The setting throughout those chapters is New York. Chapter 6 has Isabel being asked to spy on the Locktons by Curzon. Chapter 7 has Isabel learning her chores at the Lockton house. Chapter 8 has Madam Lockton turning Ruth into a puppet of sorts. Chapter 9 has Isabel learning of the bribery plot, and chapter 10 has Isabel reporting to Curzon what she learned.
New York itself is a divided city at this time. It's filled with Patriots and Loyalists in almost equal numbers, and it's ready to be torn apart by the war. It's a great place to be a spy for either side. Isabel is a slave in the house of a prominent Loyalist, so it makes sense that she would be asked to spy for the Patriots. She has zero motivation to do it, though—that is, until she begins to experience and see the abuse that she and Ruth are going to have to endure under Madam Lockton. Then Isabel hears exactly the kind of thing that she was asked to listen for. She learns of a plot to bribe members of the Patriot army. The Lockton house is in close enough proximity to where Curzon lives that she is able to sneak out at night and inform him of the plot. If Isabel's situation were still set out in the country, then chapters 6-10 would not have occurred as part of Isabel's story.
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