The Traitor's Stain (wattys 2019)

Chapter Seven: Setauket, Long Island

Ophelia tried to go about her daily business as normally as possible the day after dinner with the Woodhulls, but God knew that it was difficult. Everywhere she turned, she saw conspiracies: even the most innocent of sideways glances could send her mind spiraling out of control. Are they involved with Ben, too? She thought at every glance at people she'd known her entire life. God forbid, are they spies for the Royal Army? Nobody was above suspicion for her, and it was absolutely awful.

Is this how Caleb and Abraham always feel? She thought to herself as she swept up the shop that afternoon. No wonder Caleb has gone absolutely mad in the past little while.

Though, frankly, Caleb's problems could be attributed to a few thousand things: it wasn't fair to blame being a spy on them.

It was around that time that a very familiar person came into the store. Anna Strong was the wife of Selah Strong, one of the gang of boys who used to traumatize Setauket while she was growing up. He'd always been nice to Ophelia, thanks to the fact that she was Noah's wife, but Anna had always been a little distant. She was fairly certain that Anna didn't hate her, but it had always been a little uncomfortable.

"Good afternoon, Anna," Ophelia said, looking up with a smile. "How are you, today?"

"I'm fine, thank you," Anna said with that same coldness as usual. She glanced at Beth. "Might I speak to you for a moment? In private?"

Ophelia's grip on her broomstick tightened a bit. Never, before, had Anna ever wanted to "speak to her". Most of the time, she just seemed uncomfortable around her.

"O-of course." Ophelia looked back at Beth. "Are you okay to hold down the store for a minute?"

Beth didn't look so sure about it, but she nodded, anyway. "Of course."

"Come into the kitchen with me," Ophelia said as she leaned the broom against the nearest wall. The two of them walked into the back and went to the kitchen. "Can I get you anything? Some tea, maybe?"

"You only sell British tea, don't you?" Anna asked as she sat down at the table.

"It's the only tea I can ever seem to get, these days," Ophelia admitted. She sat down at the table with Anna. "So... to what do I owe this... pleasure?"

Anna shifted in her seat, uncomfortable. "Well... first, I think I owe you a bit of an apology. I know that I haven't been the kindest to you over the years, and I'm sorry about that. It's truly not your fault: I just..."

"I know," Ophelia said quietly. Anna hadn't been Selah's original choice in wives: Ophelia had been. A few men had actually tried to get her hand in marriage, but the main three had been Noah, Selah, and Ben. Obviously, she ended up choosing Noah, and Selah eventually fell for Anna and married her. Poor Ben had ended up turning to the military, and as far as she knew, he hadn't been able to find a girl. She'd always thought that Anna was so distant towards her because of Selah's old feelings, but there was something about hearing it come from Anna that made her feel a little better about it. At least she hadn't been suspicious for no reason. "Are you still suspicious of me?"

"No: I'm not," Anna said. "And... that brings me to the real reason I'm here." She looked back up at Ophelia. "Caleb told me that you're... with us."

So, Anna was involved, too? She would've thought that Selah would've been the one to be involved with Ben, Caleb, and Abraham, but frankly, she wasn't surprised: Anna had always been very... vocal about her opinions on the Royal Army. And they weren't good.

Ophelia nodded. "Y-yes. How many of us are there?"

"I don't know it's a good idea to talk about numbers," Anna said. "Frankly, I think the amount we all interact with each other is far too much: I'm worried that if one of us goes down, we'll be able to take down the entire group with us, as much as Ben tries to keep us using codenames."

The blood drained from her face. "Y-you don't think that will happen, do you?"

"One can only hope," Anna said. "Anyway, I'm here to give you these."

She pulled a few glass vials out from the pocket of her apron and handed them to her. They were filled with what looked like water.

She frowned, holding the bottles up to the light. "What is it?"

"It's called white stain," Anna said. "If you ever need to send a letter to any of us, write it in this, between the lines of a more innocent-looking letter."

"How are you supposed to read it if it's invisible?" Ophelia asked.

"You'll just want to hold some of your letters up to a candle if you think you're missing something," Anna said.

Ophelia nodded and put the vials into her own apron pocket.

"What am I... supposed to do?" She asked.

"Just keep an eye out, and if you see something, write a letter with that stain," Anna said. "You won't be in too much danger: far less than Caleb, for sure, and Ro-Culper Junior."

"Culper Junior?"

"A friend out in New York City," Anna explained. "Perhaps you'll get to work with him: I think out of all of us, you would attract the least amount of attention going into the city."

Ophelia bit her lip. "W-why do you say that?"

"You've made it clear to every redcoat in this city that you're more interested in business than politics," Anna said. "If anybody can get permission to go into the city, it'll likely be you."

Ophelia supposed that she probably should've been honored by that, but quite frankly, the thought terrified her. New York City was practically the lion's den, now. Would they really send her in there?

Well, it sounded like they had people living there: surely, they wouldn't need more people in that city, right?

"Don't worry about it," Anna assured her. "Caleb's the only one who makes trips there, these days, and we just got a new person in New York City. Right now, just worry about keeping an eye out for anything that might be important."

Anna stood up to leave. "It's good to have you with us, Ophelia. I mean it: I think we'll be better off with you with us."

She began to walk out.

Ophelia stood up. "Wait."

Anna stopped and turned to face her.

Ophelia hesitated. "How am I supposed to know if it's important? The information, I mean."

"You'll know: trust me."

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Hello, everybody, and happy Wednesday: you're halfway through the week, so stay strong :D

I don't really have any housekeeping items, so we're going to get right to the dedication. This one's going out to one of my fabulous readers, AuraWolf6! Thank you for all of your support, mate :D

As always, be sure to vote and comment, and we'll see you guys next week for another exciting update of "The Traitor's Stain" :D