“I swear she said fifteen thousand,” Ian said firmly.
Patrick looked up from the bureau he was building, fitting a delicate piece of molding along one of the drawers. “She actually told you how many troops the British have?”
“Unless she was joking,” Ian said. “But It didn’t seem like she was.”
“Why would she betray the British?”
Ian wasn’t sure he knew the answer. “I asked her to warn me if Duncan said anything about me. It seemed like she would, so I took it further.”
“And you asked for military information?”
Ian nodded. “At first, she didn’t seem interested. But when I was leaving, she told me how many troops Howe has and quickly closed the door.”
Patrick paused, pensive. “We need to verify that number.”
Ian thought about his excursion to Trudruffrin, the British camp sprawling a
