“Daniel, have you ever seen the like?” Trueblood gasped. “I believe she could have had Genet on his knees if she had tried.”
“And to a sergeant’s daughter,” Daniel taunted. “A lady would have graciously accepted his apology.”
“That did cross my mind. After all, he is an ambassador. But then I remembered he is French. Even a sergeant’s daughter must have some standards.”
Daniel cracked into laughter and took her hand to draw it through his arm. “You will be wasted on the frontier, Nancy. Stay in Philadelphia.”
“I am sure it would be more amusing, but I am a person who is used to employment. On that we will never agree, I know,” she said as his grip on her arm tightened. “So it is very much better if-1 go where we cannot argue about it”.
“Would you like to go to the theater tomorrow?” Daniel asked abruptly, interrupting Trueblood and causing Nancy to shake her head in despair. “They have just built a theater on Chestnut Street.”
“I thought perhaps you were not best pleased with me tonight,” Nancy returned.
“I put you in an awkward situation,” Daniel said.
She cocked her head at him. It was not an apology. She decided if she were waiting for him to admit she had been some help to him she would wait in vain.
“You did not mind my making sport of Genet, then?”
Daniel’s eyes glittered again, but only in amusement, not conspiracy. “I want to make it up to you.”
“So tomorrow I am not to impress anyone or taunt anyone?”
“No, it will be for your pleasure alone. Do you want to take Trueblood for propriety?”
“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