The Traitor's Wife

A Novel

Allison Pataki

• Publisher: Howard Books
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781476738628
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Historical Fiction
• Index: Literature

A riveting historical novel about Peggy Shippen Arnold, the cunning wife of Benedict Arnold and mastermind behind America's most infamous act of treason... Everyone knows Benedict Arnold—the Revolutionary War general who betrayed America and fled to the British—as history's most notorious turncoat. Many know Arnold's co-conspirator, Major John André, who was apprehended with Arnold's documents in his boots and hanged at the orders of General George Washington. But few know of the integral third character in the plot: a charming young woman who not only contributed to the betrayal but orchestrated it. Socialite Peggy Shippen is half Benedict Arnold's age when she seduces the war hero during his stint as military commander of Philadelphia. Blinded by his young bride's beauty and wit, Arnold does not realize that she harbors a secret: loyalty to the British. Nor does he know that she hides a past romance with the handsome British spy John André. Peggy watches as her husband, crippled from battle wounds and in debt from years of service to the colonies, grows ever more disillusioned with his hero, Washington, and the American cause. Together with her former love and her disaffected husband, Peggy hatches the plot to deliver West Point to the British and, in exchange, win fame and fortune for herself and Arnold. Told from the perspective of Peggy's maid, whose faith in the new nation inspires her to intervene in her mistress's affairs even when it could cost her everything, The Traitor's Wife brings these infamous figures to life, illuminating the sordid details and the love triangle that nearly destroyed the American fight for freedom.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Dedication
• Epigraph
• Letter Excerpt
• Prologue “All is Lost”
• Chapter One “Never Anger Miss Peggy”
• Chapter Two “Delicious Little Heathen”
• Chapter Three “Arnold Will Always Be My Enemy”
• Chapter Four “The Most Beautiful Little Patriot in All Thirteen Colonies”
• Chapter Five “Stuck in the Mud”
• Chapter Six “There Is Another Way”
• Chapter Seven “Too Far Down This Path”
• Chapter Eight “The Biggest Fish of  Them All”
• Chapter Nine “In Whom Can We Trust?”
• Epilogue
• A Note on History and Sources
• Acknowledgments
• Reading Group Guide
• About Allison Pataki
• Copyright