Page 146 of The Empire and the Wolf King

CHAPTER 67 - JAMES COOK

Quentin, Zach, and I walked out onto the front stoop of the inn.

I said, “Hot damn, this is flipping cool!”

We stepped out of the way as a couple dressed in full colonial clothing swept by and went into the inn. I said, again, “Hot damn.”

Quentin said, “You going to just keep saying that all day?”

“It fits, you know?”

Zach said, “Hell yeah it does.”

I said, “Also, Junior has colic, I’m just glad to be out of the house. Plus, I’m in colonial Virginia.” My eyes swept up and down the street. “HotDamn.”

Quentin said, “How do I look, gentlemanly? This is a lotta pressure.”

I patted his shoulders, squaring them. “You look great. Our clothes look so good, best designer on Etsy. We look like visiting dignitaries. And I thought these powdered wigs were overkill but man I love them.” I put one leg up on the higher step and my elbow on my knee and posed. “Who do I look like?”

“George Washington.”

“And you, Quennie, look like Frederick Douglass. And Zach, ya look just like a Q-tip.”

He laughed. “Very funny,” and put his tricorn hat back on his head. “I’m too tall with a wig and a hat. Where we going?’

I pulled a rolled up parchment from the chest pocket of my blue coat, and unfurled it. “This a nice touch?” It was a hand drawn map I had worked on for hours last night. I had been prepping for this excursion for weeks.

I pointed grandiosely. “That way!”

We strolled through the Main Street crowds headed to the physician’s house, stopping to pause and gawk at the passersby. A carriage careened down the street. Ladies and gentlemen jumped out of the way.

We climbed the steps and rapped on the door.

A servant led us in to see the doctor.

I introduced us as Lady Mairead’s emissaries from Scotland, the mother of the Duke of Awe. This was a test and he didn’t seem to remember at all.

I said, “The Duke and Duchess were here last week. Did you have a chance to meet them?”

“No, I did not have the honor.”

“They left because of the threat of highwaymen.”

“A scourge on our village — what can I do for you, sire?”

I pulled a letter with a wax seal from my bag and bowed and handed it to him with a flourish. I heard Zach stifle a giggle, but I didn’t care, this was the best, most fun thing that ever happened to me besides Sophie and Junior.

Doctor Everett broke the seal and opened the letter. I hadn’t read it, but knew the basic gist: in exchange for a monetary gift we were to get a device that the Duke of Awe had left on the physician’s study shelves.

My job was to sell the idea, and make it seem normal. We weren’t a hundred percent sure the device was there, but probably, maybe… we had to look.

And actually I begged everyone to let me be the one to come and look for the monitor before Magnus used the Bridge to tie up all the loose ends. We had written over our story, but there were things that were still in mid-shift — the wedding record of Lochinvar and Ash and their hazy memories were a sign that we hadn’t fully overwritten everything. We would need to Bridge it, butalso,I had the opportunity to come to Virginia in 1775 — it had always been my dream.

So they relented, and here we were.

Doctor Everett said, “I assure you, sire, there is no device on my shelves.”

Quentin held out a small chest of valuables. “Lady Mairead sent this for your trouble.”

---