Becoming Miss Lee

Chapter 12 - The Gentleman Spymaster

I had sent Caleb off with a list. This list was rather unsuspecting, truly, though I think many would have been confused if they had read it in the hands of Mister Brewster. Pomatum, face powder, cheek and lip rouge, new dresses, petticoats, panniers, new hair rolls, and I even sent Miss Anne a request for rose and orange water. I can only imagine her surprise, opening up a weather-worn note and seeing a neatly itemized list of provisions that I was requiring for my upcoming expedition into a new and slightly intricate persona: a mysterious reverend's daughter fit to catch the interest of the head of British secret intelligence. I learned all that I could. I practically pestered Sir Clinton, I asked other officers, and I even asked Rogers about him at one desperate point in a final attempt to construct a persona out of him. If everything was as easy as sitting about and getting drunk unknowing officers to give you information, then I would be breezing through this whole ordeal with the skill of a champion of the art.

André, from what I could gather, was a respectable man despite his love of women, drinking, and parties. Most men were victims of these vices and I thought nothing of them. That did not tell me much aside from the fact that he must be a man of some merit in public. I could not find out much more about him, and not knowing was the first step to complete and utter disaster. I need just a little something else, but no one knew much more about him other than that his safety was to be top priority. He was, as General Clinton put it, to be left to his own crafty devices, and all information that went to him was confidential unless otherwise stated. He sounded like just the man I needed.

In the meantime, Abraham, or should I say Culper Senior, was doing a splendid job out on Long Island and we were finding out quite a bit from the other members, whose names I knew only from the worn leather handbook tucked away in a special nook beneath my bed, well, all except one. Washington was learning what he needed and we were desperately keeping our feet from catching fire as we held them over the flame. Howe had left Clinton in New York and had begun to march against Washington, so hearing that André was coming along provided me with an exciting new opportunity for information. Ben cautioned me against getting too excited about the prospect of actually being helpful in my endeavors, but I had spent literal weeks of doing nothing but sitting idly by and waiting for my chance to make something of myself. Now, here it was. Presented before me in red and gold with dark hair and a handsome face was my chance to live up to General Washington's expectations, and I cannot, under my own volition, disappoint when such a chance is practically handed to me.

Let some curls lay upon your neck and build your hair up, but not too high. Give your face a light powdering, not ghostly, and lightly rouge your cheeks. Give your lips a light coat to make them look like light pink petals upon a canvas. Go powder-less on your hair tonight, Bea, it looks better with the contrast. Adjust your stays just right to give your bust the proper softness and assure that your dress is unwrinkled and properly sits on your person. Miss Anne's birthday gift of a pearl choker would look nice with the cream dress, as would the matching earrings...

"Bea?" I could hear my uncle enter the room and stare as I began examining the different hair bobbles laid out before me. "My god, look at you... What is the meaning of this? You surely are putting effort in for such a task this evening! What is the occasion?"

I broke from my inner monologue to ask, "Which would look better? Flowers, pearls, or ribbon?" He looked at me hopelessly and I shrugged, "Pearls it is."

He sat down and watched me begin to thread the concoctions through my carefully pulled back tresses with the precision that only a woman could possess and he shook his head, "Excess..."

"No pearls?"

"Bea..." He pulled the pearls carefully from my hair and looked at me with a shake of his head. He began removing the earrings, followed by my bracelet, and he even began to remove my makeup.