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.Nicholas Scott might have decided to fight instead of heaving to when the Americans declared their intention to board him.But the Susan Bell was outgunned by the big colonial frigate and though Higgs might have outrun her, he didn’t want to risk the captain’s ship.When had the colonials developed a navy? True, the frigate was probably just a merchant vessel refitted to carry an impressive battery of guns, but both sides of the Atlantic had done a good deal of saber-rattling without much substance up till now.This new militarism proved that tensions ran higher than usual between the Crown and its distant subjects.War was on the wind.And Bermuda was caught in the middle.Higgs wondered uneasily which side Nicholas would come down on.No man considered treason lightly.The penalty was too severe.The sonatina ended and the assembled guests clapped politely.Higgs clapped enthusiastically.And when the captain announced his intention to offer port and cigars to his guests, Miss Upshall and Penny made their good nights and started to withdraw.Faint heart ne’er won fair maid.Instead of sitting back down with the rest of the men, Higgs followed the ladies out of the parlor.He’d worry about what the captain had decided to do about the American’s offer later.“Miss Smythe,” he said.It was a minor miracle that his stammer hadn’t returned since making port this time.In fact, now that he thought on it, he hadn’t stuttered once around Miss Smythe.Sailors were a superstitious lot.Higgs usually made fun of his mates over their hokum, but now, he began to wonder if Penelope Smythe wasn’t his own private good luck charm.“I’m not a smoker myself.I wonder if you’d like to take a turn around the garden with me before you retire.”Her smile was a bright dawn with not a cloud in sight.Silence finally reigned in the big house.The last of the dinner party guests was gone.Now all Eve heard was the wind soughing through the palm tree outside the door in her private garden.The breeze whispered a conversation she didn’t understand, punctuated by the loud tick of the long case clock in the distant foyer.Penelope had come to her chamber earlier, gushing and starry-eyed.“Mr.Higgs kissed me, Eve.Right on the mouth.”“In that case, don’t you think you ought to call him something other than Mr.Higgs?” Eve suggested with an indulgent smile.“I suppose you’re right.Peregrine.” Penny tested the name on her tongue.“It’s a beautiful name, but fierce as well.A peregrine is a falcon, after all.Don’t you think it’s the best sort of name a man could have?”Eve agreed that it was a name to charm the angels, and it had certainly worked its magic on Penn, but she was distracted by her need to speak to Nicholas.She let Penny rattle on for another half hour, an astounding occurrence for one so naturally shy, and then pled a headache so she could dress for bed and be alone.She put an ear to her door, listening for Nick’s tread on the heart of pine.When she heard him coming, she nipped over to the chair before her fireplace and picked up the book she was plowing through.It wouldn’t do to let him think she’d been waiting for him.The footsteps halted outside her door.Good.The man had better stop and speak to her this night.Not that she needed his word to know her dinner party was a sparkling success.She didn’t want to talk about the party at all.She wanted to know about the treasonous conversation Reggie Turnscrew had overheard in the stable.Before Penny’s visit, Reggie had surprised Eve by shinnying over her garden wall with a twisted tale spewing out his mouth as fast as he could tell it.From what she could piece together from Reggie’s account, Saint George Tucker was up to something dangerous.Surely Nick wouldn’t be so addlepated as to join in whatever madness Mr.Tucker was planning, but according to the stable lad, it sounded as if he had agreed.The floorboards outside her door squeaked and Nick moved on.Eve swore under her breath.He must have seen the light shining beneath her door.He knew she was still awake and yet he walked on.They hadn’t spent any time alone since she’d finally and irrevocably refused to become his mistress.When he’d asked her to serve as hostess at the dinner party, she’d hoped it meant he was warming up to the idea of making her his wife.After all, she was performing a wife’s duty in the eyes of all their guests.But he didn’t knock at her door.So be it.She’d go to him.When she reached his door, she turned the latch and strode in without knocking
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