of its hiding place, and frantically wrote down everything I’d heard from the general and the governor.
The next morning, I was barely able to focus on Olive’s lessons and let her get away with far more chatter than I usually allowed in the schoolroom. When the music teacher and drawing master arrived that afternoon, I almost ran over them in my haste to get out to the park. I hoped that someone would be looking for me the day after the party to see if I’d come through with a story. I walked my usual route and encountered Alec near the spot where he’d rescued me from the carriage. “I knew you’d come around,” he said with a smile when he saw me.
Grabbing his arm more fiercely than I intended, I whispered, “I have no gossip for you about how richly the governor lives.” He raised an eyebrow and opened his mouth to speak, but I rushed ahead. “However, I do need to warn you.” Barely stopping to catch my breath, I spilled out everything I’d overheard from the governor and the general. “I thought I should let you know,” I finished.
He patted me on the shoulder. “Easy, Verity. Come, you should sit down.” He got me settled on the nearest bench and sat next to me, holding my hand. With a grin, he said, “That’s intelligence, not news. My dearest Verity, you’ve just become the most valuable spy in our organization.”
“A spy?” I squeaked, startled enough by what he said that I barely noticed him holding my hand. “I’m not a spy. I was just warning you so you’d know to stay out of their way.”
“You’ve brought us intelligence from within the enemy camp. That makes you a spy.”
If someone had told me when I left New Haven that I would become a rebel spy, I would have found the idea preposterous. But it had come about so gradually—accepting the ride, helping Nat, being rescued by Alec, becoming friends with Lizzie, going to the rebel party, escaping from the police, writing the article, and now reporting what I’d heard from the governor. Each step had seemed so easy and had led to the next, larger step. That was the way my pastor said sin worked, but I didn’t think this was a sin. It couldn’t be wrong to protect people I cared about.
“I’m not spying, not really,” I whispered, but whether I was talking to myself or to Alec, I wasn’t sure.
He squeezed my hand and placed his other hand on top of it. “Verity, listen to me,” he said. “I would never ask you to do anything dangerous, but your position gives you access to important people, and that means you may overhear things that could help us or keep us out of trouble. You haven’t been sworn to secrecy, have you?”
“No,” I admitted.
“Then it’s their fault if they talk in front of you as though you weren’t there.”
I nodded, feeling increasingly aware of his hands clasping mine. He stood and pulled me to my feet. “And now, I believe you are a governess with a free hour. Shall we take a stroll in the park? We can discuss my plans for a steam-powered brick-throwing machine. I would hate to disappoint the governor.” He tucked my hand into the crook of his elbow, and we set off down the park path, laughing as we came up with ideas for silly machines he could invent. By the time I returned home, I’d nearly forgotten that I’d unwittingly become a rebel spy.
The next afternoon, Mr. Chastain the butler brought me a letter that had come in the post. It was from Lizzie. She made no reference to the information I’d given Alec or the fact that I hadn’t written an article about the governor’s lavish lifestyle. She merely invited me to come along on an outing the Mechanics were planning that Sunday and to spend Saturday night with her so we could get an early start. They were going to use the steam engine to take poor children from the slums to the park on the Battery for a picnic and a demonstration of some machines.
That was the day and place the general had planned to begin the show of military force.
IN WHICH I ATTEMPT PERSUASION
I rushed to the park to look for Lizzie or Alec the moment I was free on Friday afternoon, but they were nowhere to be found. I went to the coffee shop where Lizzie and