The French Admiral

had good reason.'

'Yes, we did,' Alan said.

'Ya building a boat or something?' she teased.

Damme if the jade ain't trying to interrogate me instead, he realized with a start. Think of something, laddie. You're a clever liar if needs be.

'A sheltered wharf to land supplies,' he said. 'We've pounded the Frogs and the Rebels into ruin up at Yorktown and broken the siege. You notice there is no more cannon fire? We expect more troops from New York soon, and then we'll round up what they have here.'

Her eyes widened even though she fought it, a moment's consternation, and then a calculating squint as she weighed this news.

'There had been foraging parties down our way,' she admitted. 'I was under the impression that it was the other way 'round.'

'Well, what you hear from militia troops is always suspect until you see for yourself, don't ya know?' Alan said casually. 'And if you'd run across some gasconading Frenchman, you'd think they won the war by themselves a year ago, when they haven't done much at all.'

'Oh, poor Sarah, I swear!' Nancy sniffed, digging into her bosom for a handkerchief to dab at her eyes as she quickly changed the topic. 'She had such hopes that all this would finally be over. How can I tell her? She cannot bear it. And Rodney shall be so crushed that he lost his daddy, and I my Robert, in vain.'

'You were married?' he asked, waiting out the histrionics.

'Only in agreement about our future together, nothin' so formal as the banns,' Nancy said from behind her handkerchief. 'And Rodney admired him so!'

'My condolences to you and your sister, then,' Alan said kindly. 'I have lost good friends in this war as well. I am sure that you and your sister did have hopes the war would pass you by. I have heard many in the Colonies only want to stay out of danger, not favoring either side.'

'That other officer is so hard, ta blame us for our menfolk's politics,' Nancy cried. 'Surely he must know women have no opinions.'

'Rest assured you shall be safe and this property shall not be ravaged. We shall pay for what we use,' Alan told her, wanting to get back to the main subject of his exercise with her. 'Unlike the others.'

'That was sa kind of ya ta offer gold, Alan,' Nancy said. 'The Continentals have but scrip, and no guarantee of that ever being honored. We could paper the walls with it and get more comfort. As ta that, I wish I could give Sister some assurances about the money. The shed and the stock that's been slaughtered sa far, and all that.'

'A little gold goes a long way, Nancy, especially in these times. We could settle up later. Have your sister present a list of what she thinks are fair prices to us.'

'I shall,' Nancy replied.

'It must have been hard on her, trying to run this farm and all those slaves by herself,' Alan expanded on his theme. 'Now most of 'em have been sold off, haven't they? And I believe the rest went over to Gloucester at the request of the Rebels?'

'Y… yes,' Nancy replied, turning away and trying to remember how much Sarah had said at their first encounter the day before.

'Nothing in the storehouses, no hope of this year's crop and no way to get anything out past the blockade,' Alan went on softly. 'And the herds much reduced. This war must have pinched you terribly.'

'We have managed,' Nancy said, plying her handkerchief again for a self-pitying weep. 'Though it has been damned hard, never knowing where the funds would come from, or if there would be enough ta eat, even.'

'Yet you still set a fine table and have a good selection of wine. And that coffee at dinner!' Alan said. 'I have not had the like aboard my ship in months. However did you get it?'

'We have, now and then, had ta depend on the kindness of our good neighbors,' Nancy announced with a straight face. 'Things do get through your blockade, and there are kind gentlemen who think of us in our need.'

Alan laughed to himself. I wager there are!

Nancy turned away once more and began to stroll along the edge of the woodlot, heading for the environs of the main house, this time at a slow pace and without the flirtation she had shown before.

'Times will be better,' Alan said to bridge the sullen silence that had sprung up between them. 'Once we have reclaimed Virginia for the Crown, you will be alright. Think of the new goods coming in.'

'Yes, that will be good,' she said, 'but it would be even nicer ta think of all the goods going out. We haven't sold even a barrel of our crops since 77.'

'Yet they are not here,' Alan wondered, considering whether he should have observed that or not to her. Damme, this spying and prying is harder work than getting her interested in bed.

'Sent off inland for safety, up near Williamsburg,' Miss Nancy said quickly. 'All the planters hereabouts do it.'

Was she lying, or did they have some ship captain who would take their tobacco to the Caribbean for transshipment to Europe? There was too much in the way of luxuries about the plantation that could not be easily explained away, but at the same time not enough luxuries to mark them as smugglers or profiteers; else why should they have to sell off the slaves? Alan did not mention the news that Governour and Burgess had given him about those huge warehouses full of tobacco further inland that Arnold and Phillips had burned during their rampage through Virginia back in the spring. Surely, she would have known about it—it would have represented a total loss for them. He decided to switch the conversation to more venal topics.

'But, when you can sell your stored crops, there will be a flood of money again, and your house shall once more ring with laughter.' Alan beamed at her. 'And Miss Nancy shall charm all the county with her beauty and her grace, as I am sure she did before these hard times.'

'Why, Alan Lewrie, how ya do go on!' She flushed happily.

'The fiddlers shall come to play at your balls, and everyone shall want to dance with you,' he went on. 'As a matter of fact, I wouldn't mind doing so myself.' He could see that he was coaxing her into a better mood. She really was a pretty little thing, much nicer looking than her older sister. And there was no one around at the moment to see him take liberties with her, and a whole forest to explore her in.

'Were all the gentlemen as gallant as Alan Lewrie, I'd admire ta dance the night away, so I would!' she cooed, swaying her hips in wider arcs and spinning her parasol once more.

'Did we have a fiddler, I would admire to dance with you this very minute,' Alan said, stepping closer to her, close enough to feel the heat of her body. 'Would you join me in a country dance?'

'What would the darkies think, us capering about out here in the woods?' she complained, but made no move away from him.

He slipped a hand to her waist and brought her idle stroll to a halt. She turned to him, raising her face up to look at him directly. She leaned back a bit from his embrace, but she was smiling still.

'Ya seem a lot older than ya look, I swan,' she said softly as he drew her closer. 'One'd take ya for a boy at first reckoning.'

'One ages a lot faster in a war,' Alan told her as their loins touched. The scent of her was maddeningly fresh and feminine, and he had not held a woman since Charleston, nearly two months in the past.

'You're becoming more familiar with me than decency admits of, good sir,' she protested, still wearing that enigmatic smile and looking him directly in the face. 'And a moment ago, I called you gallant.'

He drew her to him even closer, put a hand on her back and brought her face close to his, brushing his lips on hers. She turned her head back and forth to avoid his kisses, but her lashes lowered invitingly, more teasing than in a genuine attempt to break away or deny him her pleasures. He kissed her cheeks in lieu of her mouth, her chin, her neck below her ears, and proceeded on to her bare and inviting shoulders when she made no greater objections.

'Mister Lewrie, how dare you use me so ill!' she whispered as she finally raised one hand to push his shoulder away from her. 'This is not done! Slaves are always spying on their masters, and a lady and a gentleman do not give them grist for their amusement. I am not some goose girl ta tumble by the creek such as you did at home.'

Just like home, anyway, Alan decided with a leer. Take your pleasures in private and keep the servants in the dark about 'em like you have the reputation of your class to uphold.