“Excellent.” Paul nodded. “Good day to you.”
He chuckled to himself, allowing his spine to stretch to its fullest. Never could he have guessed such good fortune would smile upon him. Garnering information from an unsuspecting idiot? This time his laugh escaped into the air. The patriot tavern would be “the place for him” and before too long, Donaldson would be his as well.
~~~
William had been reluctant to leave Anna at the Watson’s, but her smile, the one that showed the depth of her heart, imprinted on his mind and allowed him the strength to leave. Kitty had been there and insisted on tending Anna’s wound while the new baby and mother slept. He’d promised to return within the hour—had even kissed her on the cheek in front of Kitty. He ground his teeth to bite off a growl. Fool. Not that it shouldn’t be done, but every touch, every allowance of feeling drew him ever closer to the edge of that infinite pit from which, if he fell, he could never escape.
His muscles twitched as he marched from the Watson’s toward Thomas’s print shop. So. The man Anna’s father had hired was at their heels. He scowled. He’d imagined such a thing was possible, but Sandwich was so far removed from any city or town of import, it seemed impossible. But the impossible had happened.
Staring several paces ahead as he walked, William brooded. What should he do? Take her away? It seemed the only option. Their life together was good and seemed to allow them both the anonymity they craved, but if word should spread and the man discovered her…
He lengthened his stride. The thought made the hairs on his neck stand on end. And to think she’d almost not told him?
Once in town he hurried to the shop, entered, and shut the door.
“Thomas, I must speak with you.”
Thomas turned and instantly his jaw went hard. “William. What are you doing here? Nathaniel is resting, as should you be.”
“Do you remember when I explained that Anna was running from someone?”
“Aye.”
William ground his teeth. “He is here.”
Thomas lowered his arms from their position by the galleys, a hard scowl across his brow. “How do you know this?”
“She encountered him yesterday. He was with the sheriff, claiming to be her father, but he is not.”
“Why does he want her?”
He rubbed his jaw, feeling the prickles of a morning without the blade. “I cannot say with certainty. She is a widow, that much I know. I have also learned that she was not poor, as she would wish us to believe. Though why she would have wished to keep that a secret I do not know.” He bit the inside of his cheek, combing through the crumbs of knowledge he’d collected over the past weeks. “She is from England, had a brother—a soldier, actually, but he’s dead. As for the rest, I suspect somehow she is avoiding another marriage, but that is all I can tell you.”
“She was avoiding a marriage?” A questioning look consumed Thomas’s face. “But she married you.”
“Aye. ’Tis only a suspicion, of course. But marrying me was an arrangement of her choosing and no one else’s. I believe she was to be forced into something she feared somehow, and decided she would rather be with me…” he slowed, “…than with anyone else.” His mind quieted as he reexamined their few tender moments as one might a precious jewel. The time he’d first held her against him as they hid in the bush. The moment she’d offered her ring and when she’d tried with such earnest that first morning to prepare his breakfast. And how, not thirty minutes before, she’d clung to him as if she wished he would never leave her side. His mind whirled. She had chosen him.
Thomas’s jaw shifted. “What do you plan to do?”
William let out a rough breath and pulled the solitary chair from the wall and straddled it. A sliver of teasing laced his words. “That’s why I came to speak with you. You have all the wisdom.”
Thomas’s loud billowing laugh bounced through the small room. His face crinkled as he smiled. “How I wish that were true. I have learned to be wise from the mistakes of my past.” By degrees, the muscles of his face dropped. “If I were truly wise, I would have known how to best Samuel Martin before he could do as much damage as he did.” His words trailed off and the light in his eyes vanished.
At the mention of Samuel’s name, a cloak of black memories draped William’s mind. He saw the man’s cold eyes, heard his demeaning words and felt the sting of Samuel’s hand against his face. Loathing, like foul ocean foam, floated on the current of William’s past. He too had become wiser. If only he had known just how to use that wisdom and found a way to overcome Paul’s consuming hatred. He pressed a hard laugh from his chest. Some things could never be.
He looked up, resting his elbows on the back of the chair. “Should I take her away? It seems the only option.”
Thomas came from behind the press and leaned back against it. “Where would you go?”
William shrugged. “West?”
In a swift plunge, Thomas’s forehead creased seconds before his mouth quirked sideways. “You love her.”
The statement jolted William upright. “Love her?”
A knowing smile widened Thomas’s face as he remained quiet, a considering kind of slant to his head. “’Tis nothing to be ashamed of. Do not pretend you don’t feel it.”
The scowl was instant. “I do have some feelings for her. I do care, indeed, but I would not call it love.”
“In the beginning we rarely do.” A reminiscent kind of gaze overcame him before he met William’s stare. “Be not surprised if one day you discover you have given her your heart unawares.”
Sharp bitterness assaulted him. He knew the feeling all too well. And doing that again…nay. He couldn’t. Wouldn’t.
“She is a kind woman,” William said, “and I could not have asked for a better wife.” He stuck Thomas with a look he hoped would drive the conversation into the grave. “I will keep my vows and do all that I can to protect her. That is the end of it.”
Thomas nodded with an understanding slope of the mouth. Not even a hint of recrimination in his eye. William took a deep breath and opened his mouth but Thomas spoke before him. He crossed his arms over his chest and his gaze flitted to the window and back. “What did this man look like?”
“Older. Tall, firm build. Grayish hair.” He straightened in his seat as both hope and horror mixed in his muscles. “Have you seen someone?”
Mouth quirked in a frustrated slant, Thomas shook his head and his posture eased. “I thought perhaps…” He sighed and again looked out the window in the door. “A man was here not ten minutes ago. Our age. Tall, long face, dark voice. He was dressed as if he came from the mountains of the south, but I have my doubts.”
William stilled. “Did he say what he was doing in town?”
“He claimed he planned to join the cause in Boston…”
William stood, straining his heart to keep a regular rhythm. “Anything else?”
Thomas growled and turned back to the press, but instead of preparing the galley as he had before, he removed his apron. “Nay. He said he was passing through. He may stay at Fessenden’s for the night, or not at all, ’tis hard to say. But he was villainous.” His face went slack. “Do you think him a spy? Someone looking for you?”
Nodding, William wiped a hand over his mouth. “Paul Stockton will find me at any cost.” A bitter laugh popped from his chest. “’Tis my turn to be the hunted.”
Thomas’s expression hardened. “If I learned anything from Samuel, it was to never underestimate and never take for granted.”
“Then you are saying I should leave, for my safety and for Anna’s.”
“Nay. Your life is here now. Be cautious, aye. Be prepared.” Resting a hand on William’s shoulder, Thomas stepped forward. “Do not let him drive you from your home. Wait until he comes to you, and when he does, you will drive him back to the place he belongs.”
Paul’s words bit at William’s heels. I will find you.
William met Thomas’s strong st
are. “Then let him come.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Mid-day was the most dangerous time for an exchange.
Autumn light blazed above him through the trees, signaling to all his hiding place. William grunted his anger and tapped his finger against the heavy bag of goods in his hand. Ten days of this new subversive strategy and so far only simple exchanges and deposits without a single impediment. But the past two nights with no one coming to the cove was a portend of ill. So when word reached him early in the morning that the man would come when the sun reached its zenith, William hadn’t been able to contain the growl that rumbled in his throat. Madness. Secrecy was everything and though the cover of darkness didn’t ensure it, ’twas a far better cloak of security than the blazing light of day. Aye, they’d discussed the importance of inconsistency, but such a haphazard execution of their plan was not what he’d meant. And why he couldn’t have simply left the goods in the rock-covered pit, he didn’t know. A powder keg of rage waited for ignition, but he resisted, refusing the lighted spark a chance to ignite an explosion.
William stood at the edge of his property, his farm just a half-mile beyond, praying with the weight of the earth upon his shoulders. Do not let us be seen Lord, I pray thee. Do not let us be seen.
That is, if the man showed up at all. Either he was a coward, lazy, or the soldiers were so thick he couldn’t get through.
He ground his teeth. If that man didn’t appear in the next—
“Fox.”
William straightened at the sound. “Hound.” His tension eased, but only a mite, and the words hissed out. “You are two days late.”
The man, nay the boy neared, his face streaked with sweat. Any frustration William harbored evaporated at the sight of the skinny figure before him. His red hair and thick spray of freckles seemed to match the friendly, fearless spark in his hazel eyes. How old was he? Eleven? Twelve perhaps? This was far too dangerous work for one whose face was yet to need a blade.
The boy nodded, panting as if he’d run for miles. “Aye, I know, sir. The soldiers are thick around Plymouth.”
“Where is your father? Should not he be here?” The question popped from William’s mouth as if the boy had been his relation rather than a stranger.
“He must stay with Mother as her time for the baby has arrived and there’s no doctor or midwife to tend to her.” He straightened. “I am as capable to serve this cause as any man.”
“’Tis true, I can see that.” William inclined his head. “But you could not have run all the way.”
“Not all the way, sir.” The boy pointed deeper into the wood. “I tried to meet as planned these two nights past. The watch has been thick, but I kept making my way here, sir, and I’ve finally made it.” The triumph in the boy’s voice clamped William’s chest, and he studied the freckles that dotted the young patriot’s determined expression. What prompted a parent to send their child on a mission all alone when danger lurked in every shadow? What would possess a mere boy to risk so much for what so many people believed a futile cause?
In that moment, the desire to be connected with this alliance of intrepid men and women consumed him like never before.
“Where is your mount?”
“About three miles back, sir.” The boy glanced over his shoulder. “I thought I’d been spotted so I left him there and ran all this way.”
“You ran?” Running would draw attention. It was the boy’s first mistake. Allowing a grin to ease up his mouth, William extended the large bag toward the boy. Whispering, he gazed down at his freckled friend and placed a hand on his shoulder. “Run only if you must. ’Tis more prudent to out-wit the enemy, than try to out-run them.”
The gentle sound of humming filtered through the trees followed quickly by a quiet, dainty footfall against the leaf-covered ground. William lunged for the boy and pulled him behind the nearest tree, shielding the rest of him with his own body.
Who came in the wood this time of day?
He squinted as the sound neared, searching wildly until his gaze found the source and his stomach lurched to his throat.
Not twenty feet away, Anna strode through the trees, holding a basket in her hand as she glanced at the ground. The shawl around her shoulders, strands of hair straying from her cap, the sun on her face—she’d never looked lovelier.
William clenched his fingers around the bag still in his fist and his biceps flexed. If she saw him with the boy she would ask questions. And questions would only bring them closer to the precipice of discovery. Something neither of them could risk.
William breathed slow with long ins and outs, but the boy behind heaved heavy breaths, oblivious to how even a sound could change the course of their future.
Keeping his gaze upon her, William willed her to turn and walk home with every pump of his pulse. Yet she did not. She stopped, a smile lighting her face as she crouched to the ground, tugging at several plants and placing them into the basket.
Go, Anna. Go home.
William glanced behind. The boy flung him a questioning look and William answered with a finger at his mouth.
“Good day, miss.”
What in heavens name?
William’s blood went from hot to instant boil. A soldier, tall and well-muscled, stood with cocked hip at the other side of the wood, not ten yards from Anna.
William looked from the boy to the soldier. He’d been followed.
Anna jumped to her feet, face ashen. She clutched the basket to her middle and retreated a step. “May I help you, sir?” Her voice wobbled and William leaned forward. If the man even thought of touching her…
The soldier pointed to the basket with a smile. “What are you gathering?”
She didn’t answer and her posture shrunk. ’Twas not the same reaction she’d had to the soldier at the creek, but then again, that had been a thin, weak boy, while this man was a giant. That, and William had been near. Only this time, she believed William was far from her rescue.
Thank the Lord he was not.
From behind, the boy tugged on William’s coat. William shot him a pinched look and the boy nodded.
Continuing forward, the redcoat motioned in a wide circle. “Have you…have you seen a boy pass by here?”
Anna shook her head.
“Nay?” The man continued to move closer. “A beautiful woman like you would certainly not lie.”
She froze, stopping even the slight up and down of her shoulders as she breathed. “Nay, sir. I would not lie.”
“Of course.”
William’s legs burned with the urge to lunge and tackle the seething enemy. The soldier was too close. If he reached out he could grab her. Glancing down at his feet, William spied a large stone and crouched to retrieve it. He captured the boy’s gaze and mouthed silently as he counted on his fingers.
One, two, three…
With a swift swing of his arm, William hurled the stone to the opposite side of the wood. A loud smack cracked through the trees and the soldier whirled, scanning the opposite side of the forest.
William grabbed the boy’s elbow and mouthed the words more than spoke them. “Go. Quickly.”
The boy’s round eyes spoke his unvoiced gratitude. Gripping the bundle he darted quietly away as William launched to his feet.
“Looking for me?”
“William!” Anna turned to him, her voice filled with relief.
The redcoat turned, his posture unchanged, unchallenged. “Coming to the rescue?” He chuckled. “As you can see, I mean her no harm.”
“If you have questions you may direct them to me, not my wife.”
“Your wife?” The soldier looked her up and down then did the same for William. “I hardly think you are worthy of someone so lovely.”
“Get off my land.”
The soldier leaned his head back, a laugh peeling through the air. “All you patriots are the same.” He faced William, his grasp tightening around his musket. “You believe simply because you own this land yo
u have license to harass me. But I speak in the name of the king, and therefore you must answer or find yourself in prison.”
William pulled his shoulders back and widened his feet, studying his opponent. Short jacket with off-white facings on his cuffs and lapels. From the 47th foot no doubt. Well-trained but not well-seasoned. An easy victory should he be forced into combat.
Playing the part, William raised his palms. “I simply petition for our privacy, that is all.”
“Then tell me what you know of that boy.”
“Boy?” Lord, let him escape unharmed.
“Do not think me an idiot. I followed him here. He was smuggling and you were helping him.”
William didn’t need to see Anna’s mouth drop open to know it did. Her quick gasp testified of that.
She stepped forward. “How dare you accuse my husband.”
“Anna—”
“Nay,” the soldier chuckled, “I like a woman with a bit of fire.” The soldier bobbed his chin up. “Let her speak for you. Perhaps I will find her pleadings adequate enough to let you go.”
“I am under no arrest.”
“You could be.”
William struggled to keep his jaw from ticking. He’d better play this game with his head more than his heart or he could find a rope around his neck.
He flung a glance to Anna. Her wide eyes and pinched lips screamed the questions she could not bring to her mouth before she turned her attention to the man in front of her. “We are gathering nettle as you can see.” She held the basket forward and pointed at the greens with her gloved hand. “And as we’ve only just arrived I can say with certainty there has been no boy here.”
Nodding, the soldier took the basket and placed it on the ground. “Perhaps you would like to stay a bit longer with me and watch for him.” He stepped closer until his shoes touched the base of her skirt. A sickening hunger in his eyes, he reached for her face but pulled his hand back, sending William a rotten smile. “’Tis a shame your husband had to be here. We could have had such fun.”
William lunged a step forward, his fists ready. “Get out.”
So Rare a Gift (Daughters of His Kingdom Book 3) Page 21
