![]() ![]() ![]() She shook her head violently and pulled me back down to my seat, a shaky finger on her lips to quiet me. I stood, legs quivering, head pounding, heart leaping. Rowed us away from Manhattan, the British army, and those who owned us. ![]() She’d rowed a boat, this ancient boat, all night long. Isabel had freed me from the Bridewell Prison. Like a flint hitting steel, a memory sparked, then flared. The handles of both oars were bloodstained where she had gripped them. Isabel’s hands lay in her lap, bleeding from torn blisters. I blinked for the third time and took a deep breath. Before me sat a girl, her right cheek scarred by a branding iron, her eyes swollen with fatigue. The air here was cold but clean, without the stink of jailed men and death. In truth, I am still a prisoner of the war in the Bridewell. This is a fantastical dream created by my fever. I closed my eyes and struggled to think past the ice cluttering my head. The cold was a beast gnawing at my fingers and toes. I was sitting in a rowboat half pulled onto a snowy riverbank. I blinked against the bright light and squinted. THE BIRTH - DAY OF A NEW WORLD IS AT HAND.ĬAN YOU WALK?” SOMEONE ASKED ME. WE HAVE IT IN OUR POWER TO BEGIN THE WORLD OVER AGAIN. This book is dedicated to the memory of my mother, She quoted a popular paraphrase of a Psalm ![]()
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