“I have you and your Sons of Liberty to thank—once again—for ruining my plans.” He slammed the door shut.
“How do you mean?” Thomas asked. Eliza could almost feel the bristles of anger poking through his jacket.
“You haven’t heard?” Samuel baited. “If it weren’t for your friends in that traitorous group of yours Eliza and I would already be married.”
Eliza lifted her eyes to Thomas. The muscles in his jaw ticked. “Do explain.”
Samuel shifted his weight to his other foot and removed his long black cloak, laying it over the chair next to him. “They’re destroying thousands of pounds worth of valuable tea by dumping it into the water at Griffin’s Wharf. Had they not done so, I would not have been called to duty. And If I’d not been called to duty, Eliza would even now be my wife.” He stopped and turned his eyes to her. “In more ways than one.”
Thomas lunged, but Eliza pressed him back.
Samuel’s smile exuded wicked pleasure before his expression changed and his glare compressed into tiny slits. “Where’s Donaldson?”
No one answered. Eliza looked between Nathaniel and Thomas, but neither man so much as blinked.
“No one wants to tell me what’s happened with an innocent soldier? Sounds suspicious to me.” He took a step further, his eyes boring holes into Eliza’s skull.
The men exchanged fleeting glances, but none spoke.
Samuel drew his sword from its sheath and Thomas’s muscled flex around her.
“The charges against you are piling to the sky, Thomas,” he said, fondling the hilt of his weapon with feigned indifference.
Nathaniel took a step toward Samuel. Thomas flung him a halting look and he stopped mid-stride.
“Tell me where he is,” Samuel demanded through clenched teeth.
“I’m right here.”
Every head jerked in the direction of the voice.
Donaldson staggered in through the back door, rubbing his neck and trying to stand straight.
“Some guard you are. You fool!” Samuel said, the red in his face mirroring the color of his coat.
Samuel marched forward and backhanded him across the jaw. “Get out, Donaldson! I’ll deal with you later. I can handle these traitors on my own.”
Donaldson extended his hand. “They struck me from behind, sir. I had no way of knowing—”
“Enough! Find your way to the wharf and make yourself useful somehow—if that’s possible. Now!”
Donaldson strode away sending a quick look to Thomas, then slammed the front door closed behind him as he left.
Thomas’s breathing quickened as he exchanged communicative glances with Nathaniel.
Samuel, still brandishing his sword, took on an even more domineering stand. “You know you can do nothing to me. Nothing.” His chuckle oozed malice as he returned his long sword to its sheath. “I’m a soldier in His Majesty’s Army. If anything happens to me you’ll both be hanged and what would happen to dear Miss Campbell then?”
“What’s going on, Liza?” Kitty’s clear voice echoed through the crowded room. “Thomas . . . Nathaniel. What are you doing here?”
Eliza turned, her heart exploding behind her ribs. Lord, don’t let anything happen to Kitty.
Kitty stood at the doorway of the kitchen, a tray of bread and cheese in her hands. Her wide eyes darted between Eliza in Thomas’s arms, to Nathaniel and at l
ast to Samuel. Eliza moved a step toward her, but stopped when Samuel’s demands broke the fragile silence.
“Upstairs with you, Kitty. This is not your affair,” he barked.
Kitty slammed the tray on the table beside her, her features tight as she marched to stand beside Eliza. “Absolutely not, Samuel. Don’t think I am still ignorant of your wicked ways.”