Joshua peered at the lanky thirteen-year-old boy holding up the wall. A picture of misery. “Do you think Grace knows?”
“I’m sure she is very much aware but afraid to say or do anything that will provoke harsh reprimand.” Juliet straightened. “And the deliverer of that punishment approaches.”
Beating a wild tattoo on her silk fan, Bethany shoved Juliet aside. “Oh, Joshua dear, could you do me a favor and dance with Charity? She has had the megrims lately, and it would lift her spirits. And don’t forget Comfort, Cornelia and Chastity.”
Juliet looked heavenward and Crims spoke overloud. “Bethany named them all starting with a ‘C’. I’m thinking Cuckoo or Crazy, the way those spoon-fed terrors carry on.”
Bethany sneered at Crims whom she had chosen to ignore, and then, holding a hand over her heart, she gawked fawningly upon her brood. “I had the finest of satin brought in from Albany. Aren’t they lovely flowers, Joshua?”
Joshua examined the primped, trussed-up, tittering girls with overlarge mouths. He shuddered. Nothing compared to the liveliness and loveliness of his Juliet with her red hair and, annoyingly, it was attracting the attention of every male in the room.
“Oh, Juliet, I’m so glad you came.” Bethany’s words dripped the opposite intention. “Someone said you were ill, even suggesting the pox. Of course, you would not have come to my party with an infliction?”
“I’m hale and healthy,” replied Juliet. “Which begs me to ask of your servant girl, Grace. Caroline will be heavily involved in dyeing flax and wool and we require all possible hands. There is of course, some extra wool yarn that you might find given in return for services rendered.”
“I’ve always admired Caroline’s yarns. Grace will be there early tomorrow.”
The dyeing took Caroline a matter of two hours. Grace would be free to spend the day with Thomas. Juliet looked to Joshua. Her eyes twinkled, and he held hers in frank approval. For a moment, he let play the slightest corners of his mouth, owning a secret camaraderie then hid it quickly to show perfect sincerity. The old harridan turned her back on Juliet and again placed her attention solely on Joshua.
Crims stumped his wooden leg. “Why Bethany, your complexion is perfectly pale. What is your secret? Leeches? The bloody flux?”
Bethany opened her mouth in an apoplectic rage. “How dare you, Crims!”
“Didn’t know you knew I was here.”
“An unfortunate circumstance. If you were my husband, I’d poison you.”
Crims slapped his good knee and a cloud of dust motes rose like insects in the bright candlelight. “If you were my wife, I’d drink it.”
Bethany stomped away in a huff of pink froth, Crims saluting her with his cup.
Starring jumped right in. “Joshua, the townspeople are very worried over Colonel Allerton, the new man to fortify the fort next to the town. I believe the Patriot commanders in Albany who appointed him have made a mistake. Did you see him riding his fine gelding, parading his regiment into town under gaily fluttering colors, smiling broadly with messianic self-importance? Everyone feels their worries are over, but for me, the glow of reassurance has melted like snow on horse’s rear in July. I have my family to protect.”
Crims pointed the stem of his pipe. “Allerton is a pompous ass who considers every single one of the townspeople his subordinates, in either rank or social position and doesn’t fail to let us know he is a direct line descendent of John Allerton of Mayflower prominence. As if he were some fancy lordship. No one I’ve ever met has that kind of affiliation.”
Joshua cleared his throat and Juliet peered meaningfully to him. If they were aware of his and Juliet’s lineage.
“This afternoon he named the stockade Fort Allerton,” griped Crims. “If that isn’t a dunghill of conceit.”
Joshua had heard enough. He had sent a missive to Albany earlier in the year, begging for a commander and reinforcements, not the buffoon, Allerton. If he was to leave Juliet, he wanted her safe and the colonel better see that the tumbledown stockade he called Fort Allerton was reinforced.
There was a commotion at the door and the object of his dislike entered with his officers in full regalia. Time and war had altered him. Of medium height, he possessed dark sandy hair, sparser now and an increased paunch.
Bethany Powers, not to miss her shining moment, swooped down on Joshua, hooked her arm and steered him to the town’s newest celebrity.
“Joshua, this is our new commander from Albany, Colonel Ichabod Allerton,” boasted Bethany.
Joshua slanted a scathing look at Bethany. With certainty, her rudeness and displeasure were because he did not give attention to her daughters. He nodded to the colonel.
He’d known of Allerton from the earlier part of the war although he was sure, the colonel didn’t know him. An insignificant soldier, Allerton had risen through the ranks via the desperate requirement for roughly any kind of military leadership.
Bethany preened her layers of silk like an enormous pink crow. “We have felt defenseless, isolated, vulnerable…” she dipped her voice lower, “…even naked since the attacks to the south at Fort Fifty.”
Charles Powers came up beside them. His face turned a bright red, and he shot his wife, Bethany an anxious glance with her bold words.
Unfazed, Bethany continued, “When General Lafayette was here in May, he had strongly recommended a proper fort be built to replace the clumsy and flimsy fortification that had been thrown up near our home.”
Allerton peered down his nose like a benevolent King reviewing lower serfs. “I repaired at once with my regiment of two hundred and fifty men to Blackberry Valley. My purpose is to establish a strong military garrison. Mrs. Powers, you have been ever so pleasant since our arrival.”
