Chapter 42

"Are you joking?" Phebe eventually asked in an earnest voice.

"Have I ever been less than truthful with you?" Seth asked.

"No, you have always been honest with me," she admitted with a sigh. Seth rose and took a chair from another table for her to sit on.

"Thank you, Seth," she said, as she sank onto the offered chair.

"So, what do you want with me?" she asked in resignation after a minute or so. "You must want something, or you wouldn't be here."

"We need someone to show us where the British warehouses are in Philadelphia, New York, and however far north your territory extends," I told her.

"That's all!? You don't want help destroying the supplies or escaping?" she asked in disbelief.

"We will handle all of those things ourselves," Kell told her. "We just need a guide to show where things are."

"There is someone who lives just outside of Philadelphia who can help you with that. He is due here later today. He is bringing the report on the latest arrivals. He could take you back with him tomorrow," she told us, after looking around to see if anyone was paying attention to what we were doing. I had already cast a silence spell around us.

"No one can hear us. I have a silence spell in effect around us. It allows sound to enter but not to leave," I told her to another look of surprise. She, however, quickly moved on to more mundane but familiar things.

"If you are going to be here over the night, you will need a room," she said, and then looked at the six of us with a smile, "or three?" she finished. "I have rooms upstairs."

"Two rooms will be fine," I told her to raised eyebrows from her.

"What about you, Seth? Will you be staying also?" she asked.

"I really need to get back," he told her with an embarrassed look.

"We will return you when you are ready," Kell assured him to a look of relief from Seth.

"I was prepared to make the trip alone," he told us. "but will be glad to accept your assistance. As soon as we finish eating," he added with a grin. We all dug into our food, and Phebe signaled the bar man to bring us more ale. I had already canceled the silence spell.

Phebe took our Wives upstairs to show them the rooms after we had finished eating. Kell and I went to the stable with Seth, and once his horse was ready, we transferred him and it back to Towsontown.

"The Battle of Brandywine took place about four miles south of West Chester. Major Harper was with the 4th Pennsylvania. He was a tough fellow, but the British held him for three years after capturing him at Brandywine. They held him in a prison in Philadelphia. He wasn't well when they released him, and he has gotten worse in recent years," Seth explained when we were back at his house and well out of Mrs. Phebe's hearing. We thanked him for his assistance before returning to the Turk's Head Tavern in West Chester.

The rooms above the Turk's Head weren't any smaller than some of the hotel rooms that we had stayed in while in Ireland, but required the same wards and spells to remove the vermin present. Airmid and Almha had already taken care of those things by the time that Kell and I returned. Sunshine and Rose had checked on our horses to ensure that they were well cared for. Mrs. Phebe stopped Kell and me before we reached the rooms.

"Have you returned Seth to his home already?" she demanded seeing us return so quickly.

"Yes, he is at his home in Towsontown," I told her.

"Are the two of you married to those four women?" she demanded in a cross voice.

"Yes, Ken and I have each been married to a pair of them for some time now," Kell told her.

"And your church approves of that?" she asked skeptically.

"We were married in Ireland by Druids," I told her.

"In Ireland? How did you get here then?" she wanted to know in a surprised voice.

"The same way that we arrived here from Towsontown today, and have been to Savannah, Charles Town, Manchester, and Baltimore," Kell told her with one of those big grins of his. She left us shaking her head.

We joined our Wives in the rooms then. After warming up the rooms with the air change spell, we warmed up our Wives for a little mutual enjoyment. Later that afternoon, we were summoned back to the tavern room downstairs. A short heavy set man was at a table with Mrs. Phebe. We joined them.

"This is Christian, my contact in Philadelphia. He told me that three ships have arrived there every week during the last month," Phebe informed us after Kell had cast the silence spell.

"What size ships were these?" I asked. Christian looked to Phebe before answering, but she only nodded.

"They were mostly about five hundred tons each," he replied in a squeaky voice.

"And how many warehouses are the British using to store their supplies in?" Airmid asked.

"I couldn't give you an exact number," Christian told us before explaining. "All of the wharves, piers, and warehouses in Philadelphia are privately owned except for a few piers at the foot of the major streets that the city owns. The British authorities and their Tory allies have taken over all of the large warehouses and many of the smaller ones from Ceder Street north to Mulberry Street, a distance of some eleven hundred and thirty paces," Christian told us. "The remainder are still free for their owners to use, but trade and shipping have been very bad of late, and the British use whatever pier is convenient for their ships and never pay the owner for the use unless he is a Tory. Then he might be paid," he finished.

"And what streets are these warehouses located on?" I asked.

"They are on Front Street and Water Street. There are many soldiers walking guard around them and roving patrols that check on the guards and make sure that no on loiters around the docks," he told us.

"Can you take us there tomorrow?" Kell asked.

"Yes, but you can't take these women with you. They would be out of place and might be picked up by the British patrols for a little fun before they were released, if they were released!" Christian told us in a voice full of hatred.

"I'd like to see them try that with one of us," Airmid told him, and she had started to glow a bit with the Magic power accumulated by her anger on hearing this.

"Easy hon," Kell told his Wife and patted her hand. She soon calmed down.

"I have to tell you that it will be difficult to get a look around with all of the sentries and patrols. Even those working there are restricted to just where they are working that day," he added, not seeming to have notice Airmid'a outburst.

"Can you get us in touch with the people who collect the manure there? There must be a lot of wagon traffic as they move supplies around," Kell asked him.

"Yes ... probably, but why would you want a manure wagon!?" he asked puzzled.

"It has been our experience that the British pay very little attention to those collecting manure," Kell told him with one of his big grins. We were interrupted at this point by a tall, thin man who had hurried into the tavern and come directly over to where Mrs. Phebe was sitting. He appeared anxious to speak to her, but didn't wish to interrupt us. Phebe rose from her chair and went over to speak to the man while we finished our conversation. After a few minutes, she sent him to the bar to get a drink and returned to our table. I reactivated the silence spell that we had been using previously as she was seated.

"That is one of my spies from Willistown. The Admiral Warren Inne in the northern part of the township is a favorite gathering spot for the local Tories. It's located on the Lancaster - Philadelphia Road and is a popular place for travelers to stop. It is believed that the attack on General Wayne at Paoli was planned there. We have had people watching it for years. He told me that the Tories are all upset about something. I think that we should go over there and see what we can learn," Phebe suggested.

"How far is it?" Kell asked.

"About seven or eight miles," she told us. "The ladies would need to stay here though. You also Christian. I wouldn't want anyone to recognize you," she insisted. Our Wives were not happy about being left out, and Phebe could see that.

"We don't want too many strangers there. It would arouse suspicion, especially since you didn't arrive with one of the wagons or on the coach," she reminded them.

"All right!" Airmid agreed and the others Wives nodded in agreement, "but we are going to Philadelphia tomorrow. We want to shop while you are looking at warehouses."

"All right, that's fair," Kell and I agreed, although Phebe and Christian looked unhappy about this. Kell and I were ready to go in a short time, but it took Mrs. Phebe longer to be ready. Our horses were saddled and ready when we all reached the stable.

We headed north up High Street and took a road going northeast after leaving West Chester. It was getting dark by the time that we reached the vicinity of the Admiral Warren Inne, close to two hours later. The fading light had slowed us down. We left our horses at the house of a man that Phebe knew and walked to the Admiral Warren. Before arriving there, we had a suggestion for Phebe.

"We can disguise ourselves so that no one will recognize us," Kell told our companion.

"Disguise how?" she asked. Kell cast a spell for a glamour of the man that he had impersonated in Ballyshannon and then cast a second glamour around me for the man that had accompanied him. (See Magic Ink IV, chapter 29) Phebe was very startled when we both changed appearances.

"How do you do that?" she asked after recovering her composure.

"It's a simple spell to disguise our appearance. No one can see through it, not even most other Wizards. Now, I need to consider who you should look like. The people there would surely recognize you," Kell told her.

"I have it!" I told him and cast a glamour for Sergeant Oisin O'Carroll's Wife, Caoimhe, from Castle Glenquin. (See Magic Ink IV chapter 33)

"I don't feel any different," Phebe said after a few seconds.

"You look a lot different though," Kell assured her. "No one would ever recognize you." We proceeded to the inn then.

The Admiral Warren was in a large two story stone building with dormers in the roof indicating rooms in the attic. There was a large porch at the front of the building, and two entrance doors to the ground, or first floor. There were seven windows across the front at the second floor level and a large chimney at each end of the building. There were two windows on each floor on the side of the building that we saw as we approached. They were separated by the large fireplaces on each floor. In the fading light, it appeared that the ground sloped to the rear of the building allowing for a daylight basement at the rear of it. There were horses tied up in front of the building, and a shadowy stable off to one side along with a large area where wagons were parked for the night.

On entering the tavern, we took a table away from the fireplace and near the back, where it was darkest. We ordered some of the local ale, but it wasn't that good, and we only tasted it occasionally. Phebe seemed to enjoy it.

We had been there for over an hour and a-half, but hadn't picked up anything really important from the locals or the teamsters present. We had ordered some food and found it was quite good considering the location when a British Army Captain entered and joined a Lieutenant who had been there for a short time. I quickly cast our wards and a silence spell around our table while Kell cast a listening spell so we could hear what they said. This is the conversation that we heard.

"I've just come from Headquarters in Philadelphia, Charles," the Captain told the Lieutenant from his unit, as he took a seat at his table. "The old men are beginning to worry! It started with the loss of that expedition this summer to the Kentucky country. They were some eight hundred strong and just disappeared," he told the other man.

"Weren't there three or four men that returned from that expedition, James?" Charles asked.

"Yes, some of those backwoods Tory rascals. They are notoriously unreliable and you can't believe much of what they say, especially when they ramble on about walls that are impenetrable and appear and disappear," James told Charles in a voice full of contempt and superiority.

"What else has happened to upset them?" Charles asked.