Content Warning: This section of the guide mentions child death.

Over the next two weeks, the British soldiers make their presence known by marching at odd hours and harassing the people. The rebels fight back by refusing to house the troops, and as winter sets in, the soldiers start to desert because of the cold. Amid it all, the people of Boston start referring to themselves as “Americans” instead of “British Americans,” and Rachel wonders what this means for her and the city.

On her way to the bookstore one day, Rachel overhears men planning to arrange accidents for the soldiers. Her meeting at the bookstore is fraught with discussion of choosing sides, and most people agree that there is little neutral ground left. At a shop on her way home, the owner ignores Rachel to focus on British troops, fearful of what they’ll do if he doesn’t tend to them. The soldiers mockingly call Rachel an American girl. Rachel doesn’t know what they mean by that but realizes that the British “will push us into being Americans, […] even if we don’t want to be” (97).

When Rachel gets home, a soldier prevents her from entering the Adamses’ house without telling him her name.