“Poison, is it?” Rowan’s eyebrows hiked upward as he sliced two thick pieces of bread and handed them to Branch along with a ripe peach.
“A feast, my friend. Thank you,” Branch said, taking a big bite of peach that left juice running down his chin. “And I’m not poisoning them to death. Just enough to make them wish they could die.”
“Be safe,” Rowan said as he and Branch hurried down the stairs. Rowan went to saddle a fast horse while Branch kept to the shadows as he returned to the doctor’s house. By the time he reached it, he had consumed the bread and peach, and gratefully accepted the meat and cheese the doctor gave him along with a jar of powder tucked into a linen sack.
“Do you understand how to administer that?” the doctor asked as Branch stood in the darkness at the man’s back door.
“I believe so, sir. I’ve had it poured down my gullet before and have a working knowledge of the effects.”
“Very well. Just be careful.” The doctor returned inside the house and softly closed the door.
Branch settled the sack inside his shirt and hastened back toThe Hollyhock.It didn’t take much effort for him to slip past the guards on duty and below deck to where the food was stored that he knew the crew would eat to break their fast.
The powder the doctor had given him would merely cause a violent case of gastric distress, not poison or kill anyone. But it would leave the crew incapacitated long enough for John Greene and his men to take over the ship and leave the crew at the mercy of members of the Continental Army.
Branch hurried to add the powder to the food stores he knew would be used to prepare the morning meal. He used every last grain of the powder, then tossed the jar overboard and returned to the area he had been assigned to sleep.
With nerves tightly strung, he found rest elusive, but feigned deep slumber as the crew began to awaken.
Matthews kicked Branch’s leg with far more force than necessary to roust him. “Get up, you vermin. We’ll set sail soon, and if you want your money before we leave, you need to finish loading the last of the supplies.”
Branch rubbed his eyes and swallowed the urge to trip Matthews as he swaggered by. Instead, he rose, pulled on his hat, and made his way up to the deck where men were forming a line to pass along the smaller crates that waited on the dock to be loaded. Branch had seen them there earlier this morning and thought the captain either brave or stupid to have left them sitting there most of the night.
Then again, it was good both the captain and Masterson seemed to think their ship was untouchable.
The sun was barely up in the sky when the last crate was loaded.
Collins came over and paid each of the men who were not a permanent part of the crew, offering them all work in the future whenThe Hollyhockreturned.
Branch smiled like the idiot he was pretending to be when Collins placed the coins in his hand, and dipped his head in thanks.
“Go along now, boys. We’re setting sail shortly.”
Branch and the other men moved off the ship. He didn’t look back as he walked away. But he fervently hoped his plan worked. Otherwise, he had sentenced John Greene and his men to death.
Six
Eager to begin a design for a bracelet a besotted husband had ordered for his bride, Lucy entered the shop while her parents were still sleeping and opened the front door to let in the fresh morning breeze.
Winged terrors, also known as flies, were hard to keep out, but the cool air was worth the annoyance of them buzzing about.
Lucy stood in the doorway a moment, watching the sky fill with streaks of crimson and gold as the sun began to glimmer on the horizon, grateful for the gift of a new day. After offering a quick prayer of thanksgiving, she returned inside and made her way over to the workbench.
She lit a candle, set it on the workbench, then settled onto her stool. She reached beneath the bench to the shelf that held her tools and design journal, but her fingers touched something smooth and cool. She pulled it out, shocked to discover it was the locket Mrs. Washington had given into her keeping.
Her mind raced as she tried to imagine how the locket came to be on her shelf. Lucy looked outside, half expecting someone to be watching her from across the street, but there was no onearound. No one lurking in the shadows. There were very few people along the street at this early hour of the day.
Unsettled by the thought someone had snuck it there, she wondered when and how they had done it. Lucy or her father was always in the shop when it was open. And when it was closed, her father secured the door with a wrought iron bar that was impossible to move from the outside.
Curious, Lucy couldn’t help but look inside the locket. A missive was in the hidden compartment, the paper so thin she nearly tore it while unfolding it so she could read the note penned in a bold hand.
Miss Sassafras,
When you need to relay communications, visit the shaper of iron who is ever rowing, or the tender of the ill who is a perpetually dreary day.
Lucy read the note three times before she figured out the message referred to Rowan James, the blacksmith down the street, and Doctor Gray, a known Patriot. Well, at least she now knew whom she could contact to send a courier her way.
A week had passed since she had handed the locket to the courier. Lucy hadn’t expected to see it again, but the locket still carried the shine from when she had polished it before returning it to Mrs. Washington.
