Dan did come home that night as he had promised, but the chance to tell him about Raymond Moore was lost because of the presence of John Reid at our table.
Reid was a weasel if there ever was one. He bullied me in my lessons, scolded me constantly about my penmanship, and was not “agreeable to the newest rules and truest methods practiced by the best teachers,” as he advertised in the Pennsylvania Gazette for his boys’ school in Trenton.
And he was a Tory, reason alone for me to hate him. I’d heard that he birched the boys in his school when they misbehaved. If it was true, it added a menacing quality to him, which he did nothing to dispel.
Mother said nothing about my misadventures that day. She was too busy supervising Lucy in the kitchen. She sent me to the parlor to fetch both Reid and Dan for supper. In the hall I met David, freshly scrubbed and dressed. David was fourteen and at the moment very sullen.
“That Reid is a rat.”
“What did he do, David?”
“Told Father I was with Fitch again today.”
“Nothing yet. Hasn’t said a word to me about it.”
That was worse than anything. Father was slow to anger, but when he did, he demanded intellectual argument. You had to defend yourself, and he didn’t back off until you were in tears.
“Reid sent Dan for me, that’s what he did.”
“Did Dan scold?”
“No. Dan understands what I’m trying to do with Fitch. All he said was to be careful. Then I got back here and found that Reid had told Father. Who does he think he is, a member of this family?”
“Mother and Father have practically adopted him, you know that, David. We just have to put up with him.”
“You, maybe. But I don’t. I tell you, he’s a rat.”
“A weasel was more what I had in mind.” I kissed the side of his face. He was taller than I, even though I was fifteen that December of 1775. I would be sixteen in March. “Just be good at supper. Maybe Father will forget it.”
“Some chance.”
I found Dan and Reid in front of the hearth in the parlor, each with a mug in his hand, conspiring. Then Dan gave a hearty laugh. The firelight slanted their shadows across the room.
John Reid was twenty-four, and I would be lying if I said he wasn’t handsome. He was finely dressed in rust-colored breeches and coat with a lace cravat at his throat. His parents were dead. They had drowned at sea when their ship went down on a trip to England three years ago. His father and mine had been boyhood friends. His inheritance had allowed him to open his school for boys on King Street. He lived alone above the establishment, as befitted a weasel.
Dan was twenty, as tall as Reid but broader and more direct in manner. He wore boots and immaculate linen breeches, shirt, and waistcoat. The blue and red coat of his regiment, the Second New Jersey, lay over a chair. He wore it not to affect a uniform, but because no other coat fit him since he’d come home from school.
“Dan, Mother says you’re to come in to supper immediately. You too, Mr. Reid.”
“How nice you look, Jem. Doesn’t she look pretty, John?”
Reid inclined his head. “Certainly not like the little girl I started tutoring two years ago.”
I blushed. Usually he treated me as if I were still thirteen. But I preferred that to the way he was looking at me now. Had I known I would elicit such a look from him, I’d have worn sackcloth instead of my blue English gown.
“Jem, I’ve been telling John some of my adventures traveling through the county.”
“Should you? Mr. Reid is a Tory.”
“Jemima! John is our friend! And I think that’s uncalled for. You should apologize.”
“Mr. Reid doesn’t apologize for being a Tory, do you, Mr. Reid?” I looked up at him.
“One should never apologize for one’s beliefs, Jemima.”
“Are you saying that if one believes in something or in doing something, they should do it?”
“Absolutely.”
“Then why did you tell Father about David’s activities this afternoon?” I asked.
“Jemima,” Dan interrupted, “David is a child and he ran away from his responsibilities with Mr. Singer. As for John Reid’s politics, they’re his business. Our parents have opened our home to him. You know how it is in Trenton these days. Lots of Father’s friends are Tories. Reverend Panton, for instance.”
“Why?”
“Reverend Panton didn’t go up to Boston last summer and mingle with the Tories and stay until autumn.”
“Jemima! I’m ashamed of you! John Reid accompanied Mother and me to Becky’s wedding. We couldn’t have done without him in getting around a town held by the British.”
“Then why didn’t he come home with you and Mother after the wedding? Why did he stay on so long in a town held by the British?”
Dan set his mug on the mantel and turned to me. I could see why he would make a good officer. His scowl was fierce enough. “Jemima, I must insist that you apologize to John as a friend of this family and a guest under our roof.”
There was nothing in his look to indicate that he would stand for anything less. But John Reid put a hand on his arm. “It’s all right, Dan.”
“It isn’t,” Dan insisted.
“Jemima is only provoking me, much the same as she does when I tutor her.”
“And do you take this from her then? Constantly?”
John smiled. “I have my ways of getting back. Jemima will be doing extra doses of French and penmanship Friday, I can assure you.”
Dan shook his head. “I don’t know why you two can’t get along. It makes me sad. I love you both. Jemima, it was your choice to have John for a tutor, wasn’t it?”
“Only because if I didn’t, I’d have to go to Miss Rodger’s like Rebeckah, and learn to play the harpsichord and mingle with all those silly girls.”
“Ah, you see John? You’re the lesser of two evils.”
Reid gave a mock bow. “Your sister’s honesty is refreshing, and more than I enjoyed with Rebeckah, who wrote from Boston within two weeks of marrying a British officer that she loved me.”
“Ah, Rebeckah.” Dan reached for his coat and put it on. “My darling sister hasn’t set foot in this house since she returned from Boston. You’re well out of it with Rebeckah, John. Don’t remind me of her. It’s bad enough I have to go to Grandfather Henshaw’s tomorrow and see her. Father’s orders. No doubt Grandfather wants to talk to me about joining up. I was hoping you’d come along, Jem. You always can sweeten Grandfather’s mood.”
“Oh, can I come, Dan?”
He smiled. “If you apologize to John. The war is out there, and we’ll all be involved in it soon enough. Let’s not allow it to enter our lives just yet. I’d like you two to become friends before I go away.”
He had me cornered. Reid saw it and took pleasure in it. “I’m sorry, Mr. Reid,” I said. The haughty gleam in his eyes brought tears to my own as I ran from the room.