Excerpt: The War and the Fox

Because I’m listening through the audiobook of The War and the Fox in preparation for putting it on sale hopefully soon, here’s a small excerpt of Kip and his friends having dinner with John Adams that I enjoyed writing and revisiting.

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Dinner was delicious: fresh bread, spring peas, roasted chicken, and fresh greens. John Adams, a short, stout man whose words Kip had often read over the past decade, proved a garrulous host, though once or twice he lapsed into a sour mood from which Abigail rescued him. Kip thought that these moods as much as his health might have decided which of the two became the diplomat.

When the conversation turned to politics, there John’s brilliance manifested itself most clearly. He spoke a little bit of the unrest of 1774 and 1775, and how the British government had made a few token concessions while using sorcerers to identify and capture the heads of the revolution. He talked about the growing strain between Britain and America since then, which he simplified down to Britain’s demanding that America take on more responsibility for herself without giving her the privilege to choose where that responsibility should be placed.

“As a trivial example,” he said, “consider the construction industry. In the majority of cases, local governments here have consistently preferred to build and improve roads locally. This benefits the majority of residents. Colonial governments also prefer to build roads locally. Many outside of the cities have not been improved since they were built two hundred years ago, and there are only so many sorcerers and stone-layers. But the orders of the Crown send American laborers and civil sorcerers to the west, to build roads out to areas that belong to none of the colonies, to allow trade directly from our unexplored lands to London. So our workers labor for the Crown to the detriment of America.”

He continued on, explaining that the attack on the College was only the boldest of moves a London agency had made to cripple the colonies. The Crown had moved control of newspapers to London so they might control what was printed, they had appointed London loyalists into key political positions, and they had controlled the American shipbuilding industry so that the would-be country now had very few boats under their command relative to the mighty British navy.

He continued on until the servants were clearing the tables, and then Abigail said gently, “All right, John, nobody here is from the paper.”

“They’re about to embark on a war, Abigail. It’s only right they know the history behind it.”

“It’s fascinating, sir,” Kip put in.

“There, you see, Abigail? The young fellow hasn’t had time to discover how irritating I can be.” He held up three fingers. “Three dinners, young man, that’s the limit. After that you’ll tire of me and tell me what a bore I am.”

“I doubt it very much, sir.”

Abigail smiled at him. “He knows his own temperament as he knows the history of this country,” she said. “Do not doubt him in one and not the other.”

“I have too much respect,” Kip argued.

John finished a mouthful of chicken and brandished his fork at Kip. “Respect!” he said. “Respect will win you newspaper columns and legal cases. Friends are a different matter entirely. I had the respect of the First Continental Congress, aye, and yet did they act on a single matter as I recommended? They did not. Had we acted more strategically, had we but shown our teeth to the Crown in the proper places, why, you might have been born into a free and independent America.”

And how would the College have been different then, Kip wondered, but he did not voice that question. John wandered into a half-eulogy, half-excoriation of his cousin Samuel, who had taken to heart the showing of teeth but not so much the strategic part, and there Abigail stopped him. “We’ve a spice cake for dessert, if you can stay,” she told her guests.

“That sounds lovely,” Malcolm said.

Kip smiled inwardly, watching Lowell struggle to decide whether to contradict the blind sorcerer and finally keep his objections to himself. So they enjoyed a delicious spice cake and another lecture from John Adams, whom Kip would happily have listened to all night.

Finally, though, Captain Lowell stood and cleared his throat. “As much as we have appreciated your generous hospitality, we really must return to Boston. We’ve nearly an hour ride ahead of us.”

“Of course.” Abigail stood, and everyone else followed.

When they said their good-byes, Emily took Kip and Alice aside. Embracing them both, she said, “The two of you had better keep yourselves safe.”

“Mr. Adams hasn’t exactly been inspiring me not to fight,” Kip said with a smile.

“Of course not.” Emily sighed and turned to Alice. “I know you can fight for yourself, but Kip’s got plenty of experience and if there’s a question, you listen to him. He’s kept me alive through some scary times.”

“I will,” Alice promised.

“And you,” Emily said to Kip.

“I know, I know.” He hugged her. “I’ll keep us both out of danger as much as I can. Given that we’re going into a war and all.”

She glanced back toward Abigail. “With any luck, it won’t last long. A few weeks of negotiation with the Spanish, a show of naval support, and once the British see we have allies, they’ll choose peace over prolonged warfare. The Napoleonic wars only had battles every few months or so and then there was diplomacy just after, so let’s hope you don’t have to fight very much.”

“If I’m allowed to learn summoning,” Alice said with a pointed look at Kip, “I’ll be much more useful and much safer.”