Nancy Whiskey

“Daniel, I am always packed.”

“Yes, if the British attacked, you would be the only one poised to embark on a war. Here we are at Mrs. Cook’s. See that you are ready to leave on a moment’s notice.”

“Well, Daniel?” Norton asked a half hour later as Daniel stood brooding over a small glass of brandy.

“You sound like Trueblood.”

“That sounds like an accusation. I did not look for you for a week yet.”

“I got back late yesterday.”

“Rough trip?”

“Did you get any of my letters?”

“One. I swear, you may as well carry the mail. You do about as well as the post riders sometimes.”

“I dislike sending information that way.”

“You worry too much. It would never occur to the backwoods rabble that they have a spy among them. What pompous nonsense are they about now?”

“Well, they’ve burned one of the tax collectors,” Daniel said.

“What?”

“In effigy, that is.”

“Why didn’t you say that in the first place?” Norton asked.

“Every inn and tavern is rife with talk of rebellion,” Daniel added.

“Then an insurrection is imminent.”

“Not immediately, and perhaps not at all, if something could be done to lessen the severity of the tax.”

“Quickly, you mean? Not likely. Most of the representatives have fled. The government is scattered from here to Virginia.”

“The president?”

“Will not leave, for the moment. It is the only thing preventing a mass exodus from the city.”

“Washington must be able to do something.”

“The law is the law. He cannot give any dispensations, even if he would. And the debts must be paid. Speaking of pay, when is the last time you had any money for your services?”

“I do not recall, but it does not matter. I never did it for that.”

“I have never been quite sure why you do it, Daniel. I am only glad that you do.”

“If only they had increased the taxes on imports it would have hit these rich city merchants in the purse, not the poor wretches on the frontier. They have nothing but the bit of whiskey they make. To tax it is inhuman, especially for the small producers.”

“Compassion for the enemy, Daniel? That is likely to get you killed.”

“They are not the enemy. They are our countrymen. Whether they remain so is another matter.”

“You have found something.”

“You remember us speaking of Dupree?”

“Yes.”

“He has met with Bradford—twice, to my knowledge.”

“Is Bradford in the pay of the French?”

“If he is they have most likely offered him something else.”

“What?”

“Possibly governorship of the area, once it is no longer part of America.”

“Do they mean to send troops?”

“I believe they mean to make the insurgents do all the killing themselves…and the dying.”

“Why do they need France then?”

“They do not, but they do not realize that. I am wondering if there are other Duprees at work up and down the length of the frontier.”

“Other than Michaux, the botanist, you mean? Do we have time to find out?”

“I suppose Trueblood and I could scour the frontier.”

“That would take too long. I think it a better use of your time to keep your finger on the pulse of Pittsburgh and surroundings, but I do not like to run you ragged going back and forth. Are you sure you cannot trust your dispatches to the mail?”

“I am taking Trueblood with me this time. One or the other of us can bring news.”

“Why did you not take him with you last time?”

“I had work for him here.”

“More important work than this?” Norton raised a skeptical eyebrow.

Daniel opened his mouth to protest that his brother no longer worked for the government, but Norton waved a hand and said, “Do not explain. I have a feeling I know what you are going to say. Spare me.”

Nancy pulled the candle across the large kitchen table and reread the letter from her aunt, who urged her, at the slightest inconvenience, to use the money her uncle had given her to book passage on the next returning ship. Nancy only hoped that Aunt Jane never found out that her ship had been captured by a privateer and that she had been nursing yellow-fever victims. A fine adventure and some useful experience, but aunts never saw such things that way. England was so far away. With any luck, they would never hear about the plague. Nancy sharpened her pen and composed her mind to write a comforting last letter before she began her journey to Pittsburgh.

Dear Aunt Jane,

You talk as though this is a wilderness. I assure you Philadelphia is quite civilized. Why, they even have hospitals here. And I have been to the theater and any number of other entertainments. I even dined with the French ambassador, and he kissed my hand. But enough of my society fling.

Tomorrow we set out for Pittsburgh, the roughness of which I am sure has been exaggerated. I have heard there are nearly two hundred houses there. Surely there are genteel folk among them. You need not worry about the journey. I travel under the protection of a family of merchants Papa and I met on the ship. What could be more fortuitous than that they run a regular trade with Pittsburgh? Papa has gone ahead and bought us a quaint inn. I can scarcely wait to see it. I will write you from my new home, unless there is an opportunity to mail a letter along the way.

With all my love,

Nancy

Chapter Four

Nancy stared at Trueblood’s costume one more time, for that is what it seemed to be. Daniel was dressed in a rough coat and breeches with serviceable riding boots and sat his lean horse like a soldier, but his brother had donned a leather hunting shirt, which looked like it would be uncomfortably hot later in the day. Trueblood’s breechcloth and leather leggings left a large expanse of hip and thigh exposed. His loincloth looked so much like the garment worn by women when they had their courses she could not help but regard it as indecent. Trueblood must have read something of her thoughts, for he smiled wickedly at her and basked in the stares of all the other women who passed the warehouse on their way to market. It was so unlike Trueblood that Nancy was on the point of demanding what he thought he was about when she remembered what she was going to ask Daniel and kneed her young mare to bring it up to Daniel’s mount.

Daniel watched Nancy’s approach with foreboding. He had been pleased to see that Trueblood had gotten her and her gear to the warehouse in good time. Moreover, her trunks had been got rid of in favor of somewhat more watertight saddle packs, and she seemed to be having no difficulty riding astride. She wore a leather hat, a thick linen skirt and a sturdy jacket and, it appeared, meant to lead her own pack animal. That would not last, but Daniel decided not to quibble over it. What worried him was the determined look on her face, and he could not be sure Trueblood’s outrageous attire would distract her from whatever rub she meant to throw in the path of their departure.

“I forgot to ask. Did my father offer to pay you?”

“Why should he pay me?” Daniel asked. “The job is not done yet.”

“Then I will pay you.”

“Certainly not,” he snapped, then bit back his anger when he saw her raise her chin.

“I do have money of my own.”

“I am sure you—very well. You may hire us as guards.”

“What is your price?”

“A shilling.”

“Is that all my life is worth to you?”

“No, that is all I imagine I am worth at such a task, since I have no doubt you will be an enormous amount of trouble and I shall make a poor job of it. So you may stay in Philadelphia for all I care, or follow us if you choose.”

With that, he led out his string of pack animals and proceeded northwest out of the city.

“Well, Daniel,” Trueblood said, drawing level with him, “you did not handle that very well.”

“Is she coming?” his brother asked apprehensively, without daring to turn his head.

Trueblood glanced over his shoulder. “Yes. She has fallen in between my string and Cullen’s. What would you have done if she had not? Gone back and taken her by force?”

“Oh, no. I thought I would leave that to you.”

“Such high-handed methods would never work with Nancy. She is used to being in charge.”

“Then she had best accustom herself to taking orders. Do not laugh at me.”

“I never laugh at you, Daniel.”

“Not so anyone would notice, but you derive a deal of amusement at my expense.”

“As you are so bent on arguing, I will frustrate you by agreeing completely.”

It was some hours before they had passed beyond the environs of the city and the close farms that supplied it Nancy gave a sigh of contentment as they left civilization behind for the sweeter air and breezier expanses of the country. After half a day’s travel they passed through stretches of cool forest, where the ponies’ shod feet thumped on the hard-packed road, the sound echoing off the leaves. Thousands of birds must be flitting about in the canopy, and the undergrowth, she was sure, hid all sorts of wildlife. As much as she was enjoying the new geography, she had the strangest feeling of foreboding, as if they were intruding where they did not belong.

When the serving girls had heard she was to travel to Pittsburgh, Prudence and Tibby had filled her head with tales of scalping and capture by Indians. Nancy tried to picture Trueblood in a killing rage, but she could not. He was too tame. She tried to picture being carried off by a war party, but the landscape seemed so benign. They were just foolish girls, after all. Daniel would never take her where there was any real danger.

She tried to picture being scalped, for the victims of such attacks were not always dead when this occurred, according to Prudence. They could, in fact, live some days in great pain, or even some years in great ugliness. That was the most appalling part. The horror, Nancy thought, was in being defaced, in being made ugly and in being made to long for death. She had only been thinking of war in terms of noble wounds. That headless sailor had put an end to any idea she might have that war was noble. Wounds would always be ugly to her now, and the foolish gossip of two serving girls had killed her complacency about their journey. Nancy had known fear on the ship but had found she could face it. She now knew that there were some fears she would carry to bed with her in her nightmares even if they were based in her own reality. These horrors had happened even if they had not happened to her. She empathized too much with the ghosts of those who had suffered. Even knowing she could still help the living did not lift her spirits.

They rested the horses at noon, but took time for no more than a few bites of bread and a drink of water. Toward late afternoon, when Nancy assumed Daniel would scout about for a likely campsite, he surprised her by pulling into an inn yard and negotiating with the proprietor for accommodations for them and their considerable string.

Over dinner—a hearty stew—he asked a subdued Nancy, “Are you still hungry? You may have anything you want from the groaning board, some fruit and nuts, or some cheese, perhaps.” Daniel motioned toward the feast that was to be had at a slight extra expense.

“Nothing. The stew and biscuit were fine.”

“If you are tired you can retire immediately, and we will make a late start tomorrow.”

She shook her head, realizing she had to drive off the demons that haunted her if she were to live in this land. “The country is quite lovely, but rather tamer than I had anticipated,” she said with mock bravado.

“And you are disappointed.”

“Well, yes.”

“What were you expecting?”

She decided not to confide the stories of the scalpings to him. “That it would be more difficult.”

“Perhaps we will run into rain. Would that make it difficult enough?” Daniel teased.

“I suppose. Perhaps it is the time of year. One really cannot expect too many hardships in September, unless of course we were to be attacked by Indians.” She glanced sideways at him.

Daniel laughed. “Always joking, Nancy. Why, such a thing has not happened in what, Trueblood—two or three—”

“At least four weeks.”

“Four weeks?” Nancy squeaked, as Trueblood mopped the last of the stew from his wooden trencher with his bis-’ cuit and filled his mouth with it. She stared numbly at him as he then flipped the wooden disk over and went to select a half chicken and a large cutting of cheese for himself. Cullen grinned and beckoned the landlord to refill their tankards.

“Four weeks,” Nancy repeated. “And people live out here as though nothing has happened. How can they bear it?”

“You are afraid!” Daniel blurted out in surprise, his intense blue eyes searching Nancy’s face.

“Yes, I am afraid,” she said pathetically. “But I suppose I will get used to that just like everything else.”

Daniel reached across the table and took her hand. “What I was going to say, when I was so rudely interrupted by my brother, was that such a thing has not happened for years around Pittsburgh. It is true that the Canadians are inciting the Indians to attack the more remote settlers’ cabins, but those are isolated incidents.”

“Oh, that makes me feel so much better,” she said resentfully.

“And you will not be at some isolated cabin in the middle of the back woods, but at an inn on a well-traveled road. To be sure, you have nothing to fear from any Indian but Trueblood, and that is only if he bores you to death with his doltish behavior.” Daniel nodded toward his brother, who was dismembering the chicken.

Nancy smiled at him and shook her head. Of course Daniel would never take her anyplace dangerous. She had been foolish to let those stories worry her.

When Daniel helped Nancy mount her bay mare the next day he noticed that she was smiling again and her hair was wet. As it dried it fell like a shimmer of gold about her shoulders. He started out at her end of the train so that he would be able to watch her without getting a stiff neck. But that only led him to contemplate an idyllic future with her, which he realized might be far from Nancy’s expectations. That she liked him he knew, but he was very far from winning her. During a rest he traded places with Cullen to clear his head. He must get his mind back on Dupree and the fomenting rebellion or he would never get this job out of the way. That was odd in itself, that he would be impatient with an assignment rather than intently thinking of nothing else.

At their noon stop Nancy demanded, “See here, I have been talking to Cullen and he informs me that you do not always travel this way.”

“What way?” Daniel asked, tearing off a mouthful of bread.

“From inn to inn as though you are on a tour. I wondered how you could make any profit if you were forever paying for food and lodging, especially Trueblood’s food. Cullen tells me you normally make your own camp and hunt game along the way.”

“I see no reason for you not to have a bed, if there is one to be had.”

“Considering the number of fleabites I have gotten I would by far rather sleep on the clean hard ground.”

“But you had warm water and a room to bathe in this morning. You won’t have that if we travel rough.”

“Yes, and now that I am free of vermin again I intend to stay that way. I can heat water as well as the next woman if you have a pot. Well, have you one?”

“Yes, at your disposal, Miss Riley,” Daniel said, tipping his hat.

“I expect we can make better time also, now that you will not be forever looking for an inn.”

“However did we manage without you, Nancy girl?” Trueblood asked.

“I have had quite enough of this delay”, Daniel said, getting to his feet and preparing to mount.

“Delay? You cannot pretend that I held you up, for I can make more than fifteen miles a day even if I walk.”

“How on earth would you know that?” Daniel asked as he lifted her onto her small mare.

“I practiced.”

“Practiced walking fifteen miles a day?”

“Twenty, actually. I had to be sure I could manage it, don’t you see? In case we should ever be on a forced march, or, God forbid, a retreat.”

“Well, do not let us hold you up, Captain Riley,” he taunted. “Would you like, perhaps, to lead the way?”

“The way, as you call it, is plainly marked and I suppose anyone could find it here. But I suspect it may become more convoluted when we reach the mountains. I am content for you to lead.”

“Content, are you?” Daniel glowered at her, then set off with his string of ponies, pretending not to care if anyone followed him or not.

“Child, if you knew how much you bother him,” Trueblood said with a chuckle as he brought his own string of ponies up level with her.

“I do know.”

“Then why do you do it?”

“When he is competent and in control, he takes me for granted. He may even forget I am here. When I throw him off his guard, he can think of nothing but me.”

“And how much he would like to give you the whipping you deserve.”

“Did he say that?”

“Somewhat incoherently, but that was the gist of it. Does it worry you?”

“No, for I do not think he really means it,” she said wistfully.

“You would never tolerate it.”

“No, of course not. But if we were married, there is not a great deal I could do about it.”

Not for the first time, Nancy left Trueblood with a puzzled frown. Normally when a woman said something nonsensical he merely thought she was babbling. But Nancy was an intelligent woman, and here she was acting as irresponsibly as a moonstruck girl…That was it! She was in love, and Daniel had not the slightest inkling. There was nothing new about that. Daniel only wanted women who were ineligible. If a woman fell in love with him, he had not the acuity to realize it.

Trueblood hastened to catch up with Daniel. “What do you intend doing about Nancy?”

“What the hell do you mean by that? I am delivering her to her father.”

“Well, Daniel, you have a reputation for impatience, especially with women. For using them rather hastily and leaving them in despair. If you—”

“Trueblood, what have you done? Have you fallen in love with Nancy?”

“In a manner of speaking, I have, but not in the way you imagine.”

“If there was ever a time to speak clearly, brother,” Daniel threatened through clenched teeth, “it is now!”

Trueblood blinked at him. “I mean that I treasure Nancy for her talents, her loyalty, her…hmm…”

“What?”

“There is something even I cannot fathom about her. Nevertheless, believe me when I say that if you mean to seduce her and leave her weeping, I will nip this affair in the bud.”

“I believe you mean it,” Daniel said in astonishment, taking in the determined set of his brother’s brows.

“It is the only thing you could do that would make me turn against you.”

“She has made an impression.” Daniel stared ahead at a twist in the road, trying to picture Trueblood not at his side. It was inconceivable.

“I think she would also make you an admirable wife. No other woman we have ever encountered has been at all suitable for you.”

“Is that why you relieve me of them so consistently?” “As I would remove a poison mushroom from your plate, for your own good.”

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