“What will you do?”
“Thrash Dunmore, Sterling, and Tarryton!”
Washington stood, offering his outstretched hand. “Take care, Eric. I’m afraid that you must look for the worst. The attack isn’t expected for a few days, but Dunmore is in Virginia waters. Eric, I’m trying to tell you that you may reach your home to find it burned to the ground.”
“I may.”
“And your wife—”
“I swear, I shall see to her.”
“Eric—”
“I know that she is dangerous. I will see to her. I intend to send her to France under heavy guard.”
Washington shook his head. “Perhaps she is not guilty.”
“You are the one always warning me about her! The evidence points cleanly to her!”
“Perhaps, perhaps not. Perhaps she deserves a fair trial.”
Eric stood, ready to exit, ready to sail. “Sir, she has already received her fair trial!” he said angrily.
He took his orders and left Washington, promising to return at the earliest possible moment. After returning to the headquarters house he had chosen in lower Manhattan, he summoned Frederick and asked for a sound crew for the ship. “Virginians, West County men, if you can. I don’t care if they’ve ever sailed before. No one on earth is more accurate with a long rifle than a West County Virginian.”
“You’ll need swordsmen for hand-to-hand combat,” Frederick warned him.
“Give me some men from the Carolina regiment. They’re seamen, and they’ve all learned their swordplay well.”
When Frederick left him Eric nearly bent over double, ready to scream. With all his will he tried to cast a dark shield of control over his temper, and yet he could not get her out of his mind for a moment. “I would never betray this hall, Eric. Never!” The passion of her words returned to haunt him again and again. Sweet, sweet mockery that he could not bear. How had he believed her? He knew her!
He wanted to curl his fingers around her throat and throttle her. He wanted to tear her limb from limb. He wanted to rip that glorious hair from her head.…
And he wanted to take her into his arms, brutally, perhaps, but he wanted her, beneath him, to shake her, to have her, until she realized at long last that her battle was over, that she could never defy him again.
As he gathered the last of his personal belongings for the trip, there was a soft rapping upon his door. He strode across the room with its rough wood table and simple cot and threw open the door, his features surely displaying the tension of his mood. To his surprise it was Anne Marie Mabry, Sir Thomas’s daughter, who stood there.
Anne Marie had come a long way from that night in Boston. She had organized many of the women’s protests, the boycotting of British goods, and she had been engaged to marry a young man who had lost his life in Boston. She was no longer the coquette but a beautiful, mature young woman with a soft smile and a winning way. She had followed her father to war and was considered quite an angel by the men.
And I could not have chosen her for a wife! Eric charged himself bitterly. A woman sworn to the same cause as I, and one who is gentle, with guileless blue eyes and a tender smile.
Yet even with the thought, he knew that he could not have turned back and he knew, too, in that moment, that whatever came, he loved Amanda still. If he caught her, he would deal with her as was necessary, but he would not cease to love her. He had been ignited by the magic in emerald eyes and flame-dark hair, and no one else could ever touch him so deeply again.
“Anne Marie, come in,” he said stiffly. “There’s little here to offer you, though there is coffee in the pot. A fire can heat it quick enough. Or there is brandy—”
“Eric, please, I haven’t come for coffee or brandy.” She hesitated. “I’ve come to ask you to think slowly and carefully before you do irreparable harm!”
He paused, staring at her with surprise and a certain amount of amusement. “Anne Marie, they are planning on burning down my home, a house with a cornerstone set in the late 1620s! They will seize weapons and arms meant for the use of the Virginia militia and this very army. And, Anne Marie, they know that the weapons are there because my wife—the very mistress of that hall!—has told them!” His temper rose as he spoke. Too late he realized that his long strides were bearing him harshly down upon her and that he nearly had her cornered.
“By God!” he roared, casting his hands into the air. “I’m sorry, Anne Marie. But leave this be.”
He walked to the side table and poured himself a brandy. Undaunted, Anne Marie hurried to his side. “Eric, I have heard rumors about all this too! Servants’ gossip, but often the truest source. Amanda has not been away from Cameron Hall since you left her.”
“Then someone else there is her accomplice.”
“Eric, she is my friend. I know her well—”
“Anne Marie, I caught her red-handed one night. And I let it go. That was my mistake. I should have beaten her with a horse crop that night and sent her to France!”
