Gouverneur was pouring out four cups of whiskey. He looked up from his task. "I'd like to talk to Barney," he said, "about France—-and such like. I'm angling for diplomatic service after the war." He passed the cups to each man.
Joshua and Barney each signed the bond. Gouverneur scrawled his witnessing signature. "From this moment on," he said, "the 'Athena'! Who named her?"
"Joshua did," Barney answered. "He says she sprang from my head."
"Fully panophed," Robert Morris quoted. "Perhaps she did, Barney."
Gouverneur raised his glass. "Allow me a bit of romanticism: To the goddess and to the ship!"
Chapter 18
AT THREE THAT AFTERNOON THE CHILL LATE NOVEMBER WIND blew hard off the river. Lamplight from the shops shone out into the city streets. Lucie passed the Cathcart's bookshop and apothecary at Second and Elfreth's Alley, and even though she was thoroughly cold, she stopped for just a moment to try to read the recipe on the open page of a new cookbook.
Just as she stopped, Joshua opened the door of the shop and came limping out into the street. "Lucie," he said, surprised.
"M'sieur!" she exclaimed.
The wind blew the ends of her gay knitted yellow scarf, which
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matched her knitted mittens. Her cheeks were pink with cold. "You look pretty a^ a picture," Joshua said. "I've the coach. I'll take you home."
"Thank you, m'sieur," she said. But she didn't move; she looked up at him. "Are you feeling—" she searched for the right word— "fine? How is your leg?"
She was very concerned, and Joshua smiled. "You're keeping me standing on it."
"Mon Dieu! Forgive me, m'sieur!" She looked around for the coach, flew across the pavement and opened the door. She called up to the coachman, "Why you not have this ready open, for m'sieur?" As Joshua got in, she said, "He is bastard?"
Joshua sat down in the seat and laughed. She eyed him questioningly, and was about to close the door when Joshua leaned forward and caught her hand.
"Get in," he said, and pulled her down on the seat beside him; he was still chuckling, "Lucie, Lucie," he said reprovingly.
She clasped her hands. "What did I do?"
"Where did you hear the word bastard?" Joshua asked sternly.
She glanced at him. "From you, sir."
"Oh, lord," said Joshua. "Never repeat my words, Lucie." He smiled. "My language is too full of liabilities for you." He added, "You must have heard a great many words from me, lately. I expect I was a rather irritable patient, wasn't I?"
"Terrible," said Lucie, truthfully.
"Here come these rolled r's at me again," Joshua said. "They say women are better patients than men."
"Oui," said Lucie. She sighed and gave him an angelic smile. "But I rather take care of you."
"Would you?" asked Joshua. "What were you doing down here?"
"Walking, m'sieur." She didn't meet his eyes.
"Walking?" Joshua looked at her. "You're shivering with the cold, Lucie." He put his arm around her and drew her close to him, turning her face to his with one hand.
At his nearness, Lucie found words more difficult. "What were you doing?" she asked low, looking at the collar of his cloak.
"I was going to buy a book to read tonight, but I decided I didn't have enough money."
Her eyes widened. "Enough money?"
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He said, "Cash is short, Lucie. I can't expect you to understand my finances, but all the gold we have—" He explained how Gouverneur Morris had taken the gold buttons off his coat.
Her eyes were studying him as he spoke. "I have gold, sir," she said.
Joshua smiled, "You do, Lucie?"
"Oui" she nodded. "I have sixty pounds in gold!"
"Sixty pounds?" Joshua exclaimed.
"Out! Five pounds a month for twelve months. Captain Barney paid me in gold!" She lifted her face to his. "I give it for the troops."
Joshua kissed her quickly, and drew back a little to study her face. "You'll have a note for it, Lucie."
"A note?" she whispered. "What is that?"
"I mean you'll get it back; I promise," Joshua said, his mind not on his words,
"I don't want it back, sir; I was saving it for my dot—my dowry." She drew a deep breath. "Now I do not think I ever marry."
"What?" asked Joshua. He looked deep into her eyes.
She said, "When George ask me to marry him today, I knew I tell him no."
"What?" Joshua growled. "Who is George?"
Lucie looked amazed. "Your clerk."
"How did you meet—" Joshua broke off. For the last three days, George Griffiths had been in and out of the house. "He worked fast, the bastard," Joshua announced; then he grinned. "Don't repeat that, Lucie. So you turned George down?"
She nodded, wordlessly.
"Why?"
"Because," she whispered.
Joshua kissed her. When the coach jolted to a stop in front of the big house, the coachman jumped down to open the door. He closed it again. But Lucie had heard it close.
The sound of it made her open her eyes. She withdrew her arms from around Joshua's neck and laid a mittened hand against the side of his face. "We are home," she whispered, drawing away from him a little. She traced one finger along his face, and Joshua kissed her again, for a moment holding her close. Then he released her, leaned forward and opened the door of the coach,
Joshua gave the coachman a brief stare, Lucie got out and walked
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at his side into the house. Within the fires were burning and there was the smell of woodsmoke. Even Marston smiled at her today. She looked up at Joshua as Marston divested him of his cloak. "I go to madame, now," she said.
Chapter 19
DOUGLASS WAS WAITING. AS SOON AS LUCIE APPEARED, AND AS SOON as she had shut the door, Douglass grasped up her red cape. "He has gone?" she asked.
"Oui, madame." Lucie unfastened her own cape and removed it. "He has gone to the cockfights and then to the theatre and supper."
"The theatre?" asked Douglass. She went over to her mirror, regarding her piled curls, so lightly dusted with powder. She picked up a filmy veil. "The theatre? The little singer, Judy, probably!" She set her full mouth. "Goodbye, Lucie. I shall be back before supper."
Marston was surprised to see Douglass go out alone and on foot. He wondered where she was going, and then decided that probably she was only going next door, to visit with the English captain and his officers. He shut the big door after her.
Once in the street, Douglass walked fast, her cape flying behind her. She had seven blocks to walk and she walked them quickly. At Elfreth's Alley she slowed her pace.
It was very narrow, cobblestoned, with a tiny sidewalk about two feet wide. She gathered her cape close and walked along; she could look into the houses, through the many paned windows. Toward the end of the block she paused; at right angles Bladen's Court ran from the alley, and Douglass stepped around the comer quickly.
A giant tree sheltered one of the houses under its spreading limbs. She passed a stone-walled well, and stepped up the one step to a white doorway. She lifted the brass knocker.
Absolom answered the door. Douglass entered. She drew a deep breath; she was standing in his house.
She looked around the white panelled hall; a lazy wood fire burned and the stairway went up around it. A pair of beautiful chairs flanked a French table with a mirror atop it; she caught a glimpse pf herself, and she realized Absolom was saying:
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"Captain Barney is not at home, ma'am. May I take a message?"
Douglass knew very well he was not at home. But her voice was unsteady as she said, "I will wait." She gave a glance to the empty room at her right. "I'll keep my cape," she added. She could not push aside the feeling that any moment she would hear Barney's tread, and that he would be there, looking at her with his dark eyes. She said, "I will wait, in the study!"