The colonel picked up his hat from the table and brushed it down. “Prepare to dismantle the camp. Also, the civilians need to be advised of their responsibilities. It took us nine days to get here from Champlain. We’ll need to step up the pace if we’re to get back to the rendezvous point without mishap. Our enemies may have slept through our arrival, but they know we’re here now and will, I suspect, be most anxious to make our acquaintance. Captain Duncan, how many fresh horses have we acquired?”

“Sixty-seven, Colonel.”

“Very good. We can put them to use as baggage animals and as mounts for the elderly and the youngest children. The ablest of the ladies and the older children will have to walk with the men. You’d better tell them they should wear suitable attire. They’ve been told to travel light, I take it? See to it they adhere to that. Anything they can’t carry gets left behind. No exceptions.”

He turned to a stocky officer with salt-and-pepper hair. “As to the troops: Captain Scott, your regulars are to act as escort. Captain Leake’s Independents and the other irregulars are to deploy as individual commanders see fit. The same goes for your riflemen, Captain Friedrich, if you’d be so kind. We will have use of them, should a delaying tactic be required.”

A slim, officious-looking officer, with hair so blond it was almost white, dressed in the uniform of a Hessian Jaeger, inclined his head. “At your command, Colonel.”

“Good. Well, unless there’s anything else …? No? Excellent. In that case, let’s get to it. Dismissed.” Sir John turned abruptly. “That includes you, Lieutenant.”

“Yes, sir,” Wyatt said quickly, though there had been drollness in the colonel’s tone rather than rebuke. “Leaving now.”

He paused, struck by the expression on the colonel’s face. Sir John continued to hold the Ranger’s gaze before giving a small, almost imperceptible nod. Acknowledging the unspoken message, Wyatt summoned Tewanias to him. With the Mohawk at his shoulder, he headed back to the tether line.

“Why can’t I stay with you?”

The boy was mounted on his horse. The dog lay stretched out on the grass alongside.

The question took the Ranger by surprise, as did the look of apprehension in the blue-grey eyes. It was the first time the boy had shown anything approaching trepidation or doubt.

“Colonel’s orders. He wants all civilians to travel together.”

A frown creased the boy’s face. “Why?”

“He wants to keep you safe.”

“Can’t you do that?”