eyes closed, although I tried desperately to fight against my tiredness. But the warmth of Connor´s body, when I leaned my head against his back, the lightly rocking walk of Cobalt and the regular, muffled beating of his hooves on the street made it more than difficult to me. Eventually I didn´t notice anymore how my eyes closed and I dozed off. But my sleep ended as suddenly as it had begun, when I slipped to the side and only Connor´s courageous grab backward could prevent me from falling off the horse. He stopped Cobalt and turned in the saddle towards me while I was blinking ordering my consciousness.
"What are you doing? You cannot let go just like that."
"I didn´t let go", I growled and as if I wanted to proof it, I wrapped my arms firmly around his waist again, from where they had slipped off before.
"Did you fall asleep?"
I didn´t answer this question and Connor uttered a short snort. "You could have told me that you want to sleep."
"It´s not my fault", I mumbled. "Sometimes Cobalt´s walk reminds of a rocking-chair."
A short silence, before Connor sighed and steered Cobalt off the street. He stopped on a free, by rocks and thicket surrounded spot, dismounted and tied Cobalt, before he lifted me off the horse.
"We can go on", I mumbled while I watched him unsaddling Cobalt.
"You need to sleep", he said shortly but decisively and unrolled the sleeping mat on which I sat down sighing. Connor didn´t take the time to light a fire as always, but slipped out of his coat and spread it over me, after I had lain down. Shrouded in the warmth that Connor´s body had left behind, a hearty yawn escaped me which I couldn´t hide behind my hand.
"And you want to tell me that you could have born a few more hours", Connor grumbled when he lay down next to me and stroked over my cheek.
"I could have", I mumbled, my eyes already closed. I only heard Connor´s whispered "Of course", before I finally fell asleep.
We arrived in New York in the late morning of the next day. After all the silence on our way here, the outer districts of the city alone were a bit overstraining. Children were playing on the meadows, farmers were working on their fields and some women were selling the yields of this work on small carts. When we came past some of them, I jumped off Cobalt´s back, which made Connor protest when I started to stumble and almost fell. But ignoring that, I went to one of the women, bought a handful of cherries off her and went alongside Cobalt shortly afterwards, chewing with relish. I spit the stones out discreetly on the side of the road, when nobody was watching, but I enjoyed the fresh, sweet taste of the fruits on my tongue while we slowly departed from the rural districts of New York and approached the city´s centre.
Eventually Connor dismounted the horse and next to each other, we pushed ourselves past the people, who were busily walking over the streets and were partly irritated, when they had to evade us, or better to say Cobalt.
"Where are we going to?", I asked while I gave my last cherries to a boy, who had withdrawn into the shadow of some stacked up boxes, looking morose. Surprised he looked at me but then grinned widely. He would rather be able to spit around with cherry stones in the city than I.
"One of my men owns a small house in the city. We will meet the others there", Connor answered in the meantime.
"And how do they know that we are arriving today of all days?"
"They know it."
Great answer. I uttered a quiet snort and get out of the way of a cart, whose wheel rolled past me by a hair´s breadth.
From now on I stayed silent and just glanced at Connor from time to time, whose face I couldn´t see thanks to his hood. Only when he turned his head slightly into my direction, I could see that he was letting his eyes roam attentively over our environment. Watchful like always but I had the feeling that he was looking for something or someone. Probably for Nathan´s gang but who knew which persons belonged to them except of those we had already seen? I began to scrutinize the people around me, too but by no stretch of the imagination I could see anything conspicuous. The only conspicuous man was walking beside me or better to say: He stopped all of the sudden and grabbed my wrist. He pulled me to the side of the road where two horses were tied in the shadow of a building and he pushed Cobalt´s reins into my hand.
"Act as if you are taking care of him. Keep your eyes down and do not move."
And with that he was gone. I only saw his hood disappearing between the heads of the people, before I couldn´t see him anymore. Sometimes it was eerie to see how easily he could disappear in the crowd because nothing about him was really inconspicuous. Neither his build, nor his clothes, nor his weapons. But to disappear belonged to the business of an assassin while I had nothing else left but his "keep your head down and don´t move"-order. I always had been a master in doing the latter.
Sighing I wrapped Cobalt´s reins around the small wooden frame in front of us, leaned my hip against it and tickled the soft horse nose, while I tried to look totally relaxed. As if I was only waiting for somebody who had some businesses in one of the stores nearby. But inwardly I was anything but relaxed. It worried me that Connor had disappeared so all of the sudden. He must have seen something. But what? What did he want to do now? Was he just following some bandits while I had to ask myself, how much time this was going to take?
"Being an assassin must be really exciting and varied", I murmured to Cobalt, who let his lower lip droop relaxed and had closed his eyes. "Always somewhere where it is exciting, mingling with people, climbing...somebody like us has to stay on the ground and spends his time unsuspecting and idly."
I tapped with a finger against the hanging horse lip and winced, as somebody tapped my shoulder in return.
Appalled I turned my head to the side and found myself in front of a strange woman. She had short brown hair which she had tied into a braid and even though she wasn´t wearing a hood, her appearance reminded me of Janet Pierce´s, an assassin from London.
"Are you Lillian?", she asked and scrutinized me. I remembered that Connor had told something about a woman who was working for the bandits and who had wanted to go to New York. Was she this woman?
"No", I answered, hoping that I didn't sound as nervous as I felt. I glanced into the direction Connor had disappeared in, but of course he wasn´t to be seen anywhere. The woman in front of me smiled purse-lipped and patted Cobalt´s croup.
"If that´s so, you shouldn´t stand by this horse because it doesn´t belong to you and I don´t think that its owner would like to see somebody else with it. Right, Cobalt?"
The horse turned its head into her direction when it heard its name and I raised my eyebrow. Why did she know it anyway?
"My name is Deborah Carter but you can call me Dobby", she introduced herself. "I´m one of Connor´s recruits here in New York and he asked me to pick you up."
I frowned. "You met him?"
Dobby nodded. "Just a few minutes ago. He saw two men who belong to the gang he is looking for and he is following them. I would have wanted to help him but he said that I rather should bring you away from here."
She didn´t look quite pleased about it. In the contrary. She had a bitter expression about her mouth and she crossed her arms in front of her chest when I didn´t make a move to comply with her words.
"So what now? Do you want to put down roots here?"
Distrustful I scrutinized her. Basically I couldn´t know if she really knew Connor and if he had sent her. Was the fact, that she knew his horse, a proof? But why should somebody know the name of a random, strange horse?
"And where are you supposed to bring me to?", I asked anyway.
"To one of my comrades' house. It´s not far from here and Connor will be there to, as soon as he returns."
Hopefully.
I nodded slowly, loosening Cobalt´s reins and led him after Dobby, who was walking in front of me with quick and determined steps. We spoke no word to each other until she led me through a small alley between two houses to a backyard. There she ordered me to tie Cobalt and after I had taken off his saddle and saddle bags, I followed Dobby into one of the houses.
Inside we stood in a large living room which wouldn´t have made me think that here was usually an endless coming and going of assassins. For an outsider it must look like as if an ordinary family was living here but the two men, who were sitting at the table in the middle of the room, were anything but ordinary. One had a long, reddish brown beard and wore a hat made of bearskin on his head and a long, white coat, which didn´t hide that he was of strong build. Next to him leaned a heavy looking halberd. His seatmate had the stiff posture of a soldier, was bald-headed and he also had a heavy weapon next to him which I didn´t recognize. It looked like a huge club.
Both man looked at us curiously when we entered the house and Dobby led me to the table. She sat down on a chair and pointed at me. "Lillian, these are Jamie Colley", she pointed at the man with the bearskin-hat. "and Jacob Zenger. They are also assassins Connor recruited here."
I nodded at the men who greeted me, too and Jacob offered me a seat. Gratefully I sat down and then I looked back and forth between the three assassins, not without noticing that none of them was wearing a hidden blade. Wasn´t it a common weapon for a member of the brotherhood?
"Where is Connor?", Jacob asked and I had never heard his accent before.
"Somewhere in the city. He saw some of this gang´s members and wanted to follow them. He asked me to bring her here." Dobby still didn´t seem quite pleased about this order. "He will join us later."
Both men nodded and the following silence was almost unpleasant. I felt entirely out of place at this table. In front of two armed men and next to a likewise armed woman who was giving me scrutinizing, almost sceptical gazes from the side. Even though I had so many questions, only to break the silence, I restrained myself and just hoped that Connor was going to find his way here soon.
