Mr Jefferson is Coming Home (Jamilton)

Chapter 11

Thomas was going mad. It had been three weeks and he hadn't heard from Alexander at all. Fortunately, winter was almost over and so he'd spent most of the time outside, riding or walking around with James. Unfortunately, they'd frequently met Aaron Burr, who was always very happy to join them. One of those unlucky days, Thomas and James were walking their usual path in the park, when they saw the senator candidate running towards them with a wicked smile and a bunch of documents in his hand.

"Mr Secretary, Mr Madison, good day," he panted. "I'm sorry to disturb you, but you really need to see this." He gave the papers to Madison, who quickly scanned the pages with his sharp eyes, his gaze more and more amazed at every page.

"Let's go," he spoke excitedly to Thomas, who was looking distractedly at the naked trees of the park, thinking about how beautiful the sound of the rain was, "we need to go home right now, we finally have something to end Hamilton's career once and for all!"

Half an hour later they were at Madison's, discussing the shocking content of the documents. Thomas, who'd gained all his vitality and concentration back when he'd heard Hamilton's name, was now pacing back and forth next to the table where all the papers were scattered. He simply couldn't believe it – Hamilton was not a fraud. Thomas hadn't told his allies about Hamilton's affair with James Reynolds yet. He didn't want to, but what if the accusations were true? Had Hamilton been using the Government's money to pay that wicked woman and her dirty husband? No – that wasn't the Alexander he knew, that wasn't his Alexander. But again, how much he still didn't know about Hamilton?

"So, we know for sure that Hamilton is paying huge sums of money to Mr James Reynolds, should we dig deeper and find out why?" Burr asked in an excited voice, "or at least try and talk to Reynolds himself?"

"I don't think so," Thomas replied quickly – he was actually dying to talk with James Reynolds alone, and maybe beat the shit out of him. "He could alert Hamilton so that he'll find a way to cover his tracks – no, we need to catch him unawares."

"That's right," Madison agreed with him. "Sadly, we can't do anything right now since Hamilton's got Washington on his side. Maybe," he paused a moment, planning his strategy, "we should keep this information for ourselves – just for now – and see how it goes. Timing is everything!"

"Agreed." Thomas was immensely relieved. "We'll use it when it'll damage Hamilton the most" – and maybe he would've had the time to talk to Alexander by then.

"Yes," Burr nodded in agreement, "that's our best shot."

"Well, I could keep the documents at my house, I've got a safe where to hide them –

"No need for it Thomas, we'll keep them here. I doubt that any thief would come and steal some valueless papers, and here's safer since Hamilton doesn't come to my house shouting at me every week," James joked, while Burr listened carefully.

"Yeah, right – well, fortunately, he doesn't come every week at my house to act as a madman, it only happened twice," Thomas forced himself to laugh, pouring salt into his own wound – shit, he would want Hamilton with him every single day, if that were even a possibility – "and twice is more than enough for me!"

***

Another long week passed by. Thomas was really considering the prospect of going at Hamilton's, but – unlike Alexander – he was not the kind of person who commonly burst into other people's houses. Then, one cloudy evening, he heard someone forcefully knocking at his door – no one with a sense of courtesy would ever knock at someone's door so insistently. He rushed to the front door, almost crashing into his maid – he'd completely forgotten that there were other people in the house – and opened it at once. Alexander was already stepping in, when he suddenly realised that the tall figure in front of him was not the usual housemaid, and stopped harshly.