William fully understood Samuel's concerns.  In fact, even if he hadn't been in the 18th century, William would have expected a brother to feel this very same way about his younger sister.

"There is nothing I can say to you, Samuel, that would convince you that I am safe to be allowed to stay here alone with your sister," William began with a sincere tone.  "So, I won't try to convince you of such.  However..."

He glanced the direction in which Keziah had disappeared, then back to Samuel.  He was conflicted about how much to tell the man about the history he'd been recalling during the day.  William couldn't be certain of the exact day in which the Bottleneck Massacre occurred, but he didn't want to chance that it wasn't coming for days to come anymore than he wanted to chance being called a lunatic for explaining how he knew it was coming.

"This neighborhood ... it isn't safe," he went on vaguely.  "For Keziah ... for you and your wife.  The Patriots may have rolled through here today, seemingly easy enough ... but they were pushed back.  The British ... the Redcoats, they're closer than you imagine.  And..."

[I]How do I tell him this...?[/i] William struggled.  He remembered the uniform he was wearing and -- despite his obvious lack of a German or Prussian accent -- lied, "I deserted my unit, a Hessian unit, because I do not support the British in their attempts to hold the Colonies. So ... I know a little about the British ... about the troops they have in Boston, and about their plans."

He stepped a bit closer to Samuel, saying in a lower but more serious tone, "Samuel ... the British will believe that the Colonists here in the Boston Bottleneck--"

He paused a moment, trying to remember whether the isthmus had been called that during this era.  Then he remembered that the isthmus hardly existed anymore after 200 year of swamp and wetland reclamation; so the name [i]had[/i] to have come from this period.

He continued, “The Redcoats are going to push through the Bottleneck.  They’re going to burn every home … every barn, chicken coop, outhouse.  They’ll do it, because they don’t know who they can trust here.”