The French Admiral

don't return by three or four, what would they do? Send another messenger? A troop of cavalry? More luck to them, 'cause we'll be out in the marshes by five, and by the time they get here around six, we'll be under sail.'

'But once they arrive at the house and speak to the Hayleys, our goose is cooked,' Governour said. 'They could signal the French ships to send boats to cut us off. I'd really feel better leaving here tonight. Matter of fact, the more I think on it, it seems best.'

'But the leeboards aren't ready,' Alan said.

'Hang your bloody leeboards,' Governour snapped.

'You cannot,' Alan said, over his unease at the slaughter, and in a position of authority and knowledge for once with the land officers. 'Oh, we could pole out right now, but with provisions and all, we'd be overset within five miles. There's the keels still to be fitted, and without them, we're unstable as a cup-shot cow. And without the leeboards, we'll make as much leeway as we do forward. How do we know how calm the bay will be, or what strength the wind? We have to finish the boats—it's that or drown out there. And if you think the river was rough, just wait 'til we get out past Cape Charles and onto the ocean.'

Governour puffed up as though he was about to burst.

'Believe me, I want to be away from this shitten place as badly as any of you, but there's simply no way,' Alan assured him.

'Work at night, then,' Governour demanded, adamant.

'By torch and firelight?' Alan asked.

'No, that would be even worse,' Governour said finally. 'We would be sure to draw attention from the French ships then. Forgive me my impatience, Lewrie.'

'Governour, I know what impatience is,' Alan laughed without much humor. 'I've been impatient since I first saw Yorktown.'

They went back into the house for a welcome drink from the wine cabinet and sideboard. Mrs. Hayley, her son, and sister were at that moment being escorted back downstairs from whatever room they had been confined to during the brief action, their tears flowing copiously. Nancy could not look him in the eyes, but the other two were livid with rage and the shock of seeing men killed in their presence.

'Murtherers!' Mrs. Hayley shrilled as soon as she saw them. 'You did not give them one Christian chance! Just shot 'em down like dogs! They were all our friends! One of 'em was a neighbor up the neck.'

'There is little that is Christian in war, ma'am,' Governour told the woman, knowing it would not penetrate but making the effort anyway.

'Is that how my daddy died?' Rodney hissed. 'Shot from ambush by a cowardly, sneaking hound? Damn you all, I say!'

'Corp'r'l Knevet?' Governour barked.

'Aye, Governour?' the non-com replied from the stairs.

'Mistress and her charges shall be confined to the upper floors tonight, and for all tomorrow until we are gone. Their meals to be brought to them. Keep a watch on their windows. No lanterns in their rooms, and make sure they have only what they need for decency's sake.'

'Right, Governour.'

'And shall we be shot as well, sir?' Mrs. Hayley objected. 'Have Tories and King's men no honor toward innocent civilians? Where is that gentle treatment which you promised when first you came here?'

'I could care less what happens to Rebels and their broods,' Governour snapped coldly. 'Be thankful you shall have your lives and your property when the fighting is over, ma'am.'

Once the women were hustled back upstairs, Alan opened the sideboard doors and found a stone jug of corn whiskey. At that moment, he preferred it to other, weaker, spirits. He took a deep swig, rattled it about in his mouth, and gulped it down, holding his breath until the fire had passed.

'Whew, what a mort she is!' he said.

'Can't blame her, really,' Governour relented, unslinging his rifle and unloading his pockets of weapons. 'Pour me a goodly measure of that while you're there, would you? Women know nothing of war, thank God, nor should they, so they have only the vaguest notions of how it is really conducted, or how bestial the average soldier becomes after he faces battle and death more than once. They will never have the slightest idea how rudely they and their property could be treated if we were not honorable gentlemen at heart.'

'So leaving them more gold would not help any longer,' Alan said. He was still jealous about having to part with his guineas, and if they did not have to do so, would be glad to keep them.

'No, we promised to pay for what we despoil.' Governour sighed, flopping down into the wing chair and putting his feet up on a narrow padded bench before the cold fireplace. 'Perhaps twenty pounds would do. And they'll be the only ones to profit by this campaign of ours.'

'I already gave five, and got little for it.'

'Did you learn anything, though it is moot now?'

'Not much. It was all I could do to keep her from spying on us,' Alan admitted. 'We were to tryst upstairs tonight. Perhaps I could still.'

'Then I hope the lady is worth the socket-fee.' Governour laughed.

'I've bargained for worse,' he replied with a sheepish grin.

'We shall work through the night, anyway,' Governour Chiswick said as Burgess joined them from cleaning up the last signs of the ambush. 'We can at least slaughter and embrine meat, bake johnny cake, and dry more powder in the tobacco barns. Anyone familiar with growing tobacco would expect to see drying fires on a plantation at night.'

'I could put my men to work on the leeboards in the wagon sheds as well,' Alan said. 'We could burn torches in there to see by. Though we don't know what to use for the boards themselves.'

'What sort of boards would they have to be?' Burgess asked, taking a glass of corn whiskey himself.

'Two or three feet wide, four feet long, ready planed from heavy wood, Feather told me. I suppose we can nail or peg something together that would suit.'

'Heavy wood, you say.' Burgess chuckled, going to the double doors to the front parlor. He rapped one of them significantly. 'How would you prefer oiled mahogany. Inch and a half thick, over eight feet long and over three feet wide, both of them.'

'Two sets of leeboards!' Alan exclaimed. 'Burgess, you're a paragon! I was looking right at them and never gave 'em a thought!'

'I was ready to take 'em myself for our fortifications,' Burgess said. 'Damn the place, I'd strip it down to the raw bricks rather than be captured for the want of a nail.'

'What fortifications?'

'Oh, Brother and I have been busy in the woods,' Burgess said. 'Preparing a reception for anyone coming up the road. Our visitors tonight never even spotted 'em. We put up some rail fences and laid some surprises, too. See here, Alan, you said you were a hunter back in England, didn't you?'

'Yes, some.'

'Ever see a fence you didn't want to put your horse to?'

'Never,' Alan bragged, loosened up by the whiskey.

'Nor did I ever know a cavalryman that wouldn't either. There's chevaux-de-frise behind those new fences in the trees, not out front, mind, but in back, where you don't see 'em 'til you're in mid- leap, and if they had sent cavalry against us, they'd end up on the spikes.' Burgess snickered with anticipation at the sight. 'With our Fergusons, we could have had an edge, too, 'cause we could lay down to fire and load just as fast as standing. There's rifle pits in the woods, too, so we could have had several fallback positions to snipe from while any infantry would have come at us standing up.'

'Had they been necessary, we could have given anyone a hot reception,' Governour boasted. 'We even provided for you. Up by the creek it's too marshy for cavalry or infantry, but south of the woods, they could come across the fields. We put up some log ramparts for you and your sailors, covered with leaves and deadfall to look like a pile of junk wood. Would have made a neat little redan to guard the boats while we covered things south of you.'

'You were that confident?' Alan wondered aloud.

'If they had sent troops down here, and if they followed usual practice, we could have cut them to pieces. If they didn't send too many, that is. And after besting them we'd be gone before they could summon a larger