355: The Women of Washington's Secret Spy Ring

Chapter 1

"I intend to visit 727 (New York) before long and think by the assistance of a 355 (lady) of my acquaintance, shall be able to outwit them all."

-Samuel Culper, Sr., August 1779

Meg

June, 1776

Meg stared down at the blade of the bayonet, now only inches from her breast. She could feel the July morning heat on her face as a drip of sweat made its way down her back. Meg met the eyes of the bayonet wielder, the shorter of the two men—one could hardly call them "gentlemen," though they were wearing the red waistcoat of the King's army—before taking a step backward. She forced her voice to take on a demanding tone. "Sir?"

The short man narrowed his eyes. "Stealing apples, eh?"

Meg tucked the arm holding the apple behind her back, hiding the evidence behind her voluminous skirt. "I was going to give them to my horse."

"Those apples now belong to the British army." The short man stepped forward, narrowing the gap Meg had tried to put between her and the soldiers.

"Sir, my father serves the King as well. Captain Moncrieffe." Meg glanced across the channel to Staten Island. Her father was on that island now, too far away and too occupied with fighting the Patriots to come to her rescue.

"Haven't heard of him." The short man straightened his arm, realigning the bayonet with Meg's eyes. 

Meg's heartbeat, already at a canter, quickened even more as his partner also moved closer and peered into her face. He flicked his hand out, forcing her cap back before he pushed the other man's gun away. "Leave her alone. Can't you see she's a child?"

Meg refrained from her customary answer: that she was no longer a child.

The bayonet wielder seemed inclined to agree with her. "She's old enough to provide me some relief."

Panic rose again in her chest. She had heard of women being raped, but usually by the rebel army, not her own countrymen. Thankfully the other man replied, "Save yourself for the whores in York City. If her father is indeed a captain and gets word that one of his own raped his daughter, you'd hang from that same apple tree."

Meg let out an audible breath as the men left the orchard. Mrs. De Hart was right: this was no place for a woman. Meg went into the house to fetch a sheet of paper and quill. She had the highest regard for her father. There was no man in the world with more of an attachment to King George, but that also created a difficult living situation for her in the midst of the revolution. Since Meg had returned from Europe, it seemed she found herself upon Whig host after Whig host, all extolling the evilness of His Royal Highness.

She'd been with the Bankers in Elizabethtown, accompanying them when they departed for the interior of New Jersey after the British Navy arrived in the Lower Bay. Meg had grown tired of hearing Mrs. Banker's list of complaints against the Crown and the army that served it, including Meg's father himself. She'd left the company of the Bankers while they were at church and fled to the De Hart's farm. The De Hart's were patriot sympathizers, or Whigs, while Meg and her father were opposed to independence and known as Loyalists or Tories. John De Hart had been a member of both Continental Congresses, but Meg was aware that he was in favor of reconciliation with the King. At any rate, Meg had known the De Harts since she was a small child.

Mr. De Hart was reluctant to take her in at first, stating that, since her husband was in Trenton drafting the State Constitution and her youngest son had gone off to fight with the Patriots, she could offer Meg little protection. She eventually relented, herself frightened by the presence of the warships stationed across the bay. Meg and Mrs. DeHart had fallen into a peaceful routine until the British soldiers had ruined it.