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“I wish being a parent was always this sih

“So do I, mon coeur” Matthew chuckled “So do I”

—

“WAIT—YOU JUST ANIMATED a lily of the valley right in front of the twins?” Sarah laughed “No warning? No rules? Just—poof!”

We were sitting around the long table in the kitchen where we could be close to the cozy stove The days of the calendar devoted to les saints de glace, which in this part of the world signaled the beginning of spring, had officially ended yesterday, but apparently SS Mamertus, Pancras, and Servatius had not been notified and there was still a touch of frost in the air A tuuet de bois sat in the middle of the table to remind us of the eather to come

“I would never say ‘poof,’ Sarah I used the Latin word for ‘flourish’ into suspect the reason so ue is so that children will find them harder to utter,” I said

“The children were enchanted—in every sense of the word,” Matthew said, giving ht from the heart He took my hand in his and pressed a kiss on the knuckles

“So you’ve decided to just let go of the illusion of control?” Agatha nodded “Good for you”

“Not quite,” I said hastily “But Matthew and I agreed long ago that eren’t going to hide ere froic is from television and the movies”

“Goddess forbid” Sarah shuddered “All those wands”

“I’ic is so often portrayed as a shortcut around sorown up on reruns of Bewitched, and though my professorial mother did someti her lecture notes, these were by no means daily occurrences

“So long as we establish clear rules around doinga sip of wine and picking at the platter of greens that was sitting in the center of the table

“The fewer rules the better,” Marcus said He was staring into the candle fla his phone every five minutes for news from Paris “My childhood was planted so thick with rules I never took a step without running into one There were rules about going to church and swearing Rules aboutmy father, and my elders, and my social betters Rules about how to eat, and how to talk, and how to greet people in the street, and how to treat women like fine china, and how to take care of ani, and rules for storing food so you didn’t starve in the winter

“Rules may teach you to be blindly obedient, but they’re no real protection against the world,” Marcus continued “Because one day you will knock so hard against a rule you’ll break it—and you’ll have nothing standing between yourself and disaster then I found that out when I ran away fro in Boston in 1775”

“You were at Lexington and Concord?” I knew that Marcus was a patriot because of his copy of Coht have answered the call to arms when the first shots of the ere fired

“No In April, I was still obeying o to war,” Marcus said “I ran away in June”

Matthew sent a lu across the table It was dark, alht it

“A musket ball—an old one” Marcus looked up with a quizzical expression “Where did you get this?”

“In the library, a else, but I found a letter frolass” Matthew reached into the pocket of his jeans and pulled out a folded packet of paper The handwriting on the outside was scrawling and went up and down like the waves

We didn’t often talk about the big Gael who had disappeared o I missed his easy char Matthew and ht be difficult Gallowglass had known his feelings for me were unrequited, but until Matthew and I had returned to the present where we belonged, he had reiven him, namely to ensure my safety

“I didn’t know Gallowglass was in New England when I was a boy,” Marcus said

“He orking for Philippe” Matthew passed him the letter Marcus read it aloud

“‘Grandsire,’” Marcus began, “‘I was at the Old South Meeting House thiswhen Dr Warren spoke on the fifth anniversary of the late e, and the doctor draped hi the Roreeted this spectacle with cheers’”

Marcus looked up froe, a s about Dr Warren’s speech Then, we still thought the massacre had , and that ould be able tothat a perland was still to come”

Here, at last, was some history I could use to properly frame Marcus’s account of his life

“May I?” I held out er to see the letter for myself

Reluctantly, Marcus parted with it

“‘The nureat events, which fors and nations is suspended,’” I said, reading one of the lines from the letter It reminded me of what Matthew had said about a vampire’s memory, and hoas often ordinary occurrences that were preserved there I thought back to ain whether today I had planted some future remembrance for them

“Whoever would have ilass wrote this letter, a shot fired on a bridge in a small town outside Boston would become Emerson’s ‘shot heard around the world,’” Marcus e had h started out just like any other April day I was co, and the ground was soft On that day, though, the winds from the east blew cold”

Marcus’s eyes were unfocused, his tone alo time

“And with them came a rider”

Les Revenants, Letters and Papers of the Americas

No 1

Gallowglass to Philippe de Clermont

Cae, Massachusetts

6 March 1775

Grandsire:

I was at the Old South Meeting House thiswhen Dr Warren spoke on the fifth anniversary of the late e, and the doctor draped hi the Roreeted this spectacle with cheers

Dr Warren stirred the asse country and calls to stand up to a tyrant’s power To avoid war, Warren said, the British army must withdraw from Boston

It will take only a spark to set rebellion alight “Short-sighted reat events, which fors and nations is suspended,” Dr Warren said I wrote it down in the moment, for it struck me as wise

I have placed this letter in the hands of Davy Hancock, ill see it safe delivered by the swiftest route I have returned to Cae on your other business I await your wishes with respect to the Sons of Liberty, but predict that your response will not arrive in time for me to alter what now seeether, but will be torn asunder

Written in haste froe by your dutiful servant,

Eric

Postscript: I enclose a curious iteiven to me as a memento by one of the Sons of Liberty He said it was the remains of aStreet when the citizens were attacked in 1770 There were many tales of that dreadful day shared by those in attendance at Dr Warren’s oration, which further infla a parent was always this sih