As news of one outrage after another came from the American colonies, as the cause of the Patriots rose, and the Congress met in Philadelphia—and as the British government remained obtuse in meeting every challenge—James often thought of his dear family in New York, and his little son in London, and wondered: Did he really want little Weston to be part of his mother’s world, or to live in the cleaner, more simple world in which he had been raised himself?

How he longed to take Weston over to meet his grandparents. With what agony he answered his father’s letters that begged him to return. When once or twice he had raised the issue with Vanessa, even promising her that their visit would be brief, she had refused to countenance the voyage.

Strangely, the quarrel that finally brought matters to a head did not begin over his own family, but over Ben Franklin. It took place at the start of December 1774.

When his well-meaning intervention in the affair of the Hutchinson Letters had so badly backfired, Franklin had not only caused outrage in the colonies. Many in London concluded that he’d stirred up trouble deliberately, and he was roundly cursed. In retaliation, Franklin had written a couple of pieces pointing out some of the errors of the London government in turn. This exacerbated the situation further, and though he still had influential friends in Parliament, Franklin was now unpopular.

James and Vanessa were returning in their carriage from a dinner, through the frosty night-time streets, when James unwisely remarked that he’d been sorry to hear Franklin so roundly abused at the party.

“No doubt,” Vanessa murmured.

“He means well,” James said. And for no particular reason, except no doubt it had been pent up for so long, this triggered Vanessa’s outburst.

“Franklin is a damned colonial. A dirty little traitor, masquerading as a gentleman.”

“I think that’s a little unfair.”

“He came to London. He promised to make himself useful. We treated him like an Englishman. We even sent his bastard son out to govern New Jersey. There’s only one thing for the upstart to do, if he is a gentleman. Keep his mouth shut unless he’s told to open it. As far as I’m concerned, he and all the other colonial traitors should be taken out into a field and shot. That would reduce the colonies to order.”

“Well, now we know what you think.”

“I know nobody who thinks otherwise, you accursed colonial,” she cried. “Be grateful that you have a son who is born in a civilized country. I pray to God he may never set foot in your damned colony.”

James called to the coachman, who must surely have heard most of this, to stop the carriage. He stepped out. Vanessa said not a word.