Kitty hummed in agreement. “You are a natural, my dear.”
“Nay.” Anna shook her head with a laugh. “You are too kind.”
“She speaks the truth, Mrs. Fredericks,” William said, a tease in his voice as he spoke her formal name. “I am pleased to be the one attached to you, so you may prepare this for me on future occasions.”
The playful smirk on William’s face made flutters start in her chest. The shadows cast by the candles highlighted his sculpted features, accentuating his masculinity. She struggled to swallow the bite in her mouth. The lines around his eyes softened and the smile he offered made her weightless.
“I’m pleased you were willing to venture out when such cold is upon us.” Thomas spoke to William from across the table. “Only yesterday the rains fell, but it seems winter’s chill was not far behind.”
“A little snow will not deter us.” William dotted his mouth with his napkin. “We must celebrate your return to Sandwich, must we not?” He shot a look to Anna before his tone captured a more somber thread. “’Twas a deciding time for all of us.”
“A deciding time?” Anna prepared a bite. “I recall learning of your coming here when we prepared to celebrate the first time—before the birth of little Mary. But you speak of a return? It would seem I do not know the whole of the story.”
‘’Tis a long one I’m afraid.” Eliza set down her glass, a slow pensive sigh exhaling from her lips. “My father was…” She stopped and flung a pleading glance to Thomas. “I hardly know where to begin.”
Thomas reached for his wife’s hand as he spoke to Anna from across the table. “Eliza was courted by a captain in the British Army.” He sat back against his chair and turned the flat end of his knife against the table cloth, a drawn look owning his features. “He believed himself to be in love with her. But when I took her to safety after her father’s involvement with the Sons of Liberty had come to light, this man believed that I had taken her against her will.”
“How dreadful.” Anna rested her fork on her plate.
“He was prepared to force me to marry him,” Eliza said. “If Thomas hadn’t arrived, I’m not sure what I would have done.” Her voice trailed off as if the memory reached out to capture her.
“How did you escape him?” Anna placed her hands in her lap, the small semblance of appetite she’d had now completely forgotten at the horror of such a tale.
Eliza tossed a look to Thomas before returning her gaze to Anna. “Thomas and Nathaniel risked their lives freeing Kitty and me.”
“Do not forget Don—” Nathaniel c
leared his throat and dotted his mouth with the napkin. “Without William we would never have escaped. He is the true hero.”
She swung her eyes to William, whose expression had hardened, his mouth in a straight, angry line. The mirthful line about heroism died at his hard look.
“You were all there that night?” she asked. “Had you known each other long?”
William took a large bite of lamb, glancing across the table to Nathaniel who obliged to answer.
“I had known Thomas for some time,” he said, and reached for his glass. “I met Eliza and Kitty only when they came to Sandwich to seek refuge from the soldiers. Of course, I couldn’t allow Thomas to be the only one to enjoy all the heroics that grand night.” He gestured to Thomas with his half-full goblet. “Truth be told, this man needed my superior mind. He was too lovesick to put two clear thoughts together.”
Thomas’s face swooped in a half-smile as he prepared for another bite. “I won’t stoop to reminding you of the time you nearly let Kitty slip from your fingers.”
Nathaniel leaned across the table to Anna, not quite whispering. “Do not take your facts from him. I shall tell you the entire story some other time.”
A quiet laugh bubbled in Anna’s chest and she tapped her gaze on Eliza then Kitty who were reserving laughs of their own.
“Well…” Nathaniel sat back and poked a piece of meat with his fork, a contemplative expression shifting his face. “I must say, God be praised for preserving us from such an enemy. Captain Martin was—”
“Nathaniel, how did the meeting at Fessenden’s go last evening?”
William held both fork and knife above his lamb while all eyes questioned his sudden interruption.
Anna latched on to Nathaniel’s words, the very sound of them seeping through her skin. Nathaniel answered and the conversation ensued once more, but Anna’s mind refused to surrender. Had she heard him correctly? The man’s name was Martin? Anna stilled. A coincidence no doubt. The name was not so uncommon. Yet…
“Did you say his name was Martin?”
She didn’t realize she’d interrupted until it was too late.
Thomas peeked up as he cut another bite. “Aye,” he said, before mumbling the last. “A man I shall not soon forget.”
“Anna, would you please pass the pudding.” William pointed toward the dish just out of his reach.