Sons of Liberty by Christopher G. Nuttall Page A

been nothing at stake. Or she’d thought there was nothing. Gwen had snapped her out of it in more ways than one.

    “ I need to take a walk,” she said, as the dinner came to an end. “Would you care to accompany me?”

    “ It would be my pleasure,” Fredrick said. He held out a hand and Raechel took it, feeling oddly guilty. “Shall we walk the deck?”

    Darkness was falling over the convoy as they walked onto the deck, broken only by lights mounted at each end of the vessel. Overhead, the stars were starting to come out, twinkling merrily in the dark sky. Fredrick had told her that sailors could navigate by the stars, but Raechel found it hard to believe. She’d never been encouraged to study astronomy when she’d been a little girl.

    She looked at Fredrick, standing next to her, and felt another pang of guilt. But she knew what she had to do. “I’m not looking forward to New York,” she said, as a conversational opener. “It’s nothing like London, is it?”

    “ It’s very different in many ways,” Fredrick said. He hadn't let go of her hand. “What do you want to do when you’re there?”

    “ I’ll probably be kept in the house,” Raechel said. “Lady Irene took me as a favour to my family, but she doesn't have any obligations beyond escorting me to New York. I don’t know anyone there.”

    “ You know me,” Fredrick said. “I should be around.”

    Raechel looked at him. “I thought the convoy was going back to Britain,” she said. “Isn't it?”

    “ The freighters will be, once the next set of escorts is assembled,” Fredrick said. They reached the railing and stared into the darkness. Faint lights bobbled in the distance, marking the position of the other ships. “I’m not so sure about the warships, or the troopships. We were told to assume that we would be spending a year on station.”

    Raechel glanced at him. “Is that normal?”

    “ I spent two years in the West Indies, once I was commissioned,” Fredrick said. “There weren't any steamships on station, not back then. We sailed around the Caribbean, chasing pirates and smugglers while keeping a sharp eye on the French. One of my commanding officers even insisted on surveying the waters around Cuba, in preparation for the war.”

    “That must have been grim,” Raechel said.

    “ It was,” Fredrick said. “The weather was hot and moist, disease spread rapidly ... going on shore leave was a good way to wind up on medical leave. And most of the planters wouldn’t give us the time of day. I think they were deeply involved with the smuggling trade.”

    Raechel frowned, unsure how to proceed. “What do you think will happen in New York?”

    Fredrick smiled. “I don’t know for sure,” he said. He wrapped an arm around her, very gently. “We could die tomorrow, you know.”

    “ I hope not,” Raechel said. She leaned into his arm as cold air blew across the water. “What do you think will happen?”

    “ The real problem with moving troops and supplies around America is the sheer size of the territory,” Fredrick said. “There’s a railway between New York and Amherst, but it isn’t large enough to cope with military supplies. I think we’ll be moving the troopships south, after we’ve had a chance to rest and exercise the horses. Amherst isn’t the closest place to the French, but it has the best seaport.”

    He paused, his arm tightening slightly. “Unless Colonel Jackson wants to try to land near New Orleans,” he added. “The French must have similar problems of their own.”

    “I see,” Raechel said.

    She looked up at him and found him looking back at her. He was learning forward, very slightly ... it would have been easy to draw back, but instead she allowed him to bring his lips to hers and kiss her. Irene had been right, she realised, as the kiss deepened. Once she’d grown used to male company, it was easy to let herself kiss other men. His breathing quickened, deep in his throat,