Law, Susan Kay by Traitorous Hearts Read Free Book Online Page B

consolingly over Betsy's.
    ***
    A tent, for God's sake. Field quarters. Tapping a folded ivory
paper on the table in front of him, Captain Livingston glanced around in
disgust. He couldn't believe he was in field quarters again. For all the
disadvantages of being stationed in Boston, not the least of which was a
hostile and abusive populace, at least they'd had decent quarters. Castle
William wasn't exactly a palace, but it certainly was better than a cold, worn,
and clearly well-past-its-prime tent.
    Winter was coming. He was stuck out here in the country, and he
couldn't even commandeer a place to stay. There was no place within ten miles
big enough to hold all his troops, so they'd been assigned to this sorry, half
decayed excuse for a fort midway between Lexington and New Wexford. He'd taken
one look at the place and known it would take his men weeks of work to make it
marginally habitable—weeks that he was going to have to spend in field
quarters.
    A gravelly voice outside called for admittance.
    "Come in." Livingston settled back in his chair.
    Sergeant Robert Hitchcock barely needed to duck to enter the tent.
He gave a perfunctory but snappy salute, then dropped into the chair his
captain indicated.
    The only word for Sergeant Hitchcock was rumpled; his face was
rumpled, his hair was rumpled, and the uniform hanging on his spare frame was
rumpled. No matter what time of the day or night, the sergeant always looked
like he'd just rolled out of bed after sleeping in his clothes.
    He was also the best sergeant that Livingston had ever had. Every
inch of his small body was pure toughness, overlaid with a solid, impenetrable
layer of undiluted loyalty. The man was Army, and that said it all. His loyalty
was first to his men, his officers, and his company. His allegiance to his
country and ruler came after his duty to his regiment; it might not have been
the accepted order, but it made him one hell of a soldier.
    "Well? How are the repairs going?" Livingston asked.
    "Bloody slow, Cap'n." Hitchcock shoved a hand through
the limp strands of his mixed gray and pale blond hair. Damn, he'd lost his hat
again. "Goin' t'take at least two more weeks, probably more like
three."
    Livingston's thin lips twitched. "As soon as possible, let's
start transferring the troops into the parts of the fort that are completed.
It'll be a bit crowded, but there's no reason to have every man freezing. Then
we'll shore up the rest as well as we can." He traced the edges of the
stiff linen paper with his fingers. "Not much we can do about it today,
though. It's nearly time to go."
    Hitchcock's gaze dropped briefly to the paper. There was no
curiosity in his expression, simply acknowledgment. He'd been in the army too
long to indulge in curiosity. "Got the information, then?"
    "Yes. We received it this morning." The captain dropped
the folded paper to the table. "I don't know where they got it, but
they're bloody efficient."
    "How much time we got?"
    "Not much."
    "Exactly what're we supposed t' do about it?"
    "Good question. I believe they expect me to 'think of
something.'"
    The sergeant snorted. "Somethin' that doesn't involve
shootin' anyone, I suppose."
    "That was one of the requirements, yes."
    The sergeant mentally ran through his impressive vocabulary of
oaths. One of the frustrations of army life was that the men who gave the
orders often didn't know or had forgotten what it was like out in the field. As
a result, the orders they gave were frequently impossible to follow to the
letter.
    The captain wasn't a bad sort, as captains went, Hitchcock
thought. Oh, he wore his wig just a little too tight, but what officer didn't?
At least he didn't whip a man half to death for dropping a little swearword now
and again. And he'd somehow picked up a good, practical grasp of military
tactics. Seemed to be able to move all the troops around in his head and figure
out where they should go.
    Hitchcock decided it was going to take most of the