An Echo in the Bone Read Online Free PDF

it?”
    Grey sighed, and stared pointedly at him.
    “You’ve seen this ‘Declaration of Independency’ issued by the so-called Continental Congress?”
    Percy asked. He turned and, reaching into a leather bag he had slung over the back of the chair, withdrew a folded sheaf of papers, which he handed to Grey.
    Grey had not in fact seen the document in question, though he’d certainly heard about it. It had been printed only two weeks previous, in Philadelphia, yet copies had spread like wind-borne weeds through the Colonies. Raising a brow at Percy, he unfolded the paper and skimmed it rapidly.

    “The King is a tyrant?” he said, half-laughing at the outrageousness of some of the document’s more extreme sentiments. He folded the sheets back together and tossed them on the table.
    “And if I am England, I suppose you are the embodiment of France, for the purposes of this conversation?”
    “I represent certain interests there,” Percy replied blandly. “And in Canada.”
    That rang small alarm bells. Grey had fought in Canada with Wolfe, and was well aware that while the French had lost much of their North American holdings in that war, they remained ferociously entrenched in the northern regions, from the Ohio Valley to Quebec. Close enough to cause trouble now? He thought not—but wouldn’t put anything past the French. Or Percy.
    “England wants a quick end to this nonsense, plainly.” A long, knob-jointed hand waved toward the paper. “The Continental army—so-called—is a flimsy association of men with no experience and conflicting notions. What if I were prepared to provide you with information that might be used to … separate one of Washington’s chief officers from his allegiance?”
    “What if you were?” Grey replied, making no effort to conceal the skepticism in his voice. “How would this benefit France—or your own interests, which I take leave to think are possibly not entirely identical?”
    “I see that time has not softened your natural cynicism, John. One of your less attractive traits—I don’t know whether I ever mentioned that to you.”
    Grey widened his stare slightly, and Percy sighed.
    “Land, then,” he said. “The Northwest Territory. We want it back.”
    Grey uttered a short laugh.
    “I daresay you do.” The territory in question, a large tract northwest of the Ohio River Valley, had been ceded to Great Britain from France at the end of the French and Indian War. Britain had not occupied the territory, though, and had prevented the colonists’ expansion into it, owing to armed resistance from the natives and the ongoing negotiation of treaties with them. The colonists weren’t pleased about it, he understood. Grey had encountered some of said natives himself, and was inclined to think the British government’s position both reasonable and honorable.
    “French traders had extensive ties with the aboriginals in that area; you have none.”
    “The fur-trading merchants being some of the … interests … you represent?”
    Percy smiled openly at that.
    “Not the major interests. But some.”
    Grey didn’t bother asking why Percy was approaching him—an ostensibly retired diplomat of no particular influence—in the matter. Percy knew the power of Grey’s family and connections from the days of their personal association—and “Monsieur Beauchamp” knew a great deal more about his present personal connections from the nexus of information that fed the Black Chambers of Europe. Grey could not act in the matter, of course. But he was well placed to bring the offer quietly to the attention of those who could.
    He felt as though every hair on his body was standing on end like an insect’s antennae, alert for danger.
    “We would require something more than the suggestion, of course,” he said, very cool. “The name of the officer in question, for example.”
    “Not mine to share, at the moment. But once a negotiation in good faith is opened …”
    Grey was