The Fort: A Novel of the Revolutionary War Part 7

"I've spoken to the commodore, sir," Welch said very formally, "and he gave his consent that my men should be at your disposal when not required for naval duties."

"That's most encouraging," Lovell said.

"Two hundred and twenty-seven marines, sir, fit for duty. Good men, sir."

"I've no doubt."

"Well-trained," Welch went on, his unblinking gaze fixed on Lovell's eyes, "and well-disciplined."

"A most valuable addition to our force," Lovell said, unsure what else he could say.

"I want to fight, sir," Welch said, as if he suspected Lovell might not use his marines.

"I am confident the opportunity will come," Lovell said uneasily.

"I hope so, sir," Welch said, then at last turned his gaze away from the general and nodded towards a fine-looking ship, the General Putnam General Putnam, one of four privateers that had been commandeered by the Ma.s.sachusetts Navy because their owners had balked at volunteering their craft. The General Putnam General Putnam carried twenty cannons, all of them nine-pounders, and she was reckoned one of the finest ships on the New England coast. "We put a score of marines on the carried twenty cannons, all of them nine-pounders, and she was reckoned one of the finest ships on the New England coast. "We put a score of marines on the Putnam Putnam, sir," Welch said, "and they're led by Captain Carnes. You know him, sir?"

"I know John Carnes," Lovell said, "he captains the Hector Hector."

"This is his brother, sir, and a fine officer. He served under General Washington as a captain of artillery."

"A fine posting," Lovell said, "yet he left it for the marines?"

"Captain Carnes prefers to see men up close as he kills them, sir," Welch said evenly, "but he knows his artillery, sir. He's a very competent gunner."

Lovell understood immediately that Saltonstall had despatched Welch with the news, implicitly suggesting that Colonel Revere could be left behind and replaced by Captain Carnes, and Lovell bristled at the suggestion. "We need Colonel Revere and his officers," he said.

"I never suggested otherwise, sir," Welch said, "merely that Captain Carnes has an expertise that might be useful to you."

Lovell felt acutely uncomfortable. He sensed that Welch had little faith in the militia and was trying to stiffen Lovell's force with the professionalism of his marines, but Lovell was determined that Ma.s.sachusetts should reap the credit for the expulsion of the British. "I'm sure Colonel Revere knows his business," Lovell said stoutly. Welch did not reply to that, but stared at Lovell who again felt disconcerted by the intensity of the gaze. "Of course, any advice Captain Carnes has ..." Lovell said, and let his voice trail away.

"I just wanted you to know we have an artilleryman in the marines, sir," Welch said, then stepped a pace back and offered Lovell a salute.

"Thank you, Captain," Lovell said, and felt relieved when the huge marine strode away.

The minutes pa.s.sed. The church clocks in Boston struck the hour, the quarters, and then the hour again. Major William Todd, one of the expedition's two brigade majors, brought the general a mug of tea. "Newly made in the galley, sir."

"Thank you."

"The leaves captured by the brig King-Killer King-Killer, sir," Todd said, sipping his own tea.

"It's kind of the enemy to supply us with tea," Lovell said lightly.

"Indeed it is, sir," Todd said and then, after a pause, "So Mister Revere is delaying us?"

Lovell knew of the antipathy between Todd and Revere and did his best to defuse whatever was in the major's mind. Todd was a good man, meticulous and hardworking, but somewhat unbending. "I'm sure Lieutenant-Colonel Revere has very good cause to be absent," he said firmly.

"He always does," Todd said. "In all the time he commanded Castle Island I doubt he spent a single night there. Mister Revere, sir, likes the comfort of his wife's bed."

"Don't we all?"

Todd brushed a speck of lint from his blue uniform coat. "He told General Wadsworth that he supplied rations for Major Fellows' men."

"I'm certain he had cause for that."

"Fellows died of the fever last August," Todd then stepped a pace back in deference to the approach of the commodore.

Saltonstall glowered again at Lovell from beneath the peak of his c.o.c.ked hat. "If your d.a.m.ned fellow isn't coming," Saltonstall said, "then perhaps we might be allowed to get on with this d.a.m.ned war without him?"

"I'm sure Colonel Revere will be here very soon," Lovell said emolliently, "or we shall receive news of him. A messenger has been sent ash.o.r.e, Commodore."

Saltonstall grunted and walked away. Major Todd frowned at the retreating commodore. "He takes after his mother's side of the family, I think. The Saltonstalls are usually most agreeable folk."

Lovell was saved from responding by a hail from the brig Diligent Diligent. Colonel Revere, it seemed, had been sighted. He and three other officers were being rowed in the smart white-painted barge that served Castle Island, and the sternsheets of the barge, which was being rowed by a dozen blue-shirted men, were heaped high with baggage. Colonel Revere sat just forrard of the baggage and, as the barge came close to the Warren Warren on its way to the brig on its way to the brig Samuel Samuel, Revere waved up at Lovell. "G.o.d speed us, General!" he shouted.

"Where have you been?" Lovell called sharply.

"A last night with the family, General!" Revere shouted happily, and then was out of earshot.

"A last night with the family?" Todd asked in wonderment.

"He must have misunderstood my orders," Lovell said uncomfortably.

"I think you will discover, sir," Todd said, "that Colonel Revere misunderstands all orders that are not to his liking."

"He's a patriot, Major," Lovell reproved, "a fine patriot!"

It took more time for the fine patriot's baggage to be hoisted aboard the brig, then the barge itself had to be readied for the voyage. It seemed Colonel Revere wished the Castle Island barge to be part of his equipment, for her oars were lashed to the thwarts and then she was attached by a towline to the Samuel Samuel. Then, at last, as the sun climbed to its height, the fleet was ready. The capstans turned again, the great anchors broke free and, with their sails bright in the summer sun, the might of Ma.s.sachusetts sailed from Boston harbor.

To captivate, to kill, and to destroy.

Lieutenant John Moore sat astride a camp stool, his legs either side of an empty powder barrel that served as a table. A tent sheltered him from a bl.u.s.tery west wind that brought spits of rain to patter hard on the yellowed canvas. Moore's job as paymaster for the 82nd Regiment bored him, even though the detailed work was done by Corporal Brown who had been a clerk in a Leith countinghouse before becoming drunk one morning and so volunteering for the army. Moore turned the pages of the black-bound ledger that recorded the regiment's wages. "Why is Private Neill having fourpence a week deducted?" Moore asked the corporal.

"Lost his boot-blacking, sir."

"Boot-blacking cannot cost that much, surely?"

"Expensive stuff, sir," Corporal Brown said.

"Plainly. I should buy some and resell it to the regiment."

"Major Fraser wouldn't like that, sir, on account that his brother already does."

Moore sighed and turned another stiff page of the thick paybook. He was supposed to check the figures, but he knew Corporal Brown would have done a meticulous job, so instead he stared out of the tent's open flaps to the western rampart of Fort George where some gunners were making a platform for one of their cannon. The rampart was still only waist high, though the ditch beyond was now lined with wooden spikes that were more formidable to look at than negotiate. Beyond the rampart was a long stretch of cleared ground studded with raw pine stumps. That land climbed gently to the peninsula's bluff where trees still stood thick and where tendrils of fog drifted through dark branches. Corporal Brown saw where Moore was looking. "Can I ask you something, sir?"

"Whatever enters your head, Brown."

The corporal nodded towards the timbered bluff that was little more than half a mile from the fort. "Why didn't the brigadier make the fort there, sir?"

"You would have done so, Corporal, if you had command here?"

"It's the highest piece of land, sir. Isn't that where you make a fort?"

Moore frowned, not because he disapproved of the question, which, he thought, was an eminently sensible inquiry, but because he did not know how to frame the answer. To Moore it was obvious why McLean had chosen the lower position. It was to do with the interlocking of the ships' guns and the fort's cannon, with making the best of a difficult job, but though he knew the answer, he did not quite know how to express it. "From here," he said, "our guns command both the harbor entrance and the harbor itself. Suppose we were all up on that high ground? The enemy could sail past us, take the harbor and village, and then starve us out at their leisure."

"But if the b.a.s.t.a.r.ds take that high ground, sir ..." Brown said dubiously, leaving the thought unfinished.

"If the b.a.s.t.a.r.ds seize that high ground, Corporal," Moore said, "then they will place cannon there and fire down into the fort." That was the risk McLean had taken. He had given the enemy the chance to take the high ground, but only so that he could do his job better, which was to defend the harbor. "We don't have enough men," Moore went on, "to defend the bluff, but I can't think they'll land men there. It's much too steep."

Yet the rebels would land somewhere. By leaning forward on his makeshift stool Moore could just make out the three sloops-of-war anch.o.r.ed in line across the harbor mouth. General McLean had suggested the enemy might try to attack that line, break it, and then land men on the beach below the fort, and Moore tried to imagine such a fight. He tried to turn the wisps of fog into powder smoke, but his imagination failed. The eighteen-year-old John Moore had never experienced battle, and every day he wondered how he would respond to the smell of powder and the screams of the wounded and the chaos.

"Lady approaching, sir," Corporal Brown warned Moore.

"Lady?" Moore asked, startled from his reverie, then saw that Bethany Fletcher was approaching the tent. He stood and ducked under the tent flap to greet her, but the sight of her face tied his tongue, so he simply stood there, awkward, hat in hand, smiling.

"Lieutenant Moore," Bethany said, stopping a pace away.

"Miss Fletcher," Moore managed to speak, "as ever, a pleasure." He bowed.

"I was told to give you this, sir." Bethany held out a slip of paper.

The paper was a receipt for corn and fish that James Fletcher had sold to the quartermaster. "Four shillings!" Moore said.

"The quartermaster said you'd pay me, sir," Bethany said.

"If Mister Reidhead so orders, then I shall obey. And it will be my pleasure to pay you, Miss Fletcher," Moore said. He looked at the receipt again. "It must have been a rare quant.i.ty of corn and fish! Four shillings' worth!"

Bethany bridled. "It was Mister Reidhead who decided the amount, sir."

"Oh, I am not suggesting that the amount is excessive," Moore said, reddening. If he lost his composure when faced by a girl, he thought, how would he ever face the enemy? "Corporal Brown!"

"Sir?"

"Four shillings for the lady!"

"At once, sir," Brown said, coming from the tent, though instead of holding coins he brought a hammer and a chisel that he took to a nearby block of wood. He had one silver dollar that he laid on the timber, then he carefully placed the chisel's blade to make a single radial cut in the coin. The hammer smacked down and the coin leaped up from the chisel's bite. "It's daft, sir, to slit a coin into five pieces," Brown grumbled, replacing the dollar. "Why can't we make four pieces worth one shilling and threepence each?"

"Because it's easier to cut a coin into four parts rather than five?" Moore asked.

"Of course it is, sir. Cutting into four only need a wide chisel blade and two cuts," Brown grumbled, then hammered another cut into the dollar, slicing away a wedge of silver that he pushed across the chopping-block towards Bethany. "There, miss, one shilling."

Bethany took the sharp-edged slice. "Is this how you pay the soldiers?" she asked Moore.

"Oh, we don't get paid, miss," Corporal Brown answered, "except in promissory notes."

"Give Miss Fletcher the remainder of the coin," Moore suggested, "and she will have her four shillings and you need cut no more." There was a shortage of coinage so the brigadier had decreed that each silver dollar was worth five shillings. "Stop staring!" Moore called sharply to the gunners who had paused in their work to admire Beth Fletcher. Moore picked up the ravaged dollar and held it to Bethany. "There Miss Fletcher, your fee."

"Thank you, sir." Bethany put the shilling slice back on the block. "So how many promissory notes do you have to write each week?" she asked.

"How many?" Moore was momentarily puzzled by the question. "Oh, we don't issue notes as such, Miss Fletcher, but we do record in the ledger what wages are owed. The specie is kept for more important duties, like paying you for corn and fish."

"And you must need a lot of corn and fish for two whole regiments," she said. "What is that? Two thousand men?"

"If only we were so numerous," Moore said with a smile. "In truth, Miss Fletcher, the 74th musters just four hundred and forty men and we Hamiltons number scarce half that. And we hear now that the rebels are readying a fleet and an army to a.s.sail us!"

"And you think that report is true?" Bethany asked.

"The fleet, perhaps, is already on its way."

Bethany stared past the three sloops to where wisps of mist drifted across the wide Pen.o.bscot River. "I pray, sir," she said, "that there will be no fighting."

"And I pray otherwise," Moore said.

"Really?" Bethany sounded surprised. She turned to look at the young lieutenant as if she had never really noticed him before. "You want there to be a battle?"

"Soldiering is my chosen profession, Miss Fletcher," Moore said, and felt very fraudulent as he said it, "and battle is the fire in which soldiers are tempered."

"The world would be better without such fire," Bethany said.

"True, no doubt," Moore said, "but we did not strike the flint on the iron, Miss Fletcher. The rebels did that, they set the fire and our task is to extinguish the flame." Bethany said nothing, and Moore decided he had sounded pompous. "You should come to Doctor Calef's house in the evening," he said.

"We should, sir?" Bethany asked, looking again at Moore.

"There is music in the garden when the weather permits, and dancing."

"I don't dance, sir," Bethany said.

"Oh, it is the officers who dance," Moore said hastily, "the sword dance." He suppressed an urge to demonstrate a capering step. "You would be most welcome," he said instead.

"Thank you, sir," Bethany said, then pocketed the ravaged dollar and turned away.

"Miss Fletcher!" Moore called after her.

She turned back. "Sir?"

But Moore had no idea what to say, indeed he had surprised himself by calling after her in the first place. She was gazing at him, waiting. "Thank you for the supplies," he managed to say.

"It is business, Lieutenant," Beth said evenly.

"Even so, thank you," Moore said, confused.

"Does that mean you'd sell to the Yankees too, miss?" Corporal Brown asked cheerfully.

"We might give to them," Beth said, and Moore could not tell whether she was teasing or not. She looked at him, gave a half smile, and walked away.

"A rare good-looking la.s.sie," Corporal Brown said.

"Is she?" Moore asked most unconvincingly. He was gazing down the slope to where the settlement's houses were spread along the harbor sh.o.r.e. He tried to imagine men fighting there, ranks of men blasting musket-fire, the cannons thundering the sky with noise, the harbor filled with half-sunken ships, and he thought how sad it would be to die amidst that chaos without ever having held a girl like Bethany in his arms.