Rebellious Heart by Jody Hedlund

Caucus Club of the danger the lieutenant was bringing to Weymouth.
    Lieutenant Wolfe looked at Susanna, and even though he was old enough to be her father, sudden lust flickered across his features. “Or am I to presume you’re here for pleasure, and pleasure alone?”
    “What do you think, Lieutenant Wolfe? Why else do you think I’m on the beach with a lovely young lady?” How dare the lieutenant leer at Susanna that way. Who did he think he was?
    The lieutenant’s eyes narrowed. “Perhaps you got word of my presence in Weymouth and decided to warn the smugglers to be on the lookout?”
    Susanna drew in a breath. “Smugglers?”
    Ben gave her a sideways glare that he hoped conveyed his desire for her to stay silent.
    “I beg your pardon, Lieutenant,” she said with the tone of one who had been offended. “If you think any of the dear people of my father’s parish are involved in smuggling or any other illicit activities, you’re sorely mistaken.”
    Once again Lieutenant Wolfe stared too freely at Susanna, and Ben had to restrain himself from standing up and shouting at the red monkey.
    “Who is your father?” the lieutenant asked coldly.
    “The Reverend Smith of the North Parish. And I assureyou, if any smuggling was occurring along Weymouth’s shores, my father would have called on his parishioners to stop.”
    Ben bit back the terse words he’d had ready for Susanna. If he stayed silent, perhaps her innocence and ignorance, along with her fervor for the king, would be just the convincing Wolfe needed to leave them alone.
    “We’re a law-abiding community,” she insisted.
    Of course, the smuggling of molasses, sugar, and rum had been ongoing for years and years, ever since the Molasses Trade Act was passed thirty years ago. The trade laws had the intent of forcing the colonists to buy and sell only with Britain. But always in the past, the king’s customs officials had turned a blind eye after the smugglers had paid them handsomely to ignore the illegal cargo coming in from the West Indies where the merchants could trade fairly.
    But now that the king had grown more desperate for revenue, he was apparently intent upon enforcing the old Trade Act. Ben had heard rumors the prime minister had begun to pay the customs officials higher wages, which would only make them less likely to succumb to bribes from the New England merchants.
    Had the prime minister also given officers like Lieutenant Wolfe more power to enforce the outdated Molasses Trade Act? It made sense, but only irritated Ben all the more that the king would stoop to such subversive tactics rather than openly discussing the problem with the colonists. “Our community prides itself on loyalty to England and to the king,” Susanna continued, impassioned with what she obviously believed to be true.
    Ben focused on a crab scurrying near the water’s edge, where the incoming tide threatened to draw it under. Hedidn’t dare let Susanna look into his eyes for fear she would see the truth there.
    What she didn’t know wouldn’t hurt her. Her patriotic declarations were just what he needed at that moment to distract Lieutenant Wolfe from the trail he was pursuing, for the man was indeed getting much too close to the heart of the illegal activities.
    The distilleries in Boston depended on the cheap tax-free molasses that was smuggled in. They needed it for making rum.
    And it wasn’t that Ben approved of the rum. Even though the strong drink was used in preserving food and treating ailments, he’d also seen the effects of its overuse—many lives wasted as a result of imbibing too freely.
    He’d wanted to speak out against the ill effects of strong drink, but the life of the colonies depended upon the income the rum brought. If the British cut off the smuggling, they would impoverish the colonies and make them even more dependent on their mother country.
    And that was exactly what Ben and the other members in the Caucus Club were determined not