“Is there any way we can warn them, Joshua?”
“You are starting to sound like a Patriot.”
“I only care for defenseless people. Patriot or Loyalist.”
“I need to find an outpost to relay a message.” To someone he could trust.
At a clearing, hidden from the river, he tossed the packs to the ground and waited while the women traveled into the shrubs to relieve their needs. No fire would be laid tonight. No need to alert Onontio to their presence if he had followed them.
Juliet returned. “If the Patriots win which seems impossible against the most powerful country in the world, I wonder what future generations will say about England.”
He signaled to Juliet to follow him, picked up his long gun and trudged to the river, confident when he heard her soft footsteps padding behind him. “The defenders of a destroyed old regime have to wait before history does them justice. Their conquerors write the accepted history books. As a consequence, the defenders will be credited with many infamies and encrusted with the mud of prejudice.”
“As always, the logic exposes no blemishes credited to the one side and few virtues to the other.”
He stopped, and she collided into his back nearly plummeting him headlong into the river.
She grabbed his arm to haul him back and her touch burned through his shirt. “Sorry,” she said, dropping her hand, and a blush stole up her cheeks. “I wasn’t looking where I was going.”
“Not to worry.”
She smiled with his absolution and her face took on a mesmerizing radiance, and then he followed her searching gaze over the river. Loons ducked beneath the water and emerged several feet away.
“Two Eagles and I remain neutral, merely fur traders trying to eke out a living and staying out of the fray.” He didn’t dare tell her he was to scrutinize Fort Oswego’s defenses. Too dangerous of a weapon to put in her hands.
She drew up beside him, her shoulder brushing his. He tried not to look at how her dress stuck to her like a second skin, tried not to look at her breasts pushed impudently against the doeskin.
Side by side they stood in companionable silence, peace descending with the setting sun, and he wondered momentarily how it would be to have this woman by him for the rest of his life. He shook the notion aside. A dragonfly skittered across the water. A bass jumped, caught it in its jaws and disappeared forever in the murky depths. “Living in the wilderness during this war, you live or die. There is no middle ground.”
Juliet harrumphed. “Such is the madness of men. Now why have you brought me to the river?”
“I want to teach you how to load and unload a gun without alarming Mary.”
“You expect trouble?”
“We must be prepared and having one more person to help wont’ hurt.” He positioned the butt end of his long gun to the ground and gave her the powder horn. “Pour a little down the muzzle, and then press the ball straight down the barrel with the ramrod.” He moved behind her, anchoring his feet beside hers, and then placed his hands over hers, close enough to smell her scent.
Juliet’s heart hammered with his strong arms about her, finding an incredible consolation in the gentleness of his grasp.He’s teaching you to protect yourself.
He lifted the gun. “Pull back on the hammer and put a little powder in the pan.”
His hand curled beneath the gun. She hesitated, studying his long, strong fingers, hands of a man of the forests, callused by hard work and hard weather—a frontierman’s hand, one that held a tomahawk and a long gun and killed people. How could it be the same hand that patiently taught her to load a gun?
Do not read any more than what is there.
Hadn’t he told her the fake marriage was the only way he could ensure her safety?
She stepped away and faced him. “Do you think you’ll ever return to England?”
Joshua stared at her, and she savored the progression of expressions that transformed his face: surprise, scorn, and finally shuttered blankness.
“What makes you think I come from England?”
He surprised her by reaching out and gently tracing his finger along her cheek. “Soft,” he said with a wolfish grin.
She was not sidetracked and relished his uneasiness. “Your accent comes through despite your effort to conceal it.”
“I come from Boston.”
