Traitor to the Crown The Patriot Witch Read Online Free PDF Page B

least he had the chance to visit his sweetheart.”
    “And next time I see her, I can tell her I was right, that nothing happened,” Proctor said. He was relieved. With luck, he could stop by Emily's house for breakfast and find some way to make her understand what he was trying to tell her about the talents.
    He was shifting the bag and horn on his shoulder for the march back home when a man ran onto the green from the Boston Road.
    “The regulars have passed the Rocks,” the newcomer shouted. “They're only half a mile away!”
    “What do we do?” Arthur asked.
    “Keep a cool head,” Proctor told him. “This'll be peaceful.”
    “Let's find Parker and see what he wants us to do,” Munroe said.
    The warning spread faster than their conversation. Before they could find Parker, a man ran out of the tavern and sprinted to the belfry. In seconds the bells were clanging. The sound drew Captain Parker and everyone else.
    “Cap'n,” Munroe shouted as he headed across the green. “Hey, Cap'n.”
    “Seems I was mistaken after all,” Parker said, hurrying toward the noise. “The Redcoats are marching, and we mean to show them our resolve. Would you gentlemen be so good as to parade with my company?”
    “That's why we came,” Munroe said, and Everett said, “Guess I'll miss that plowing after all.”
    “What about the young gentleman?” Parker asked with a nod toward Arthur.
    “I can stand in line,” Arthur said.
    Everett put a hand on his shoulder. “And do exactly as he's told.”
    “I thank you,” Parker said, turning immediately away and yelling, “Billy! Billy, get your drum and beat to arms!”
    The other three ran off to join the rest of Parker's gathering company. Munroe stopped and looked back at Proctor, who still hadn't moved. “You coming?”
    There was still time for his scrying to come true, Proctor told himself. The Redcoats would march up, see the militia making their stand, and they'd turn around and go home, just like they had at Salem. If he was lucky, he'd still get to eat breakfast with Emily and make things right with her.
    “I'm coming,” he said, and he followed after them.
    For the next few moments, Lexington Green reminded him of an anthill stirred up with a stick. Men ran in every direction at once. The coming dawn cast a pale gray twilight, so that everything took on the aspect of shapes emerging from a mist. Captain Parker shouted at the men to form a line at the wide end of the green. Men from the tavern reloaded their weapons as they ran to obey. Proctor and the other three took a spot on the far end of the line, closer to the Concord Road.
    Captain Parker paced up and down the line, shouting, “Form up, form up!” A young boy was beating the drums, the bells still sounded in the belfry, and families, drawn bythe noise, gathered by the school house, where they called to their husbands and sons for an explanation.
    One of the militiamen left the line to go speak to his wife. Parker ran him down and shoved him back in line. “The time for second thoughts is done,” he said, loud enough for everyone to hear him. “Now form up, just like you trained.”
    Munroe loaded his musket and fitted the ramrod in place under the barrel. He nudged Proctor. “You might want to feed that weapon if you plan to empty its guts.”
    “I'll wait,” Proctor said. He looked down the line of men and made a quick count. “If it's sixty of us against a thousand Redcoats, there won't be any shooting.”
    Arthur finished loading his fowling piece. “Here they come,” he said, his voice shaking. “Here they come now.”
    The Lexington drum was drowned out by the sound of the approaching drummers, and the first Redcoats marched around the bend beyond the meeting house. To judge by the brogue, it was an Irishman who set the pace, his accent carrying across the green as he yelled the soldiers on. They came fast, for all their delay in getting this far, and once they started they seemed to keep