Turncoat

O
THER
M
ARC
E
DWARDS
M
YSTERIES
BY
D
ON
G
UTTERIDGE

Solemn Vows

 

Coming January 2011 from Touchstone

Touchstone
A Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
1230 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10020
www.SimonandSchuster.com

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents
either are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously.
Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead,
is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2003 by Don Gutteridge

Originally published by McClelland & Stewart Ltd.

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions
thereof in any form whatsoever. For information address
Touchstone Subsidiary Rights Department,
1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.

This Touchstone export edition July 2010

TOUCHSTONE and colophon are registered trademarks
of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

For information about special discounts for bulk purchases,
please contact Simon & Schuster Special Sales at 1-800-268-3216.

Designed by Akasha Archer

Manufactured in the United States of America

1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

ISBN 978-1-4391-6369-6

ISBN 978-1-4391-7266-7 (ebook)

For Kate, who loves a mystery,
and for John, my Right Reader

I would like to thank the following for their support and advice: Bob Clark, Gerry Parker, Stan Atherton, John Gutteridge, and George Martell. I also owe a debt of gratitude to my agent, Beverley Slopen, and my editor for this edition, Jan Walter. Also a special thanks to Kevin Hanson and Alison Clarke, whose enthusiasm kept this project alive.

Turncoat
is wholly a work of fiction, but I have endeavoured to convey in it the spirit of the period and the political tensions that led to the Upper Canada Rebellion of 1837. The statements, actions, and character traits attributed to actual historical personages referred to in the novel—Sir John Colborne, William Lyon Mackenzie, Peter Perry, and Ogle Gowan—are fictitious, and readers will have to make up their own minds as to whether such characterizations are consistent with the historical record. All other characters are the invention of the author, and any resemblance to persons living or dead is coincidental.

Toronto and Cobourg, of course, were and are real towns. Although Crawford's Corners is imaginary, many hamlets or postal drops like it could be found along the Kingston Road in 1835–36. The political issues raised in the story—the Clergy Reserves and the question of rights accorded to American immigrants—are presented as they would have appeared to those adversely affected by them. The Hunters' Lodges were an actual underground movement for the liberation of Upper Canada, but I have moved their activities
up two years to facilitate the plot. Many such “secret societies” existed or were perceived to exist during the stress and paranoia of this turbulent period in Ontario's history.

A number of books provided useful background information and serendipitously suggested ideas that made their way into the story. Edwin C. Guillet's
Early Life in Upper Canada,
E.C. Kyte's
Old Toronto,
Frank Walker's
Sketches of Old Toronto,
and Percy Climo's
Early Cobourg
provided specific geographical and sociological detail; Sam Welch's
Recollections of Buffalo
was, among other things, an inexhaustible source of interesting names; G.C. Moore-Smith's
The Life of John Colborne
and Charles Lindsey's
The Life and Times of Wm. Lyon Mackenzie
offered close-up, contemporary accounts of the 1830s; and Gerald M. Craig's
Upper Canada: 1784–1841
brought some bracing scholarly balance to the task of interpretation. Any errors of fact in the novel, deliberate or naïve, are exclusively my own.

In 1836, Upper Canada is a colonial province in turmoil. William Lyon Mackenzie, sometime member of the Legislative Assembly, editor of the radical
Colonial Advocate
, and a left-wing rabble-rouser, has just sent the Assembly's Seventh Report on Grievances to the imperial government in England.

The farmers in Upper Canada have many legitimate complaints—domination of the political and financial spheres by an aristocratic elite known as the Family Compact, the Clergy Reserves law that sets aside every seventh lot in a concession to support the Anglican church,
the Alien Act (recently repealed but whose spirit lives on) whereby American immigrants were limited in their property rights and freedom to hold office, and a governor-appointed Tory Legislative Council that has turned down dozens of bills from the Reform-controlled Legislative Assembly. The province is plagued by political gridlock, firmly in the hands of a military governor. Dissident farmers have pinned their hopes on the Reform Party, but are becoming more and more militant. Whispers of rebellion are in the air.

American-syle republicanism is seen as a possible resolution of the grievances, and its support among the populace is abetted from the United States by the Hunters' Lodges, an organization dedicated to the annexation of Upper Canada by the Republic. Other American groups, like the Lofo Foco Democrats, are likewise sympathetic to their cause. To make matters worse, drought struck the province in 1834 and 1835, bringing many farmers to the brink of starvation. The Family Compact and their Tory counterparts in the legislatures have turned a blind eye, branding as disloyal all critics of the regime, while claiming as their due all the privileges and entitlements of their class.

Amidst this and the possibility of insurrection stands a small garrison at tiny Fort York in Toronto, the provincial capital. It is a town of only three thousand souls, a dozen taverns and half as many churches, plunked down in the mud and gravel of ten blocks by five. The fort itself is a series
of jerry-built structures erected in haste following the War of 1812. To add to the general uncertainty, Sir John Colborne, the lieutenant-governor, has just been transferred to Quebec, where rebellion of a different kind is brewing.

All that is needed now is some spark to ignite the flames of civil war.

Toronto, Upper Canada: January 1836

The message that was to change Ensign Marc Edwards's life forever was simple enough. It was relayed to him by a chubby-cheeked corporal as Marc came out of the Cock and Bull, a tavern frequented by officers of His Majesty's 24th Regiment of Foot.

“You are to report to Government House immediately, sir,” the corporal said nervously.

“But I'm due back at Fort York within the hour,” Marc said. “Colonel Margison is expecting me.”

“It's the governor, sir. He wants to see you, personally. I've got a sleigh waiting around the corner.”

“Very well, then.” Marc tried not to let his excitement show, but after eight long months of barracks life and daily military routine in this far-flung colony of the British Empire, the possibility of something—anything—out of the ordinary was enough to set a young man's heart racing.