Henry welcomed them when they arrived in Hillsborough and invited them to stay with him in the shop. Ethan could detect a sense of both despair and bitterness in his brother, quite unlike his earlier exuberant spirit, and especially since his marriage to Sophie. Although Ethan wanted to proceed as soon as possible to acquire and settle on some new land, he saw that Henry needed him, both in his business and as a companion. He and Epsey decided to live with Henry for six months, before moving to the country during the early spring of 1767. Mrs. Railston, who was still working, showed Epsey how to do some of the sewing tasks, and the leather shop was soon operating again at almost full capacity.

In their private moments, Henry answered Ethan’s first questions about the growing frontier community with just a few words, apparently not wishing to discuss anything that had happened to him or Sophie since they had arrived more than a year before. Also, the two brothers spent only a brief time recalling old times in Philadelphia and their relationship with other members of their family. But Ethan could never get enough information about anything that might affect his and Epsey’s future lives as frontier farmers. He probed constantly for any facts about the local people, the structure of the colony’s government, how local officials might relate to an application for a homestead site, and what kind of people he was likely to meet on farms farther west. Henry knew the answers to most of these questions and gave constructive advice, but it was obvious that he was almost unbalanced on the subject of fraud and corruption around the courthouse.

“We have two criminals who control our lives in Orange County, Governor Tryon and Edmund Fanning. The bastard Fanning is supposed to be just the register of deeds, but he makes all the final decisions at the courthouse and decides who will be appointed to other official positions. No attorney can even practice here without Fanning’s approval.”

Ethan asked, “But don’t we have a right to elect members of the assembly, where all the laws have to be written?”

Henry responded with a bitter laugh. “The upper house is appointed by the council members, who are carefully chosen by the governor. The lower house is elected by us property owners, but the candidates are put forward by Fanning and the other big shots in the county, with the approval of the governor, of course. And the sheriff conducts the election. Even when there are opposing candidates, no one knows how many votes were put in the box or what the accurate count might be.”

Ethan was silent for a while and then said, “Henry, the governor can’t be all bad, or the king and Parliament would remove him from office.”