“Chatham?” he roared, striking the table with both fists as he leaned forward. The teapot perched precariously at one end fell to the floor and shattered.
She jumped back, colliding with the windowsill as pieces flew. “Please, let me explain. I never thought her posting letters from Chatham was any kind of threat.”
“How many letters?”
“I don’t know.” Tears stung her eyes. “I destroyed those I could.”
“Destroyed them.” He hadn’t moved, his hands splayed atop the table, leaning in like he might lunge at her. How she longed to see understanding in his eyes. A speck of sympathy.
“One of them was in cipher like Lucy found today. The kind that’s made visible by candlelight.” She winced as all the implicating details rushed back. “I caught Coralie listening in on your and James and Captain Sperry’s after-dinner conversations in Chatham—she hid behind a wall in a small room once used in times of Indian attack—”
“Yet you told me nothing.” His face hardened further.
“There are numerous Loyalists and spies all over, so I’ve heard.” Her voice shook. “I thought one woman mattered little.”
“It matters!” he fired back. “Every deceitful action and word matters!”
She bent her head, trying to dry her tears with her apron hem.
“You chose your sister over me. By saying nothing, you made your choice.”
“Nay. You werealwaysmy choice, then and now.”
“Yet your actions say otherwise.”
She looked up, tears still streaming. “I thought coming here would mean an end to the matter.”
Disbelief scored his features. “You never realized the ruse of her failed engagement was just that. A means to get inside the walls of this fort and wring what she could from flattered soldiers who drink and talk too much.”
“I truly believed Eben Gibbs had abandoned her. She seemed heartbroken—”
“She’s a skilled deceiver bent on destroying all here, and that includes you and your brothers. No doubt she’s run off to this Gibbs now that she’s been found out.”
“How do you know?”
“Because it makes sense. Are you blinded by your family bond? If not for Lucy and her hawklike eye, your sister would still be carrying on her sham.”
The blame in his voice made her want to hide her face in her hands. He was looking at her as if he didn’t know her, as if she was a stranger—as if hehatedher. The realization almost buckled her knees.
He pushed away from the table. “I should turn you out of this fort.”
“I didn’t betray you, Rhys. I’ve always been faithful to you—loyal.” She was crying so hard her words came out in breathless snatches. “I never—ever—meant you harm.”
“I trusted you once.” He turned his back on her. “And I can trust you no longer.”
forty-three
Stand fast, my brave grenadiers!
General Charles Lee
The entire fort seemed to regard her differently now. Since Coralie’s discovery, Mae moved about as if she wore a scarlet letter, aTfor treason. Traitor. As summer bled into autumn, she kept to their quarters, even shunning the officers’ table at meals. She’d not seen Rhys since their confrontation. His absence, now days long, not only cut her, it haunted and bespoke a finality she feared. He hadn’t told her where he was going. For all she knew he had taken up quarters elsewhere in the fort. Only Lucy told her differently.
“He’s gone.” Lucy sighed when she said it. “General Washington ordered him to reinforce General Gates north of Albany. Isham and most of his riflemen have gone with him. Colonel Bohannon too.”
At least Rhys wasn’t shunning her within these walls but from a distance. Yet even that left her feeling half alive. He was too far to make amends. Too far for her to say she was sorry. Her brothers as well. James hadn’t bid her goodbye, nor Jon. Did they blame her too?
“You’ll be bone-dry if you keep crying,” Lucy cautioned, handing her a clean handkerchief. “’Tis not good for the babe.”
