Nancy Whiskey

“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.”