Forever Young Birth Of A Nation (53 page)

***

Cosette pondered the strange visions she had
been having lately. It seemed that she was seeing things that Ian
was seeing. There were visions of being at sea, of a campfire.
There were other things too but for some reason, they were
obscured, kept from her some way. It was unsettling while at the
same time, she craved every little detail just to somehow be nearer
to Ian. It had passed, but she had certainly been very conscious of
a strong impression of his unique eyes, his penetrating gaze as he
scanned the horizon of the sea. She was certain that he had sailed
that day with friends and she was certain that it was near Boston.
The urge to go there was overpowering, but she had to finish
helping Priscilla to develop her skills and she had become involved
with the spy ring now too. Not only would she have to interrupt
that, but she would have to leave the Millhouse home to go to
Boston and find a way to leave Stuart behind. There could be no
plausible reason for a woman to travel to Boston alone, so she
would just have to leave when no one was about and leave a note
saying where she had gone. This would expose the others while she
was gone, and that weighed on her too. How long could she be gone
before the risk to the humans was unacceptable? She sighed deeply,
and turned to Priscilla saying “Prissy, would you like to go to
Boston with me?”

***

“I hated to see them leave, James”

He sighed as he waved one last time at the
two who had turned to wave goodbye from a hilltop. “Me too” he said
as he put an arm about her waist, pulling her closer.

“I loved the sailing trip. It was heavenly
being at sea that way. I am going to miss them so.”

“I have an idea that might cheer you up a
bit.”

She looked at him, a mischievous grin
appearing from nowhere as she said “James! They are barely out of
sight and you’re going to drag me to our bedroom?”

“Heaven help me but I have married a lusty
wench!” he said laughing as he continued, saying “I thought we
would take the carriage and go to look for our new house.”

Melissa’s mouth dropped open in disbelief
then and she looked so comical that he threw back his head and
laughed uproariously, saying “Oh Melissa, you should see yourself
now! I haven’t seen that look since you saw those Seneca braves
pissing on the chicken pen.”

Laughing then she flung herself into his
arms, kissing him and pulling back, frowning then “Now you are not
joking are you, truly? James, don’t you dare tease me now!”

“No jokes Melissa. I thought that since you
are going to be married to a banker that you might want to live in
a home that a banker’s wife would appreciate.”

“Oh James! This is so exciting.” She
smothered him with kisses rapidly only stopping to pull her head
back a couple of seconds to say “I know just where to look” as she
resumed kissing him all over his face. Suddenly she pulled her head
back again, eyes wide, saying “Oh, how much can we spend?”

“We can buy any home in this town that is
for sale, Melissa” he said with a smile.

She gasped as she said “Any home? Truly
James?”

“Get your hat, parasol, and gloves Mrs.
Barrows. I’ll hook up the horse. We’re going house shopping.”

***

Ian and Moon Owl rocketed to the west, into
the frontier country beyond the Hudson River valley. They took a
different route than any they had taken before, often turning aside
to see one thing or another. He loved traveling this way as opposed
to being on horseback or in a wagon or carriage

They made love under the stars and talked of
how they would live in New York City after the war and how they
would arrange things so that they could get away every summer and
come through this country to the land of the Seneca. He spoke at
great length then, describing each member of his human family and
of his vampire family too. She was very curious about all of them,
memorizing their names and who each was married to. Little Aimee
proved to be a topic of extra interest to her and she was simply
fascinated by how they had saved the little girl and how she had
become such a beloved member of their family. She had listened in
wide-eyed wonder to his description of Celeste and her prescient
abilities as well as her incredible singing ability. That night she
told Ian that she couldn’t wait for the war to end so that she
could travel to Europe with him and see all of the people he loved
as well as some of the great cities of that part of the world.

They arrived late the third day and Ian had
brought in two fresh deer carcasses, one tied to each end of a
three inch sapling across his shoulders. A big feast was held that
evening, officially welcoming them back and that was followed by a
powwow and smoking of the ceremonial pipe. Ian got his violin out
and entertained them all with a medley of old Gaelic tunes;
everything that he knew how to play really, including even some
music by Vivaldi and Bach.

The next day he took care of repairs that
the cabin needed before doing much of anything else. Mostly it was
chinking needed between some of the logs. Adding a corral for the
livestock was another project involving the making a split-rail
fence by splitting chestnut logs. By the end of the first three
days all of the maintenance and repairs were done and the two of
them settled into a routine involving a lot of fellowship with the
Seneca people themselves.

In spite of the fact that Ian often did
things that the Seneca thought should only be done by women, he
enjoyed great respect among the people who merely thought that he
was eccentric. Much of that respect was for his fame earned while
playing Lacrosse while much of it was for his being known to be a
prolific hunter and warrior. By now the entire village knew that he
and James had killed seven Mohawk braves the first time they ever
came to the land of the Seneca, even if they were uncertain about
the details of the story.

He and Moon Owl settled in to the routine of
the village and an idyllic summer began. At quiet times Ian would
have vivid visions involving Cosette. Quite often he visualized her
lovely face and exquisite eyes, and again it seemed as if she was
alive and somehow watching over him. This was different than when
he had been haunted by the memories of her and Alandra, especially
on the voyage to America. This was somehow hopeful but he could not
understand how or what it all meant. He was always left with a
feeling of peace and well-being when a session ended and he never
ceased to ponder it and wonder at it all. There was no one to share
the thing with though. Had they still been with James and Melissa,
he would have shared the details with James. He considered and
rejected the idea of sharing this with Moon Owl because he could
not bear the thought of hurting her. As the summer opened and
bloomed, so did his visions, coming softly when he was not
distracted by other things, during quiet times when he could savor
them.

Although unexplainable, he now embraced the
visions and secretly loved these vivid reveries when they came.
When one especially poignant session had ended while he was
repairing the plow one day he thought
how strange my life has
been as a vampire. It seems that I have become your willing captive
throughout eternity, Cosette.

Cosette and Priscilla rocketed through the
countryside, traveling northward. Permission for Priscilla to take
a short foray had been grudgingly been granted by Yvonne. Priscilla
had made her case being that once they had settled in to their new
home at the Stedman estate, she would be occupied full time keeping
order in the tenant house with the coven. She had pointed out that
no longer would they be out in the countryside by themselves, but
would be confined to twelve acres, and otherwise surrounded by
humans. Her duties would put more strain on both her and Yvonne.
Tactfully she told Yvonne that she would herself be under more
strain and needed the short distraction of an adventure. She had
even invited Yvonne to come away with her for a short adventure,
knowing that she would never do it. Yvonne’s ego was fed by the
thought that Priscilla seemingly wanted to share her private time
with her.

Put that way, Yvonne felt that she couldn’t
refuse her, being as she was so dependable and being as she seemed
to be drawing nearer to Oliver too. In the end, she decided that
this would cement her ties to the coven even more, being as
Priscilla clearly was being allowed a freedom and trust not
extended to the others.

For her part, Cosette was very happy to have
her along for company, and had secretly dreaded going alone. So it
was that the two had departed for Boston.

***

Toward dusk, Melissa and James came home.
She went inside and lit several of their oil lamps while James
unhitched the horse and turned her into the small pasture behind
the house. They had no sooner settled in for the evening and began
to discuss the various neighborhoods they had visited than there
was a knock at the door. Opening it, James saw two women dressed in
sturdy trousers, long sleeved shirts, boots, wide-brimmed hats, and
each carrying a ruck sack on their backs.

The taller of the two said “I am Cosette
McCloud, the wife of Ian McCloud and this is Priscilla Weeks. Are
you…”

There was a loud crash behind James as
Melissa dropped a large serving bowl she was holding. All eyes went
to her as she stood there staring at the two.

“Y… you are Mrs. Ian McCloud? But she… she
is dead. Tell her James.”

James turned to Cosette, saying “How can you
be Cosette McCloud when she is dead?”

Cosette and Priscilla both removed their
hats and Cosette said “May we come in, Mr. Barrows? I have a letter
here from Robert Milliken advising me that my husband lives in
Boston.” She handed the letter to James who glanced at it wide-eyed
and opened the door, wordlessly beckoning them to enter. He waved
them to the sofa and went to the kitchen to fetch two chairs,
bringing them back to place them opposite the sofa. They both sat
down as he read the letter, recognizing Robert’s signature.

“This is Robert’s handwriting all right. I
hardly know what to say, Cosette and Miss Weeks is it? I hope you
wouldn’t be offended if I asked you a few questions about Ian that
his wife would know the answers to.”

Cosette smiled sweetly then and said “I
would expect a good friend of my husband to do no less” as she
allowed her exquisite eyes to glow softly.

***

Alexander and Simone Dubois both approached
the darkened home in the northern quarter of Marseille.
Accompanying them were Louis, Celeste, Mustafa, Liri, Li and
Sophia. Both Alexander and Simone had been thoroughly and properly
imprinted by the family at the old abandoned house south of the
Angel’s Care Orphanage in Paris. Henri had bought the property some
five years ago and had left it looking dilapidated, but furnished
with a few things that the family might need in a pinch, secured in
a special room in the cellar.

Aside from catching and draining game,
tolerance to sunlight, oral hygiene, the blood fast, and strict
control of strength their imprinting had also included basic
swordsmanship, marksmanship, and the equal use of both their right
and left hands for all things. Basic hand to hand combat had been
taught by Li and the swordsmanship and marksmanship by Mustafa and
Louis. They had enthusiastically accepted Marie’s offer of family
membership the day after they had been freed from Moreau’s coven
rather than be free to go their own way. That night they had seen
enough to know that this remarkable group was a cohesive team after
witnessing the efficient way they had raided the place. Their
exposure to the others during their first day of imprinting
convinced the two more than ever to stay with the Lafayette family.
The concerned and caring way that they were taken in to complete
the process in spite of the grave warning to never take human blood
convinced the two that they could be in no better hands than to be
a part of this clan. Jennifer and Aimee both told them of the
circumstances of their adoption and that reinforced their decision
even more.

So it was on this night that they were on
their first mission, being to reconnoiter a suspected coven house
in Marseille. Like spiders the pair worked the south side of the
three story house slowly crawling from window to window in their
black fighting suits. The others worked other sides of the house
and all were listening intently at each window, their keen hearing
attuned to the slightest sound coming from inside.

They took their time, working patiently and
listening intently for an hour and a half. What sounded like an owl
hooting three times in succession was the signal to withdraw and
they silently descended in the blackness of the moonless night and
bounded away to the north around two hundred feet, just the other
side of a small grove of trees.

Louis drew a birds-eye view of the place in
the dirt and began to query each one according to where they had
been. The vampires could easily see his sketch by the starlight. He
would put a number on each side of the building according to what
that person thought they heard. The number came to twenty one
vampires. Then Celeste was asked to give her count based on what
she sensed and nothing else.

“There are eighteen of them, and fourteen
are males. Likely some were in more than one part of the house and
got counted twice. They mostly are in the parlor and eight of them
are on the 2
^nd
floor and none on the 3
^rd
floor.”

Alexander asked “What now?”

“You and Simone get to stay until dawn and
see how many more return by then.”

“Alone?”

Louis and Celeste chuckled as he said “No.
Mustafa and Liri will stay with you.” Tonight would be only a probe
to estimate the enemy’s’ strength, but it was a thrill for both
Alexander and Simone being their first mission.