“What did he have to say for himself?” Daniel asked casually.
“Try as I might, even by holding a glass to the wall, I could not make out the words”, Nancy said in mock seriousness.
Daniel had opened his mouth to resume his interrogation when Trueblood burst out laughing. “She really is making game of you now, Daniel.”
“Which would not be to my credit even if it were a challenge,” Nancy replied. “Sorry, Daniel.”
He shook his head. “Bad enough I have Trueblood carping at me. If you are to start as well…”
“But you interrogate me about the man for no reason. If you want me to spy on him—”
“No! I do not want you to have anything to do with him.” Daniel took a tighter grip on her arm.
“Well, I do not particularly like him. I keep thinking he is after father’s prize money, if he has not got it already.”
“Yes, so do I,” Daniel alibied. “That is the only reason I was concerned.”
Nancy slanted a skeptical look at Trueblood, who shrugged. Then she turned her innocent face to Daniel. “Then you think I have a right to keep an eye on Dupree— in a very subtle way, of course.”
“Dupree may be exactly what he appears,” Trueblood said, taking Nancy’s other arm and drawing her away from Daniel.
“Which is what?” Nancy demanded. “It strikes me as odd that such a rough man, one moreover who claims to be a fur trader, should be in England.”
Daniel glanced menacingly at Trueblood and dropped back to study Nancy from behind. He had suddenly lost all interest in Dupree and why the fellow had been in England. Even under the plumped-up side panniers of her polonaise gown, Nancy presented a trim figure and was.attracting a deal of attention on the street. One of Daniel’s acquaintances tipped his hat to her from horseback, getting a nod from Trueblood and a scowl from Daniel in return for his knowing grin.
Daniel envied the one curl that had slipped around her neck and was glad Nancy did not hold with the old style of powdering her hair. Nothing should take the sheen out of those curls. Though he had little interest in fashion, he was a purveyor of cloth and had bought and sold enough in England and America to realize her dress was expensive. She should stay in Philadelphia and go to the theater, not be dragged to some crude frontier settlement where there were few civilized women and the men were all dangerous. He must think of a way.
At Norton’s house, Daniel sprinted up the steps and was surprised to be greeted by Elise herself. Her flame red hair shone in the last rays of the sun and her green silk gown embraced her like a lover.
“Daniel, you have come alone after all,” she complained.
“No, Miss Riley is with me.” He reached down and firmly took Nancy’s arm, drawing her up the last few steps to stand beside him.
Elise invited Nancy in, making her feel welcome. Daniel cuffed Trueblood on the shoulder as they jostled each other in the doorway, but drew no more than a smirk from him.
“I hope we are not to disappoint you,” Elise said, “for Genet is not here yet and I will not hold dinner for him. Come, have some of your brandy.”
Elise, Nancy and the daughters of the house, Penelope and Mary, were intimately occupied for a time with a discussion of fashion and hair. Nancy thought both girls showed future promise as belles of the town, but that neither would surpass their mother’s beauty with her striking cast of hair. Though Nancy proclaimed herself a country dowd compared to London ladies, Elise graciously asserted she was closer to the pulse of the fashionable world than they in their backwater.
Trueblood was drawn into the conversation to give his opinion on the comparative merits of the open polonaise over the round gown, so that Daniel had a chance to convey to Norton his concerns over the Canadian, Dupree.
“I shall set a man on to follow him.”
“I can manage it for the next few days,” Daniel offered.
“You are too well known to him. If he has indeed detected your mission, your illustrious career may be at an end, Daniel.”
“In other words I had best play the blockish merchant with intensity.”
“To the hilt.”
“It will not be difficult, with both Nancy and Trueblood cutting at me.”
“I have seen that look before, Daniel.”
“What look?”
“You are like a leashed dog whose bone has rolled just beyond his reach, watching another hound about to make off with it.”
“Sorry, I will try to contain myself.”
“No, do not. Jealousy becomes you. Just do not lose your head.”
“I shall be hard put not to make a serious blunder tonight.”
Norton did ask Elise to put dinner back, resulting, Nancy thought, in Daniel having one brandy too many. Or was that a ruse? Genet made a late appearance and apologized too profusely for his tardiness. Nancy had thought he looked French, with those sensual lips of his, even before he opened his mouth. Trueblood cast a tolerant eye upon him, while Daniel consulted his watch with a blank look. It was like a mask, Nancy thought, that face Daniel put on for company. No, not company—For an enemy. It was interesting to her that the voluble Trueblood, flanked by the daughters, was seated across from Genet, who had Daniel on his right and her on his left. Mr. and Mrs. Norton observed the party from either end of the elaborately laid table.
Had Daniel been across from Genet, that might have set them against each other as opponents. A man is more apt to trust a man at his side. How Nancy knew this she did not bother to consider. She had been at enough dinner parties to draw her conclusions from observation, setting aside her considerable instinct. Daniel had all the leisure in the world to observe Genet covertly, she thought, with that half-drunken smile loosely worn to shield himself from Genet’s gaze.
Elise stirred uncomfortably, and it occurred to Nancy that the lady must think she had been looking critically at her table settings. “Such a lovely service of china, Mrs. Norton. I have been racking my mind to discover the pattern, which looks familiar. But if I ever knew it, I have forgotten.”
“Why, thank you. It is a special order from Sheffield. It was a present from Daniel and Trueblood, a rather belated wedding gift.”
“It was a rather belated wedding,” Norton put in, causing his wife to blush.
Norton was not drunk either, Nancy concluded, but he was doing a good imitation of it.
They spoke of china and other elegances, the cost of obtaining them in America, and moved thence to trade, the deficit, America’s debts to France, her apparent inability to pay. Daniel tsked over this, but could see no ready solution. He seemed such a selfish, complacent man even to Nancy, and she knew better.
If Daniel wanted to get something from Genet, she thought, he was going the long way about it. “I did particularly want to meet you,” Nancy said to Genet. “You were so late, I feared I would miss the opportunity.”
“And what a loss it would have been for both of us, Miss Riley,” Genet leaned toward her to say. “You must let me explain the reason for my tardiness. I had business at the harbor. An English merchant ship has been brought in by the Embuscade and I was inspecting her. She will be recommissioned La Petite Démocrate.” Genet raised his glass as if he were making a toast.
“I prefer the Little Sarah,” Nancy said, taking a bite of capon.
“You know the ship?” Genet asked in pleasant surprise.
“I was on it.” Nancy took another bite while