“How—how do I know that you really have him?” Amanda managed to ask at last.
Sterling tossed her a small signet ring across the desk. She picked it up and pretended to study it, but she knew the ring. And she knew her father.
“What do you want out of me?” she demanded harshly.
“Information. About troop movements. About arms.”
“But I don’t know—”
“You could find out. Go into Williamsburg. Sit about the taverns. Listen. Write to your dear husband, and bring me his letters.”
“You’re a fool, Father. Even if I wanted to spy for you, I could not. The servants suspect me to begin with. They follow me everywhere.”
“Then you had best become very clever. And you needn’t worry. I will find you. Or Robert will find you.”
“Robert!”
“Yes, he’s with me, of course. He’s very anxious to see you. The duchess has returned to England with her child, and he is a lonely man. Anxious for a tender mistress.”
“You are disgusting. You thrust me to my husband against my will, and now you would cast me—despising him!—back to Robert. What manner of monster are you, Father?”
He rose, his smile never faltering. “Highness, I would hand you over to all the troops from England and beyond, and gladly.”
She stood, wishing she dared to spit in his face. “When do I get Damien?”
“You don’t get him! You merely keep him alive.”
“No! That is no bargain. I will not be blackmailed forever.”
“Why, daughter! I thought that you were loyal to the Crown!”
“I am! I was! I can no longer betray my husband—”
“Your husband!” Sterling laughed, then shook his head. “Why, daughter, you are a whore. Just like your dear mother. Lord Cameron keeps you pleased ’twixt the thighs, and so you would suddenly be loyal to a new cause!”
She slapped him as hard as she could. He sobered quickly, catching her wrist, squeezing it hard. “Pray that if your fine, rebel-stud Cameron catches you at this, daughter, I will take you away. Despise Tarryton if you would now, Amanda, but you’d be better off in his hands than in Cameron’s once he discovers you!”
She jerked her hand free. “If I ever leave Virginia, I will go to Dunmore—”
He knew that she would do anything to save Damien. “Daughter—Highness!—I shall see you again soon. Very soon.”
He smiled, and turned around and left her. She heard new orders shouted outside, and the sounds of the men and their armament as they marched back down to the docks. Amanda sank back into her chair and she closed her eyes. She didn’t hear the door open, but she sensed that she wasn’t alone. She opened her eyes and discovered that Cassidy was standing before her. Pierre, Richard, Margaret, and Remy all stood silently behind him.
“What?” Amanda cried, startled and alarmed. They stared at her so accusingly!
“They left,” Cassidy said. “They didn’t burn us or threaten us.”
“Of—of course,” Amanda said. She let her face fall into her hands. “It was my father. He—he just wanted to see if I wanted to leave with him, that is all.”
Five pairs of eyes stared at her. She didn’t like the defiance in young Margaret’s. Or was she imagining the look? The blue-eyed, dark-haired Irish maid looked as if she were about to pick up a musket and go to war herself. And Remy, older, dark as the satin night, with Cameron Hall as long as anyone could remember, staring at her with such naked suspicion!
She wanted to scream at them all. She was mistress here in Eric’s absence. They were the servants!
But they were right. She was about to betray them all.
“Have you all nothing to do!” she charged them wearily. “If you are at leisure, I am not. I have accounts!”
Slowly their lashes flickered downward. One by one they turned to leave her. When the door closed, she rested her face on her arms and damned her cousin Damien a thousand times over. She damned him for being a patriot, then she damned him for being brave, for being a fool—and then she damned him for being the one person who had always loved her unquestioningly and who had made her love him so fiercely in return.
