The Silver Bullet

Chapter Eight

“ But a British soldier, Marie!”

“ And what, I should have sat here alone like a num waiting for some jackal of a farmer to appear on my doorstep? Thank you for your advice, Jake Gibbs, but I don’t need it. I have fended for myself long before I met you, and will do so long after you are gone. Which, I assume, shall be shortly.”

She pushed away from him on the bed, folding her arms across her breasts. Her stays and hoops, petticoat and dress, lay in a trail back across the room.

“ You always had a sharp tongue. Perhaps I should give you a good spanking,” Jake teased.

“ Try it,” she said without humor, adding in French a phrase that translated roughly as, “And if you do, I shall make a puppet of your louie.”

“ You already have.”

“ Fiddle. No woman can tame you. She would be a fool to try.”

“ That’s why I love you.”

“ And what is the reason you’ve come back?”

“ You’re not enough?”

“ I know you, Jake Gibbs. You’d never risk your neck for me.”

“ I’ve risked it for much less.”

She stepped off the bed and pulled a casual shift from the drawer of her bureau, then went downstairs for something to drink.

Marie Sacre was the descendant of the earliest settlers of the area. Well known in Montreal, which lay less than five miles to the north, she was considered by half the inhabitants a wild eccentric, a thirty-year-old woman who had never condescended to marry. The other half regarded themselves in constant competition for her charms, striving to break her vows against marriage and win her large estate as their prize.

Or as an added prize, since her charms were of considerable value themselves.

Jake had met Marie during the summer of 1775. General Montgomery assigned then-Captain Gibbs to scout Montreal and its environs in preparation for his invasion. After mapping the defenses and delivering his recommendations, Jake returned and entered the city disguised as a local trapper. His new assignment was to recruit Canadians to the Cause, laying the seeds for a local revolt as the Americans approached.

While his French seemed masterful to American ears, Jake quickly discovered that his accent not only gave him away as a foreigner, but greatly undermined his status with his audience. A squad of redcoats ended his second attempt at rallying support, and he was forced to flee the market area about ten steps ahead of the bayonets. He ran down an alley and met Marie, making a forcible impression by knocking her off her feet. Fortunately, he caught her in midair and whisked her upright with the sweep of a dance master. The soldiers closing in, he bowed and dove behind a pile of boxes in a desperate attempt to hide.

Something in her expression had told him she would not give him away, but Marie went beyond his best expectations. Jake listened as she assured the soldiers the alley was empty, but a man had just run inside the leather shop across the way. As the soldiers charged off, Marie hurried Jake to her carriage on the street. He threw off his coat and hat, assuming an ad hoc position as her driver; they rode back down through the square he’d been chased from, past the eyes of several of the soldiers who’d done the chasing.

In the days that followed, Marie helped him clandestinely meet with local opponents to the Crown. The opposition network was one of the reasons — along with the critically weak defenses — that Carleton abandoned the city when Montgomery approached.

By that time Jake had given himself a new mission, having perpetrated one of his greatest hoaxes. He presented himself to his former employer, Carleton, saying he had fled rebel lines to join him. Completely taken in, the governor once again made him his secretary — a position the young patriot used to great and sundry advantage. Carleton did not begin to suspect him until they had retreated together to Quebec, and even then did not take the proper precautions until Jake had managed to do considerable damage to the British cause. Placed under house arrest, he managed the disguised daylight escape Colonel Flanagan had earlier alluded to — but as those exploits are to be recorded elsewhere, we dwell too much on the past to the expense of the present.

“ I thought you had gone to find Clark and turn me in,” said Jake when Marie returned to the room.

“ Don’t be ridiculous. I’ve brought some whiskey. You always liked it.”

“ I still do.”

She made a face, setting down the flagon in front of him. “French wine is better,” she said before sipping from her own glass of run. “But it has been so long since I’ve had some here. All we seem able to get these days is Portuguese rot.”

“ Your grapes?”

“ Last year’s crop was burned on the vine.”

“ Maybe this year’s?”

“ Yes. It seems more auspicious.”

She settled into the wooden chair across from him, pulling it forward and hooking her bare feet on the front rungs, her toes tickling the cross spindle. Her easy rock back and forth in the chair seemed gently seductive.

“ Tell me about Burgoyne’s army,” he said.

“ I don’t know much. It’s obvious that an invasion is planned soon. There were rumors of an attempt this past winter, but apparently the lakes were not sufficiently frozen. At least that was the excuse. It was a mild winter, I’ll admit. The snow left in March, but much of the river was still frozen until a few weeks ago. So perhaps they were just scared.

“ How many troops have come to Montreal?”

“ You’re the spy, not me. All I can tell you is that they are as rude as any soldiers I’ve met. A whole troop of the devils were caught last month stealing the hair from cows’ tails; apparently they fix them to their caps as an insignia. There was a huge row over it. Do you remember Pierre Jacques? Well, they were his cows and he took offense. He went after the soldiers — twenty of them, mind you — and speared on with his pitchfork. They brought him up on charges and were going to hang him before I intervened.

“ You?”

“ I went to Carelton himself.

“ How is my friend the governor?”

She shrugged. Marie had always had a decent opinion of Carleton, and as a large landowner, had stayed on good terms. He did not suspect her connection with Jake.

There is a large troop at Boucherville,” she continued. “They would be the advance guard of any invasion. I know this because I went with Tom on a visit there.”

“ Tom, is it?”

“ There are rumors of boats being built. Many trees have been taken from the forest.”

“ I saw some of the work on the way here,” said Jake. “The invasion must be planned very soon. Does Tome talk about it?”

Marie ignored the sarcastic accent her interrogator put on the British captain’s first name. “He’s very careful about what he says, even with me. But everyone knows General Burgoyne will replace the governor, and that he is to attack quickly. Tom is hoping to be transferred to the general’s command once Carleton resigns, which may be any day.”

In Jake’s view — perhaps prejudiced since he knew Burgoyne only by rumor — Carleton was a much better commander and governor; his resignation was a break for the Americans. But perhaps it had come too late.

“ General Burgoyne is quite a man of learning,” remarked Marie. “They say he writes poetry and plays.”

“ I’ve heard he was a better poet than a general.”

“ If that is so, why did your army retreat to Ticonderoga?”

Jake had no answer for that. Burgoyne’s reputation in Boston had been that of a dilettante whose major military achievement was staying behind the lines while others took a beating. But the facts were these: He was now in Canada and the Americans were not.

“ Carleton met Burgoyne in Quebec a few days ago,” Marie continued. “The ball Tom mentioned is in honor of the general’s arrival here tomorrow. The governor may be angry, but he keeps to the proper forms.”

“ One thing I always admired about him. I’ll compliment him on it tomorrow night if we meet.”

“ You can’t be serious about going to the ball.”

“ I wouldn’t miss it,” said Jake. He was indeed serious — it would give him a chance to chat with every field officer in Burgoyne’s army. It would be an easy matter to obtain the invasion plans, at least in outline. With time running out on the Americans, Jake couldn’t afford to spend several days scouting troops or planning a break-in at the British headquarters. He had to get back to Schuyler as quickly as possible — time was even shorter than Flanagan suspected.

“ I’ll have to buy a new suit of clothes and some face plasters. Since your good Captain Clark has already seen me, I don’t want to arouse his suspicions with a different disguise,” said Jake. “Perhaps you can help me pick out something dashing.”

“ But Jake, if Carleton sees you, he will certainly recognize you.”

“ I’ll just have to take care that he doesn’t, won’t I?”