"Did you see her yesterday?" asked Abigail.
"Yesterday evening, yes. That"s what I was telling Mr. Adams. I went there just after eight, to pick up the proofs for the sermons she is correcting for me, and a broadside about the meeting Tuesday against the tea tax." Just about the only printing business that remained to him, Abigail knew, was that done for the Sons of Liberty. And even in that he was becoming less and less reliable, as he struggled to balance caring for his mother with making a living.
"Did Mrs. Malvern say anything about meeting someone there later?"
Hazlitt shook his head. "She said she had sewing yet to finish for that Tillet harpy, and after that was going to bed. I was ashamed to keep her up, waiting even that late for me. But that wretched witch Queenie spies on her. The Tillets would put her out, if they thought she was meeting a man. The woman you found-"
"We have no idea who she is. Clearly she"s wealthy. She had on diamond earrings-"
"They threw her down from the window." Mrs. Hazlitt raised her head, blinked sleepily up at Abigail. "She tir"d her head, and painted her face, and called out to Jehu as he drove his chariot into the court. They threw her down from the window. Her blood was sprinkled on the wall and on the legs of the horses, and the horses trode her underfoot. When they came to bury her, there was naught left of Jezebel the Queen, save her skull, and her feet, and the palms of her hands." She tucked her son"s hand a little more closely beneath her cheek, and drifted off again into her dreams.
Abigail looked around the little room again, at the messy hearth, and the candlesticks clotted with tallow and the few dishes containing nothing but bread crumbs and b.u.t.ter-smears. There was a stain on the whitewashed plaster of the wall, where food had been recently thrown. "Have you no one to look after her?" she asked. "Or yourself, for that matter-"
"The girl chose yesterday afternoon to go off and visit her family," sighed Hazlitt. "She should be back tomorrow. I shall manage. It isn"t the first time."
Presumably, reflected Abigail, any girl willing to work for what Hazlitt could pay, and put up with Mrs. Hazlitt into the bargain, was not to be turned out no matter how flagrantly she took advantage of her employer.
"Have you called the Watch?" asked the printer.
"We"re off to do that now." Sam glanced over his shoulder into the shop at the tinkle of the bell above the door. But it was only Revere and Dr. Warren, elaborately casual as a couple of Roman Senators pretending they didn"t have daggers under their togas. "We needed to make sure what you knew, before we went stirring up any ponds and raising a stench. For all we knew, she"d come here to you-"
"Would to G.o.d she had!" Hazlitt looked desperately across at Abigail. "I would have thought she"d go to you, Mrs. Adams, if she couldn"t wake that half-drunk s.l.u.t of a cook . . . whom Judgment Day wouldn"t wake, belike."
"I would have thought so, too," said Abigail quietly.
"It"s early days yet." A trace of uneasiness stained Sam"s rich voice. "Listen, Hazlitt. While you were in Mrs. Malvern"s house, did you see a brown quarto-sized account book anywhere? It had "Household Expenses" stamped on its front cover."
The printer shook his head. He was, Abigail guessed, thirty, and took after his mother"s beauty. When Abigail had first met him back in "68, she"d marveled that, poor as he was, he had no wife. Had he married then, she wondered, would his mother have been able to move in with him as she had? Or would she have done so-quoting the Fifth Commandment all the way-and driven the wife out, as she"d driven that poor housekeeper? Weariness and shock, instead of aging his face, seemed to make him appear younger, like a boy frightened and uncertain. She put out her hand, and touched his elbow, where his hand cradled his mother"s cheek. "Forget the book," she said, and Sam opened his mouth in indignation. She went on, over his protest, "Did Rebecca ever speak to you of a woman friend-a wealthy woman-who might be sympathetic to the cause of our rights? Or, did she ever speak to you of someone who might wish her-Mrs. Malvern-ill herself?"
He lifted his head and his green eyes flashed sudden fire. "Other than that brute of a husband, you mean? The swine had the temerity to write to Tillet, threatening to bring him to law for "harboring a harlot," as he called her, and "operating a house of ill fame." If ever there was a case of G.o.d"s hand being needed in mortal affairs-" He broke off, and turned his face away, his breath coming fast and a stain of angry crimson flushing his cheekbone.
"Without the hand of the Lord, no mortal affair can prosper." Mrs. Hazlitt raised her head, her fingers tightening around those of her son. "All our deeds are in vain, unless G.o.d guide us by his strong hand, and only through the hand of the Lord lies our salvation."
"Harlot or no harlot," said Revere, "I"d give much to be there when the Watch tells old Malvern his wife"s gone missing. And under such circ.u.mstances as these."
"Good G.o.d, man," cried Warren, "you"re not thinking Malvern had aught to do with-"
"I"m not thinking anything," retorted the silversmith lazily. "But after all the spite and venom he"s poured forth to anyone who"ll listen these past three years, I"d be curious to see how he takes it."
How indeed? Abigail followed the men back into the shop. Sam was still fretting about the missing "Household Expenses" book, demanding of Orion where Rebecca would have gone, if not to the Tillets or Revere, to the Adams house or the printshop-? Abigail followed the men back into the shop. Sam was still fretting about the missing "Household Expenses" book, demanding of Orion where Rebecca would have gone, if not to the Tillets or Revere, to the Adams house or the printshop-? Little enough chance I"ll have to even speak to him, once the Watch has given him the news . . . Little enough chance I"ll have to even speak to him, once the Watch has given him the news . . .
Great Heavens, surely they wouldn"t detain him him?
What is it John said, that of all murders done, the culprit is usually known to the victim? Would the Watch be such fools as to think that-as the missing woman"s estranged husband-Charles Malvern had had anything to do with such a crime? Would the Watch be such fools as to think that-as the missing woman"s estranged husband-Charles Malvern had had anything to do with such a crime? She recalled the little merchant"s anger-crimsoned face, when last she"d seen him, those cold eyes like gray buckshot . . . She recalled the little merchant"s anger-crimsoned face, when last she"d seen him, those cold eyes like gray buckshot . . .
"Are you coming, Mrs. Adams?" Sam opened the shop door for her. "We need you to discover the body, and summon the Watch."
Something in Sam"s briskness-or perhaps only his preoccupation with his precious book of contacts-raised the hackles on her neck as it had in Rebecca"s kitchen earlier. She stepped back from him, pulled her scarf more tightly around her throat. "Discover it yourself, Sam," she said briefly. "I think I need to pay a visit to Rebecca"s husband, and tell him that his wife has vanished-and see if he has aught to say, about where she might have gone."
Five
He hounds me. Rebecca had wiped her eyes as she"d said it, on an evening in summer-the summer before last, one afternoon when Rebecca had crossed the bay to Braintree with some of Abigail"s Smith cousins, and they"d spent the day in the summer tasks of threading leather britches beans to dry, and bottling blackberries from the woods behind the orchard. Abigail had been heavy yet again with child-baby Tommy, old enough now to stagger st.u.r.dily about the kitchen. Walking swiftly through the market, thrusting guilt from her heart as she would have brushed falling rain from her face, Abigail earnestly hoped that Pattie-the fourteen-year-old farm-girl who"d lived with the family since their return to Boston a year ago-was keeping an eye on him . . . on Charley, too. There were simply too many things a pair of enterprising little boys could get into, in a kitchen on a freezing day. Rebecca had wiped her eyes as she"d said it, on an evening in summer-the summer before last, one afternoon when Rebecca had crossed the bay to Braintree with some of Abigail"s Smith cousins, and they"d spent the day in the summer tasks of threading leather britches beans to dry, and bottling blackberries from the woods behind the orchard. Abigail had been heavy yet again with child-baby Tommy, old enough now to stagger st.u.r.dily about the kitchen. Walking swiftly through the market, thrusting guilt from her heart as she would have brushed falling rain from her face, Abigail earnestly hoped that Pattie-the fourteen-year-old farm-girl who"d lived with the family since their return to Boston a year ago-was keeping an eye on him . . . on Charley, too. There were simply too many things a pair of enterprising little boys could get into, in a kitchen on a freezing day.
He hounds me. He has always considered me his property, like his horses or the corn in his ships. He questions the servants about everything I do, he opens and reads my letters, he demands accounting of every penny I spend and he has imprisoned me under lock and key as if I were a disobedient child. Yet he has said, he will not let me go.
And Orion Hazlitt had cried: If ever there was a case of G.o.d"s hand being needed in mortal affairs If ever there was a case of G.o.d"s hand being needed in mortal affairs- Abigail shook her head, her heart aching at the desperation in the young man"s voice.
The clock in the brick turret of Faneuil Hall chimed ten thirty. Abigail drew her skirts aside from barrows of country apples, wet from the rain. Pens of sheep blocked her way; crates of fish, drying now and several hours out of the sea: By the time I can do my marketing they"ll be stale, and the best will be gone By the time I can do my marketing they"ll be stale, and the best will be gone . . . . . .
But her steps did not pause. If I am to see him at all, I must see him first. Before the Watch. If I am to see him at all, I must see him first. Before the Watch.
Her mind chased Rebecca"s voice back along a corridor of memory.
They"re spying on me. I know they"re spying on me. All except Catherine-my maid-and he has the other servants spy on her her. I dread he"ll send her away, and get some creature of his own, like that horrid Mrs. Jewkes in Pamela Pamela. That had been earlier, before she"d left Charles Malvern"s house: only weeks after she and Abigail had first met. When she"d wept then, the lace border of her handkerchief had been wider than the linen it surrounded. That had been earlier, before she"d left Charles Malvern"s house: only weeks after she and Abigail had first met. When she"d wept then, the lace border of her handkerchief had been wider than the linen it surrounded.
I used to laugh at Pamela Pamela, but I swear I feel like that wretched ninny these days. Rebecca had never had much use for Abigail"s favorite novel, or its saintly heroine. Rebecca had never had much use for Abigail"s favorite novel, or its saintly heroine. He actually did lock me up, for nearly a week. He"s said he will again, if he hears I"ve come here to see you. "I will not be defied in my own house," he says. The servants seemed to think nothing of it. And no one will help, because like He actually did lock me up, for nearly a week. He"s said he will again, if he hears I"ve come here to see you. "I will not be defied in my own house," he says. The servants seemed to think nothing of it. And no one will help, because like Pamela Pamela"s Mr. B, he can hurt them in their pocketbooks- And it was true, Abigail knew, that the innkeeper from whom Rebecca had first rented chambers in October of "70 had been nearly driven out of business by the prices Malvern and his network of merchant cronies had demanded of him for victuals and wood. The same thing had happened to the second room she had rented, early in the summer of "72. The Adamses had returned to Braintree by then and Abigail had asked her to move into the crowded little farmhouse, but again Rebecca had refused. I can"t live with you and John forever I can"t live with you and John forever, she"d said, but Abigail had been aware at the time that Charles Malvern"s youngest child, four-year-old Nathan, had been ill. Though Rebecca was estranged from her little stepson"s father, still she would not leave Boston. She had found the little house behind the Tillets"-who loathed Malvern over the politics of their respective congregations-but by what Orion had just told her, Malvern had not ceased his efforts to make his estranged wife"s life as difficult as possible.
And then, thought Abigail, as she turned into the waterfront bustle of Merchants" Row, there was the matter of Rebecca"s father"s will there was the matter of Rebecca"s father"s will.
It was the last occasion upon which she-or as far as she knew, Rebecca-had seen Charles Malvern, except to catch a glimpse of him across the sanctuary of the Brattle Street Meeting-House.
Abigail slowed her steps as she pa.s.sed the Malvern countinghouse, at the head of his wharf. Not a grand wharf, like Hanc.o.c.k"s, or the marvel of the Long Wharf that stretched half a mile out to sea, but big enough to serve either of Malvern"s oceangoing brigs. The Fair Althea Fair Althea stood in port, named for the woman Abigail suspected its owner had never forgiven Rebecca for replacing. Malvern had rebuilt the countinghouse at the wharf"s head, on the site of his grandfather"s original modest structure: two and a half stories of solid Maine timber, with a warehouse behind it for muslins and calicoes, tool-steel and paint. stood in port, named for the woman Abigail suspected its owner had never forgiven Rebecca for replacing. Malvern had rebuilt the countinghouse at the wharf"s head, on the site of his grandfather"s original modest structure: two and a half stories of solid Maine timber, with a warehouse behind it for muslins and calicoes, tool-steel and paint.
The tide was out. The sloping shingle below street level was dotted with heaped boxes, rough drays, coils of rope, and wet-dark cargo nets spread to dry. At the nearby Woodman"s Wharf a vessel was loading with kegs of what smelled like potash, stevedores shouting to one another as they worked. Beyond lay the leafless forest of bobbing masts, and the cold air muttered with the creak of ropes, the endless soft knocking of pulley blocks against the mast-wood. The world smelled of seaweed and wet rope. Wind smote her, but it was not colder than Charles Malvern"s wrinkled angry countenance and pale eyes, when last she, and Rebecca, and John had stood before him.
"By the terms of James Woodruff"s will, I am executor of that property." Malvern had spoken to John, not to Rebecca, his square brown hands folded ungivingly on his desk. The merchant was even shorter than John, and though now in his midfifties, and wiry in build, gave an impression of tremendous, almost threatening, physical strength. His merchant father had sent him to sea in his youth, and he retained the hardness of a man who has had to impose his will by force on other men in order to survive. "It was made over to me as Rebecca"s husband-"
She heard the pause before her friend"s name, heard in that harsh cracked voice the refusal to call her Mrs. Malvern Mrs. Malvern . Mrs. Malvern was and forever would be the woman he had lost. . Mrs. Malvern was and forever would be the woman he had lost.
"-and she has but to give over her present mode of life, to regain its use. To hand property to a woman who has forsaken her husband to live upon the town would do neither her nor the community any service, and would provide the worst sort of example."
"To whom, sir?" demanded Abigail hotly. "To other wives who find it not to their taste to have communications with their families forbidden? Who don"t care to be imprisoned like felons for weeks at a time or to have their books burned and rooms searched?"
"Precisely, Madame," Malvern had replied. "If my wife cannot tolerate my attempts to better her, but would flee the lesson like a fractious child, then shame upon her as well as upon myself. If I keep watch upon her it is because she has lied to me, both about her faith and about the conduct of my first wife"s children, to whom she has shown nothing but dissembled hatred since first she entered my house. I defy the law, or any man of business, to fault me in separating her from her family, after she has robbed me and given the money to them-to purchase the property whose income she now claims as her own."
"That is not true!" Rebecca rose, stepped to the desk before which John already stood. It had been early December, as bleak as it was today, and with the smell of snow in the air. Abigail recalled, as much as the interview itself, how cramped and stuffy the little office had felt, and how intrusive had been the noise of the wharves and the street outside, after a year and a half of the farm"s slow-paced peace. "That land was my father"s," Rebecca said. "And his father"s, before that-"
"Which would have been sold to pay your father"s debts," responded Malvern, "had you not helped yourself to the household money entrusted to you, and pledged my good name in a loan, to salvage it. And if your client"-here he had turned his bitter pale eyes back to John-"wishes those facts to be aired at large before the General Court of the colony, along with her father"s will, which clearly places the property in my hands in trust for her as my wife as my wife, I will certainly oblige her and you, Mr. Adams, by so doing. In the meantime she has but to return to my roof, to fulfill her own portion of a contract of which she is now in violation."
Tears glittering sharply in her brown eyes, Rebecca had said, "I would sooner take up my abode in h.e.l.l."
The following week, Abigail recalled, two clients-both merchants connected with Malvern-had withdrawn their business from John, even as John had lost half a dozen during the months that Rebecca had lived beneath their roof.
The Malvern house, like the countinghouse, was solid. Modest in its way, it had clearly been built to proclaim the extent to which G.o.d had favored the endeavors of the family. Three stories high, it was fashioned of both timber and bricks, and kept the old diamond-gla.s.s windows of an earlier day. As Abigail approached it a carriage was brought to its door, and the two surviving Malvern children emerged, followed by a black manservant and Miss Malvern"s plump, giggling maid. They lie about me to their father They lie about me to their father, Rebecca had whispered desperately. They carry tales-terrible things!-and he believes them . . . They carry tales-terrible things!-and he believes them . . .
And what parent would take the word of a new young wife, before that of his own daughter and son?
Jeffrey must be twenty now. From the opposite side of King Street Abigail watched them. Rebecca had written to her that the young man had begun at Harvard. Taller than his father, he favored the first Mrs. Malvern"s pale beauty, especially when he threw back his head and laughed at one of the maid"s flirtatious sallies. Mistress Tamar Malvern tapped her brother sharply on the sleeve with her fan, but laughed as well. From a sharp-faced little vixen of eleven when her father had married Rebecca, she had grown into a lovely peaches-and-cream brunette, with the air of a girl who is quite aware that men swoon at her feet. Neither gave the manservant so much as a glance as he opened the carriage door for them. The servant stepped back sharply to avoid being splashed as the carriage pulled away.
"Mrs. Adams." He saw her across the street and smiled, teeth very white in a fine-boned ebony face. His name, Abigail recalled, was Scipio; he"d greet her with his sunny smile at the Brattle Street Meeting, if he was sure his master wasn"t looking. Sure enough, he glanced back at the house as if to make sure he was un.o.bserved before crossing to her. "Are you well, m"am? And Mrs. Malvern: Is all well with her?"
"No," said Abigail softly. "I am sorry to say a shocking thing has happened, and I was coming now, to let your master know of it. As far as I know she"s all right," she added, seeing how the man"s eyes widened with alarm. "It wouldn"t be right to tell you details before I"ve spoken to him-"
"No, of course not." He collected himself quickly, hastened ahead of her, to open the house door. "I"ll let him know you"re here."
No fire burned in the grate of the book-room where he left her, though there were Turkey carpets on the brick floor. Charles Malvern was not a man to heat rooms when they were not in use. A portrait of the Fair Althea hung on the wall, very like Jeffrey but with kindliness rather than wit in her smile. Beside it hung a painting of Tamar, done recently, where once Rebecca"s pen-sketch of little Nathan had been displayed: the child whose birth had cost his mother her life. Abigail remembered that Nathan had been fascinated with it, had sat, too, looking up at the likeness of the mother he had never seen. The sketch was gone. Abigail wondered whether Malvern had disposed of it when Rebecca had left, or after the boy had died.
"Mrs. Adams?" Scipio reappeared in the doorway, to usher her across the hall.
"Good day to you, m"am." Charles Malvern rose from his desk when the butler admitted her, came around himself to bring up a chair. His wide-skirted dark coat and plain Ramilles wig were not one shilling more costly than they had to be, to let others know of his consequence in the world of trade and business. Their former encounter and her championship of his estranged wife flickered like malign fire in his eyes, but he asked politely, "Will you take tea? "Tis a raw morning."
"Thank you, no." Any number of Abigail"s friends observed the boycott but made it a point to call on their less political friends for a cup of Hyson or Bohea in the course of a cold afternoon. That, in Abigail"s opinion, was cheating.
He didn"t offer the acceptable Whig alternative of coffee, but signed Scipio from the room. "To what do I owe this honor, m"am?"
"A shocking thing has happened." He was walking back around his desk as she spoke, and Abigail couldn"t keep herself from waiting until she had a good view of his face, to see how he would take the news. "There was a murder done last night, at the house where Mrs. Malvern is now living-"
He turned back, eyes flaring, as Scipio"s had, and she saw in them for one second not just surprise, but apprehension and even fear. She went on swiftly, "A woman: We don"t know who."
"Not Mrs. Malvern?" That first instant"s horror-like the echo of her own cry, Not Rebecca! Not Rebecca!-disappeared and was replaced by suspicion: the wary anger of a man who has been cheated by a mountebank, and looks out lest he be cheated again.
"No. But Mrs. Malvern has disappeared-"
"Has she?" He settled back in his chair, and his voice was dry again. "I daresay she"s run to that heretic printer my daughter tells me she"s dallying with."
"If it is Mr. Hazlitt you mean," said Abigail, feeling the blood rising in her cheeks, "I have come from there just now." Heretic Heretic, in Charles Malvern"s mental lexicon, meant, Abigail knew, anyone of less than stringently double predestinarian Calvinist belief. Even a convert, like Orion Hazlitt, from a less doctrinaire sect was forever suspect, much less a former Catholic like Rebecca. "Inasmuch as she has a.s.sisted him with the text of the sermons he is printing-"
"Sermons forsooth!" He almost spit the words at her. "By whom? One of those lying unbelievers at the New Brick Meeting-House? What woman was killed? How did she come into the house, if not for ill purposes? And at night, you say? Was she another like my wife, who"d go about the town alone-?"
"We don"t know," repeated Abigail, seeing the seamed little face opposite her darkening a dangerous crimson with rage. "She was found in Rebecca"s"-she bit back the word kitchen kitchen, remembering that she was only supposed to have this from hearsay, and finished-"house this morning, slashed to death, and used most horribly."
"Then she had her deserving." Malvern almost shouted the words at her. "If she was one of Sam Adams"s gang of traitors. A trollop, as they"d have Rebecca be, for their dirty sakes. Belike it was one of them that did the murder-"
"I don"t think so." Abigail fought to keep her own temper under control. "I"m trying to find who she was-"
"Why ask me, then? That lying Papist turned her back on any decent females she knew when she left this house, and the truly decent ones turned their backs on her. Surely you you would know, her dear good friend, her would know, her dear good friend, her almost-sister almost-sister, her only true friend in the world . . ." her only true friend in the world . . ."
He is jealous of you, Rebecca had said, on another of those occasions when she had sneaked from her husband"s house, to take refuge in Abigail"s kitchen. Of my father, of the secrets I tell my maid. Even of little Nathan. He wants me to be his completely . . . Of my father, of the secrets I tell my maid. Even of little Nathan. He wants me to be his completely . . .
"But, I do not," said Abigail, keeping her voice level with an effort. "And I doubt you would say this woman had her deserving, if you-" She bit off her words once more. You weren"t there . . . You weren"t there . . .
"If I what?" shouted Malvern. "If I were willing to wink at treason, at sedition, at the creatures your husband and his cousin play upon to get their way? Don"t tell me she wasn"t hand in glove with these Sons of Liberty-Sons of Belial, more like! You ask your husband, if you want to know who this b.i.t.c.h was that was murdered, or where my wife might have run off to. And so I"ll tell the Watch, when they come-if they come, and this isn"t all another of Sam Adams"s lies. And as for you, Mrs. Adams, shame on you, a mother of children, and shame on your husband for permitting you to walk about the town like the harlot of the Scripture: Now is she without, and now in the streets . . . her feet go down to h.e.l.l Now is she without, and now in the streets . . . her feet go down to h.e.l.l. To h.e.l.l is where you have led my wife, Mrs. Adams, in dragging her into the affairs of your so-called friends. And for that I will never forgive you, or them. Now get out of my house."
Scipio whispered, "What happened?" as he emerged from the book-room, to escort her to the door.
In the study, Malvern"s voice bellowed, "Scipio!" and the butler flinched.
"Mrs. Malvern has disappeared," replied Abigail swiftly, softly-knowing the master"s wrath would descend on the slave"s head if Scipio were one moment late in answering, or if the merchant so much as suspected the butler had spoken with his dishonored guest. "Where would she go, if she sought refuge? To her maidservant? She left Boston, didn"t she? Catherine, I mean-"
"She did-"
"Scipio, get in here, d.a.m.n you!"
"She might. It"s a long way, I don"t know the name of the place but I"ll-"
The study door slammed open. Impa.s.sive, Scipio opened the outer door for Abigail, held himself straight and correct as she pa.s.sed through. Only when Abigail glanced back over her shoulder as the door was closing, did she see Charles Malvern seize his slave by the shoulder of his coat and thrust him back against the wall, and strike him with the back of his hand across the face.
Six
In wardly shaking from her interview with Malvern-and possessed by what she knew was a fantasy that she would reach home to find a dripping-wet Rebecca huddled beside her kitchen fire-Abigail forced herself to stop in the market on her way back to Queen Street. As surely as she knew her own name, she knew that once she reached her own house, no marketing would get done. John (surely John was home by this time-it was nearly noon by the clock on Faneuil Hall) would demand a minute account of what she had seen in Rebecca"s kitchen, and would also demand to know why she hadn"t stopped Sam, as if anything less than a nine-pound gun could stop Sam once he got going. Poor Pattie would be struggling to finish her own ch.o.r.es and Abigail"s neglected ones, and both Johnny and Nabby-usually at Rebecca"s dame school at this time of the morning-would be underfoot, not to mention the two little ones . . .
Life on Queen Street was one continuous domestic crisis, with brief breaks for meals and church on Sunday.
So while her mind tugged and tested at where Rebecca could have taken refuge, at who the dead woman was and how the killer could have gotten into the house, she borrowed a basket from one of the farmwives she knew at the market-her own having been set down at some point in the morning she could no longer recall-and filled it with squash and corn and beans, pears and the best of the available remaining pumpkins, two chickens, and a lobster. She also paid a farthing for mola.s.ses candy, for the children and as an offering to Pattie for running off and leaving the poor girl with the whole house to clean and and the ironing. the ironing.
Not that Pattie was ever resentful or sulky, thank heavens. The girl would never set the world afire with her wits, but when King Solomon had set a good woman"s value above mere rubies he"d clearly displayed his shortcomings as a housekeeper . . . A reliable servant"s is above the stars in the sky A reliable servant"s is above the stars in the sky.
Which is what comes of having kings write scripture and not housekeepers.
I must remember to bake extra tomorrow, and send something to Orion.
She turned the corner into Queen Street, and saw bright as the blood-stream on Rebecca"s doorstep that morning the scarlet of soldiers" coats.
Not for a second did she doubt at whose door the men stood.
John. There was a list that we didn"t find, and the Watch did . . .
Abigail went cold down to her toes.
Over a dozen neighborhood children milled around them, at a safe distance precisely calculated, like blue jays teasing a cat. "b.l.o.o.d.y-backs, b.l.o.o.d.y-backs," chanted Shimrath Walton, and shied a k.n.o.b of pig dung at the smaller of the men: not the first such missile, to judge by the state of the boy"s hands and the man"s uniform. The little soldier"s face turned as red as his coat and he took a stride toward the offenders, but they scattered, shrieking with laughter, only to reform a few yards away. "Lobsters for sale!"
"Sure now, what"ll your Ma say, you chuckin" your lunch about like that?" retorted the taller soldier, which got a laugh from the children in return.
"Shimrath," said Abigail sharply, "come here this moment. You, too, Jed," she added, picking out the leader of the little band, and before she could single out a third, her own Nabby and Johnny darted out of the alley that ran beside the house: "Ma, the redcoats have come to arrest Papa-"
"We tried to stop them." Nabby flung plump arms around Abigail"s waist and held her desperately tight. "We tried-"