Forge by Laurie Halse Anderson

Author:Laurie Halse Anderson [Anderson, Laurie Halse]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781416961444
Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Published: 2011-08-02T07:00:00+00:00

THE QUESTIONS FIRED AT ME LIKE BLASTS of grapeshot soon as I entered the hut.

“You worked for a congressman?”

“What kind of work?”

“Were you a valet? Did you serve tea?”

“Why didn’t you tell us?”

“Is he rich?”

“He’s got to be rich, he’s a congressman.”

“Why would a congressman ride such a sickly nag?”

“Enough!” I shouted. “I can’t answer if you keep shouting.”

I took my time sitting in front of the fire, trying to sort out what I could and could not tell them.

“When I worked for him, Mister Bellingham was not a congressman. I cannot say for sure that he is one now. He is a man of business.” I pulled off my right stocking and wrung the water from it. “His father was a firm supporter of the King, but Mister Bellingham was not. He wrote pamphlets supporting the rebellion and joined the Sons of Liberty, which angered his father so much, the old man disowned him. That’s when we moved to New York.”

“The two of you moved together?” Eben asked.

I laid the stocking right in front of the fire. “Bellingham and his wife moved. I went with them, of course, because I worked for them.” I took off the second stocking and squeezed the water from it, too. “Mister Bellingham opened a trading firm there, both for his livelihood and as a ruse. Part of his true purpose in New York was to operate a hive of spies for General Washington. New York was crawling with two-faced Tories.”

“Hold there a moment,” Silvenus said. “You worked for a nob who worked for His Excellency General Washington?”

I laid the second stocking next to the first. “I just said that, yes.”

“Ever seen the general? Ever serve him wine or light his pipe?”

I dared not admit the truth of the matter. “Only from a distance,” I said, “when I was holding Mister Bellingham’s horse or delivering a message.”

One of my stockings started to smoke. I pulled it away from the hearth before it could burst into flame.

“I’m confused.” Henry Barry had wrapped himself in his blankets. “I thought you was apprenticed to a blacksmith.”

“That was later. I left Mister Bellingham’s service to enlist just before the British invaded New York.”

“You must have been young as a pup when you started with him,” Greenlaw said.

“Surely was,” I answered.

“The past does not matter,” Eben said. “Tomorrow does. We should all go with Curzon.”

“Oh, no,” warned Benny Edwards. “We weren’t invited.”

“What if those ruffians come after him again?” Eben asked. “We’ll be his escort of safety. While he talks to the congressmen, we’ll wait in the kitchen. Think about it: the kitchen that feeds visitors from Congress. Don’t you think there might be a few crumbs there for lads like us?”

“Not to mention a proper floor and chairs to sit upon,” Silvenus said.

“No!” I said firmly. “I go alone.”

“He’s right,” Greenlaw said. “There’s a reason he was the only fellow invited.”

Eben and Silvenus both sighed deeply.

“You want to wear my boots?” Benny asked. “My feet are closest to yours in size.

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