Coralie sat, drumming her fingers atop the table. “And to think I might have been married by now!”
“Being Mrs. Gibbs might not have been all you hoped.” Mae poured hot water into the pot, wishing she’d brought theirs from home like Caty had. “Perhaps you should see this turn of events as more felicitous than unfair.”
“How glib you are, Mae. And how easy it is for you, being happily married to an officer and cozily sharing this spot, rude as it is.” Coralie’s restless gaze roamed the room. “This fort’s pickets feel more prison, but ’tis better than the tents and shacks I spied outside fort walls.”
“Sutler’s Row is colorful and full of life,” Mae said, setting down sugar and a spoon. “Where will you lodge?”
“James showed me my quarters, a dreadful hovel near the sally port shared with two decrepit nurses. I left my belongings there and pray they’re not stolen.”
Mae sat opposite her, patience thin. “Sister, if you don’t take yourself in hand, no matter your heartbreak, you might well be turned out of this fort.”
“What means you?”
“You’re here at the mercy of General Clinton and my husband. If there’s trouble from you in any quarter, you’ll be sent packing. Surly attitudes often end in the guardhouse. These men are fighting for their lives—our lives—and the future of this country. Think on that rather than your own small struggles.”
Coralie continued her fretful table tapping. “If I had a guide I’d employ him to return me to Chatham.”
“’Tis a very dangerous time to be traveling, even more so than when we came.”
“So I’ve heard.” Coralie made a face. “Given that, I’ll be workingas a laundress starting tomorrow, though my duties include mending washed clothes and the like.”
“I’ve seen the washing area on the riverbank below and up Popolopen Creek. The women toil hard to keep the men clean and trim.”
“At least the view of the Hudson River and surrounding hills is astounding.” She looked past Mae’s shoulder. “I suppose I’ll soon be laundering officers’ coats like the one behind you.”
“We’ve finished the first and have several more started.”
“We?”
“Lucy Hawkes is a marvel with a needle. Remember the pincushion she made me?”
“Vaguely.”
“Her husband is an excellent drummer, both of them contributing a great deal to this garrison.”
“Drumming? I loathe all that noise just as I did in Chatham.”
Mae bit her tongue, wishing Rhys back and her sister already at work on the riverbank. But would she wrangle with the laundresses too?
“I’m not to take my meals with you either but in the common mess like the other help.”
“Since you didn’t get on well with Mrs. Kersey and Mrs. Wentz, that would be wise.”
“And how are the high-and-mighty wives?”
Mae opened her mouth to share Caty’s glad news, then thought better of it. Doing so might stoke her sister’s discontent and usher in another rant. “They’re making the best of being here.”
“Seems like an age since we left Chatham.” Sighing, Coralie took out a handkerchief and dabbed away the sheen on her brow. “I want nothing more now than to return and be an aunt to Hanna and Aaron’s firstborn if I’m not to be a wife and mother myself.”
“I’m sorry,” Mae murmured. “Truly I am.”
“I suppose I might meet someone here, though many officersare already married and there’s precious little time for any frolicking.”
Precious little, indeed. The Arnold Tavern ball seemed more like a fable she’d read long ago. “Every moment here is dedicated to the cause. The celebrations will come later.”
“Here we go again.” Coralie rolled her eyes. “How on earth can a ragtag group of the worst sort of rebels and ruffians triumph over the most highly trained fighting force in the world? I don’t even recall how all this madness started.”
“Let me remind you.” Mae took a steadying breath and glanced at the teapot with distaste. “Have you forgotten the Stamp Act? Or the Townshend and Tea Acts? Then there’s the Intolerable Acts and countless restrictions of American colonial trade, all continual violations of our rights. Because of these and other offenses, these ragtag rebels and ruffians, as you call them, have been forced into a ferocious fight they’ll undoubtedly win even if takes a decade to do it.”
