She had to go back. She had to lift her head and smile and return to the house and be her father’s most gracious hostess, and she had to laugh and dance and be certain that no one ever knew what had taken place in the Venus garden.
“Amanda!”
Hearing her name called, she leapt to her feet and forced a smile to her lips.
“Damien!” she called in response to that well-loved voice. She knew her cousin would quickly be upon her, for he knew the maze as thoroughly as she did. They had often played there as children. “Damien!”
He came through the last row of hedges, bewigged and handsome, looking fabulously elegant. He knew his appearance was quite proper and perfect, and he paused by the Venus statue to pose for her quickly. “The ultimate gentleman, the lord of leisure!” he said, then he laughed and raced toward her, and she threw herself into his arms.
“Damien! You’re back. I thought that you were staying in Philadelphia with your brother and that the two of you had been larking about from Boston to New York. And it frightens me when you and he are apart for I am ever afraid of what trouble you will find!”
He shook his head, and it seemed for a moment that sober thoughts clouded his dark handsome eyes. “I am ever quick to avoid trouble!” he vowed to her, then laughed. “I heard that Lord Sterling was hosting a ball, and I came quickly, thinking that my dear sweet cousin might need me.”
Amanda pulled away from him, watching his eyes. Then she sighed softly. “So you knew too. All the world knew about Robert and this Duchess of Owenfield except for me, and, therefore, I made the most horrible fool of myself.” If she wasn’t careful, she’d start crying again.
“Amanda, he’s not worthy of you,” Damien told her swiftly. Setting an arm about her shoulder, he led her to sit down on the bench.
She smiled up at him lovingly. “Perhaps not, but I loved him, Damien. So what do I do now?”
“Forget him. There will be other men to offer for you, to love you—”
“Well, I’ve had the offer!” she said, and laughed bitterly. “But not the love. It was quite astounding. Lord Cameron appeared on the scene and offered himself.”
“Cameron!” Damien repeated, startled.
“Aye, the traitor. My night is beset by betrayal, so it seems, for Father had told him yes!”
Damien stood, hooking his thumbs into his waistband as he paced before her. He swung around and looked at her. “He’s been quite the bachelor, Mandy. You know that. Mamas have thrown their daughters at him for some time now, and he has never shown the least interest. You are deeply honored, you know.”
“You like him!” Amanda accused. “You were good friends in Boston, or so it seemed, but, Damien, you must take the greatest care! You know that the man is a traitor.”
Damien hesitated a long time, looking at her. “No, I do not know him as a traitor, cousin.”
Amanda gasped, leaping up to catch hold of his shoulder. “You can’t mean that! I…I know that he is guilty of evil deeds, I have seen him in action. And he follows the words of fanatics, of fools—”
Damien shook his head, watching her sadly. “I do not believe that these men are fanatics or fools, Mandy.” She stared at him blankly, and he suddenly gripped her hands with excitement. “In Philadelphia I met with the writer and printer Benjamin Franklin. I—”
“Benjamin Franklin? The newspaper man? The fellow who puts out thatPoor Richard’s Almanac?” Franklin lived in Pennsylvania; his yearly book on weather and forecasts and sayings was like a bible to men from Georgia to Maine, and even up into the Canadian colonies.
“Yes, Franklin. Benjamin Franklin. He’s considered a great man these days there, a wise man indeed.”
“He prints insurrection, I take it.”
“You’d love him, Mandy.”
“Oh, Damien! You frighten me. I do not like the company you keep. Franklin wants war.”
“No! No man wants war. But if you listen to these people, you’ll come to understand.”
“Understand what? We are English. We must pay taxes for English defense! Come, Damien, think on it. Without our fine English soldiers, what would we have done during the French and Indian Wars? Our militia was sad and pathetic! Scant defense!”
“Not so scant!” Damien protested. “Why, it was only what our colonials learned about Indian warfare that saved us then. George Washington was a volunteer with the British regulars when General Braddock was overtaken by the French and Indians, and it was young Washington who saw the troops back to Virginia. And Robert Rogers’s rangers out of Connecticut were so adept and disciplined that they became part of the regular British army.”
“British reinforcements saved us in the end, and it was a horrible and long bloody war. Without the Crown forces we would have been lost, and you know it.”
He looked at her. “A Continental Congress is due to meet in Philadelphia this September to protest the closing of the port of Boston and other ‘intolerable’ acts.”
Mandy exhaled. “I am so tired of this endless talk of war.”
