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“I speak it, of course, but not the crude jargon of sailors. I think I made them understand me, but I could not follow half of what they said, and no one appreciates being insulted in a foreign tongue,” she said, disregarding her own brutal attack on Genet.
“Well, that is a blessing, if you did not understand. Even so, allow me to submit my most humble apologies.”
“Apologies? What good are your apologies now? I want your assurance that such an event will not occur again”
“Impossible!”
“Ah, I see, you have no influence.”
“Quoi?”
“No power with your government.”
“Non—oui! I have power to act for my government.”
“Ah, you could do the right thing, but you will not.”
“La Petite Démocrate will sail under the French flag as soon as she may be refitted,” Genet said angrily.
“A grave mistake, I assure you, sir. For the first English ship it encounters will blow it out of the water.”
“They will not even know.”
“Once my letters reach England, they will. Though, now that I come to think of it, I should perhaps protest to the American government, as well. Trueblood, who is the American equivalent to our foreign secretary?”
Trueblood rolled his eyes in mock reflection, keeping his mouth tightly compressed.
“Oh, never mind,” Nancy said. “I will write to the president. He will know who to forward the letter to.”
“President Washington?” Genet asked in a panic.
Nancy saw Daniel’s eyes flash at her in delight. Norton sat immobile, his chin resting on his fist as he gazed at her in fascination.
“I believe the ladies will withdraw now,” Elise said with a prim smile, “and leave the gentlemen to their wine.”
“Mon Dieu, you do not really—” Genet broke off as the women whisked out of the room.
“A trifle more wine?” Daniel asked Genet, and filled his glass unbidden. The French ambassador drank deeply.
“Will she really…?”
“Perhaps I may be able to talk her out of it,” Trueblood offered dubiously.
“I doubt it, brother.” Daniel shook his head slowly. “She is a bit more headstrong than the English ladies you are used to. A loose cannon is what she is. Best keep your distance so you do not get blasted.”
“My apologies, Monsieur Genet,” Norton offered. “I had no idea the young lady would take things so amiss.”
“Ah, I was forgetting.” Genet tapped his forehead. “She is English. That explains it. An American lady would never take offense at our privateers.”
“No!” the three men murmured in unison, shaking their heads and relaxing into a camaraderie of sex against sex.
“Unless, of course, she happened to be on an English ship,” Trueblood offered.
“Yes.” Daniel sighed sadly. “Those are the dangers of getting civilians involved in a war. One has no idea of the ramifications.”
“But I apologized. Why would she not accept my apology?”
“I doubt there is any way to conciliate a woman whose undergarments have been mauled,” Daniel said sagely, “whether she was in them or not.”
Norton coughed and Trueblood turned to the sideboard to reach for a decanter of brandy. “Vraiment? But I am the French ambassador, Citizen Genet, and she made me feel such a…such a maladroit.”
“Do not give it another thought,” Daniel said, thumping him on the back. “It happens to me all the time. Besides, it will never leave this room.”
“No,” the others murmured in assent.
When the gentlemen came into the parlor, Daniel glanced toward the door, and Nancy rose on that cue to thank the Nortons and take her leave of them. Genet, emboldened by the wine, came forward with another profuse, but tangled apology, swirling his French and English together like brandy and water in a glass. Nancy retrieved her hand and said, “I will…I will consider it.”
They were not half a block from the Nortons when Trueblood’s mirth bubbled over to the point where he had to lean against a hitching post for support.
“Daniel, I do believe you have let Trueblood drink too much.”
“I keep forgetting these Indians cannot hold their liquor,” said Daniel, taking him in tow.
“Daniel, have you ever seen the like?” Trueblood gasped. “I believe she could have had Genet on his knees if she had tried.”
“And to a sergeant’s daughter,” Daniel taunted. “A lady would have graciously accepted his apology.”
“That did cross my mind. After all, he is an ambassador. But then I remembered he is French. Even a sergeant’s daughter must have some standards.”
Daniel cracked into laughter and took her hand to draw it through his arm. “You will be wasted on the frontier, Nancy. Stay in Philadelphia.”
“I am sure it would be more amusing, but I am a person who is used to employment. On that we will never agree, I know,” she said as his grip on her arm tightened. “So it is very much better if-1 go where we cannot argue about it”.
“Would you like to go to the theater tomorrow?” Daniel asked abruptly, interrupting Trueblood and causing Nancy to shake her head in despair. “They have just built a theater on Chestnut Street.”
“I thought perhaps you were not best pleased with me tonight,” Nancy returned.
“I put you in an awkward situation,” Daniel said.
She cocked her head at him. It was not an apology. She decided if she were waiting for him to admit she had been some help to him she would wait in vain.
“You did not mind my making sport of Genet, then?”
Daniel’s eyes glittered again, but only in amusement, not conspiracy. “I want to make it up to you.”
“So tomorrow I am not to impress anyone or taunt anyone?”
“No, it will be for your pleasure alone. Do you want to take Trueblood for propriety?”
“No, you are harmless enough.”
Trueblood chuckled, but Daniel cast Nancy such a skeptical look she thought she would pay for that remark.
“And who is that?” Nancy asked for the tenth time.
“That is Ellis, a banker. He handles my affairs. That is his wife with him and his eldest daughter….” Daniel trailed off. Sitting in a chair next to Nancy, he was being distracted by her low, square-cut neckline and the way her stays displayed the tops of her breasts over the lace trim of her ivory silk gown.
“You seem very well connected in Philadelphia.”
“What? Oh, they all receive me for Trueblood’s sake.”
“You do not have to put on a performance for me.”
“Why, Nancy, I do not know what you mean.”
“You know very well—Oh, look, there is Genet. Daniel, this is too bad of him. He has the French pirate with him. And who is the other man?”
“By report, I would say it is Andre Michaux, the botanist.”
“Like Trueblood.”
“Yes, but by vocation only. What are you going to do? Looking daggers at them will only make them laugh at you.”
“I think you are right. My instinct tells me that, as well. I think I will have a wonderful time and forget all about them.”
“Not even acknowledge them?” Daniel whispered in her ear.
Nancy looked up at the men in the box, then gave a delicious laugh and turned back to Daniel. “Will he think you have mollified me?”
“They are whispering. Clearly the captain still believes you are my mistress, and Genet is trying to convince him he is a fool.”
“Oh, good, now we can enjoy the play and they cannot.”
And they did enjoy it. Nancy could not remember such an intoxicating evening in her whole life. Even the grandest of her aunt’s parties could not hold a candle to the theater, and with such an amiable companion. He took possession of her hand quite naturally and kept it cradled between his own throughout the evening. He leaned to whisper comments in her ear, making her giggle, and he breathed on her neck in the most seductive way, causing an occasional shocked gasp behind them. It did occur to her that he might only be trying to convince the French captain that they were indeed lovers, but she rather thought Daniel’s attraction to her was genuine. He was a subtle man, but she had an instinct for the genuine article and thought he was being himself tonight.
As they walked home Daniel took her fan and plied it. The warm breaths of air were like caresses. “I’m glad you came with me tonight, for I must go away for a while.”
“Away? To sea?”
“No, to Pittsburgh. I shall be gone five or six weeks, two months at the outside.”
“I was forgetting, that is your business. I expect I will be gone by the time you get back. This might be the last we see of each other for a while. I will miss you—both of you.”
“Trueblood is not coming. He has business here for the time being.” Daniel ceased his fanning.
“I see.” Nancy watched his profile as he walked arm in arm with her, trying to decide what she could say to him to let him know she wanted to see him again.
“I—I suppose you will be thrown together a great deal, especially since you have the same interests, those confounded plants.”
“Yes, I suppose we will,” she teased.
“I need not warn you—I mean he is a perfect gentleman. That is…” Daniel stopped and turned to her. His face looked dark against the white of his cravat, but his blue eyes caught the gleam of the moonlight.
“Does he come between you and many women?”
“Yes—no, not many. Hah, there is no good answer to that poser. You have a knack for asking such questions.”
“Yes, ones I already know the answer to.”
“If he wishes, he can charm any woman he chooses.” Daniel looked desperate and hungry for her.
“Not any woman.”
He dropped her fan, and when they both bent for it, they collided. She was in his arms and he was lifting her up and kissing her, suddenly, in the most ravenous way. As though in a dream, she had hold of the back of his coat and was letting him, more than letting him. He was not at all like Reverend Bently. His mouth was possessive and urgent, his arms demanding, his eyes wonderfully alive.
“Daniel, we must not,” she whispered between kisses, trying to think rationally.
“Why not?” he gasped as he bent lower to kiss her neck.
She had never felt so wonderfully vulnerable in her life. “We are in the middle of the street. We could get run over.”
“Then come into the alley.”
She laughed at his solution as he pulled her into the dark shelter of a doorway. “And in a few weeks I shall be on the frontier and you…At best we will only get to see each other a half-dozen times a year.”
“Unless you were to stay in Philadelphia,” he countered, nuzzling her earlobe to the point where she could scarcely think straight.
“Daniel, I must go with Papa, at least for a while. He has brought me all this way to be with him.”
“Promise me you will stay at Mrs. Cook’s at least until I return.”
“Daniel, I cannot. I do not know what I am doing.” He released her, nodded sadly and took her arm again in the most calm manner. There they left it. Had his impulsive lovemaking been by way of convincing her to do his bidding? Perhaps she could not read him as well as she thought. There was just the chance that he had very nearly found a way to confuse her into compliance. She would rather believe him merely impulsive. All she knew was that, if he had offered her marriage, she did not think her shortlived devotion to her father would have been proof against such a temptation. But he had not…or could not. Whatever he was doing in Pittsburgh, she thought, it had naught to do with trade goods.
The next morning Daniel was interspersing his packing with instructions for Trueblood, who made an occasional note with his pencil as he reclined on the bed reading. Even prone, he made an impressive figure.
“I have been to the docks, Daniel. They are beginning to refit Little Sarah, and Genet is openly recruiting in the newspapers.”
“Then he is trampling all over Washington’s statement of neutrality.”
“The secretary of state is lodging a protest. President Washington is going to ask to have Genet recalled.”
“That is good news, at any rate. I wonder if Genet will think our Nancy had anything to do with it?”
“Daniel?”
“Hmm?” Daniel closed one leather saddle pack and strapped it shut.
“About Nancy. She could be very useful to us.”
