I examined the coat, inside and out, adding, “Where will I get these buttons and braid?”
“I have a few. There is a bag here somewhere. Oh, yes.” He took the lid off a Chinese vase and pulled out a ratty linen sack. “Benjamin will get you more. Revere is procuring them as we speak. Benjamin will visit his mother more than he has in the past, and each time he will bring you something. Here is the thing, sister. I need to get this coat out of this house and into yours. I’ll go with you to protect you. As many uniforms as you can make, take them to Hancock’s house in Lexington as soon as you can. I will send blue wool and dye but don’t wait for it; use what you can. Two weeks, I’d like a half dozen or so. It’s not far for you to go, is it, to Hancock’s? Some of their woolens are being shipped from France. If you can use wool you already have, and dye it, so much the better. Tell me if you can do this. I had to have you here to show you. Can you make this coat?”
“I think this might be a shade of indigo mixed with crimson or rouge. I will have to experiment. If you can get your hands on it, send me vinegar. I will need gallons of it, but send all you can. What about trousers? Will you need linen trousers with each coat?”
“Yes, make pants. Wool and linen. Different sizes. Plenty of our men are wearing rags. Two men showed up naked. You never saw the like. Determined as a Trojan but with not a stitch of clothing. Some cut up saddle blankets and sewed themselves some short pants. For that matter, while I’d like to have uniforms, if you have aught to make pants of any sort, rough and homespun, as long as they have buttons I’ll take them. We’ve got Indians, too, but you can’t tell me any man doesn’t get cold in the winter. Summer is coming, but I don’t think, as some of the fools say, that this will be over in a month. We’ll be having this same conversation next year at this time.
“We will leave tonight under cover and take it to your house, return, and you will be able to rest tomorrow. You then leave whenever you feel it is proper. I would not take you but for the woman at your house who might fear me. You have to accompany me. Will you join us, then?”
“I will. But Cullah is there. He would have let you in.”
“No he’s not. The Sons of Liberty have business in Braintree tonight, and I fear your Alice knows too well how to fire a pistol.” He gave me a quick kiss on the cheek, then called, “Anne?”
“Oui?” came a woman’s voice.
“Come in, please.”
A young woman, mahogany colored and strikingly beautiful, entered the room and glanced at me before turning her eyes to August. He said, “Anne, this is my sister, Resolute MacLammond. Ressie, Anne.” He held not the slightest hesitancy that I both knew and could overlook his introductions, for in it he left nothing to be imagined of their relationship in not adding either a last name, “miss,” or “mistress.” August looked me up and down as if he had not seen me before, made a face of near derision, and continued. “I much prefer you in satins, Ressie. I had not expected you in black but more’s the better. Anne, find anything you have as close to the shape of my sister’s gown. Just make it black, it matters not about the details. And fetch that black gauze. Resolute, take this,” he said, holding the filmy cloth to me. “Your hair is too fair and a white cap will shine like a beacon. It is my experience that one can see quite well through this stuff, and it hides the glow of skin. Wear it under your bonnet so it doesn’t blow off. Give Anne your cap. She will wear it, and keep your back to the windows at all times,” he said to her. “We will be back before daybreak. See that you both bar the doors at seven and retire by ten, since that is when I put out the lights.”
“August, it is nearly twelve miles to my house. Another twelve back here. I doubt I can walk that in a night.”
“We’ll take a boat across the river. A man I know keeps two horses always at the ready for me. Tonight I shall take them both.”
“I cannot ride a horse, brother. I have never done it. Can your horse take two?”