Ashes

The children head for Williamsburg, encountering crowds as they go. Isabel, unused to this many people after years of stealthy travel, is nervous; Ruth is fascinated; Curzon is having a great time, and seems to have warmed up to Isabel again, calling her by her old nickname, “Country” (123).

They run into a huge number of French soldiers who’ve come to support the Patriots, and Isabel is reminded of the bleak time she spent in Valley Forge, when a rich man named Bellingham enslaved her again after her escape. Bellingham often entertained the Marquis de Lafayette and his wife. Isabel remembers the Marquis being uniformly gracious and kind to enslaved people and servants alike, and now finds the sound of French oddly comforting.

Stuck cannons block the road, and Curzon and Aberdeen plan to go scouting around them. Isabel thinks this is an insane plan: In these crowds, how will they find each other again? Curzon insists, and Isabel gets the sense he’s got a plan he’s not telling her.

Meanwhile, Ruth urgently needs to go to the bathroom. Searching for a privy, Isabel and Ruth are mistaken for a laundry service by a woman working in an overcrowded hospital.