Mistress Firebrand by Donna Thorland Read Free Book Online

and brings his army here.”
    Severin knew better than to say that Howe had no chance of breaking out of Boston. He had infiltrated the Rebel lines in Cambridge for the general himself, walked their ranks in his old battered coat, falling into American speech patterns and using their idioms and being welcomed, warmly, as a brother, along with the other thousands who had flocked to the occupied city’said. It was not a professional army. It was a mob, but an angry mob leavened with men who had spent their adult lives fighting the French and the Indians and trained their children up to do the same.
    Courtney, unlike Burgoyne, might actually listen to his opinion on the subject, but of course he could not share it, because it was information he had obtained while spying. His work put him on intimate terms with men like Burgoyne and distanced him from friends like Courtney. Tonight he felt keenly his isolation. He wished he could talk frankly with his friend, share his misgivings about Jennifer Leighton, his disquiet over what had happened in Boston.
    Instead they exchanged family news from home in England, and Fairchild congratulated Severin on his brother’s success in Parliament. Severin thanked him politely. He did his best not to resent his older brother, but some wounds never really healed. It was not Julian’s fault that Lord Devere preferred him, but it had been Julian’s choice to distance himself from his younger brother at school, to make it clear that he believed what the world believed: that Severin was not Lord Devere’s true son.
    Then the boat was ready, and Severin was being rowed out to the
Boyne
. The water was choppy, mirroring his turbulent thoughts, which swirled around the enigma that was the attractive little playwright.
    He did not want her to meet with Burgoyne.
    She lived, according to Fairchild, with Frances Leighton, so she could not be naive. Innocent, perhaps, though even that was doubtful for a grown woman—approaching her middle twenties, he’d suppose—connected with the theater. Even if she had written the letter to Burgoynewithout the insight of her worldly aunt or the shrewd Robert Hallam, they would have acquainted her with its practical implications by now. If she came aboard the
Boyne
to dine with the general, it would be with a full understanding of Burgoyne’s expectations.
    It was no concern of Severin’s at all.
    He could not get it out of his head.
    He did not report to Burgoyne on his night’s reconnaissance when he reached the
Boyne
. He was not certain, just yet, what he wanted to do about Jennifer Leighton.
    He could not sleep, so he busied himself making notes on his personal observations in New York and recording details he had learned from Fairchild. When light began filtering through the gun port in his cramped quarters, he locked his papers in his chest and went in search of Captain Hartwell.
    They agreed in the main that the
Boyne
must be made ready to sail to England as quickly as possible and that work, once supplies came aboard, must be carried out round the clock. They differed on how easily this might be accomplished.
    “What Captain Vandeput possesses in his stores,” said Hartwell with asperity, “he is loath to part with. He must keep the
Asia
in good repair or he will lose all semblance of control over the city. His sloop is burnt and he knows that the town may turn on him at any time, and he cannot rely on the locals for reprovisioning if we exhaust his warehouse. That leaves us bargaining directly with the merchants of New York, Devere, who know we have no other choice, and
that
means that we have no bargaining position at all. Theygouge us, plain and simple. They want hard specie, and the
Boyne
does not carry sufficient gold to pay them for
your
necessaries. If General Burgoyne wishes to be under way, he is welcome to make up the shortfall out of his own pocket, because I—quite bluntly—am not in a position to do so.”
    “Then what,