The Patriot Bride
Authors: Carolyn Faulkner
The
Patriot Bride
By Carolyn Faulkner
Copyright 2010 By Carolyn Faulkner and Blushing Books
The Patriot Bride
© 2010 Carolyn Faulkner & Blushing Publications
eBook ISBN 978-1-935152-93-4
Cover Design: ABCD Graphics and Design
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Chapter One
Hannah Cooper tucked her chin to her chest as she strode across the common, pulling her cloak tight about her and wishing she could afford warmer clothes as a damp chill slipped beneath both her skirt and her layers of petticoats. The mobcap on her head helped a little, but not enough. April in Boston wasn’t the warmest of times, but the wind across the bay cut that much quicker through the thin cloth of her well worn cloak and almost ratty dress.
Driven from England under duress, she had truly adopted her current homeland as her own, despite the fact that she wasn’t a native and hadn’t been there very long. She had already taken their causes to heart – railing with her fellow employees against all of the unfair taxes that were being imposed by the Crown and Parliament, so far away.
Not that she was dressed much better than anyone else, really, except those toffs who decided to break the boycott of British goods and have new dresses made, consequences be damned. Hannah’s head shook from more than the chill as she dodged the cows grazing placidly and hurried towards her landlord’s certain warm welcome, but a group of townspeople who were gathered around cackling at each other and waving some pamphlet or other caught her attention.
After several unsuccessful attempts, bobbing up and down in a most unseemly fashion, trying to get a glimpse of what Old George was try to do to them now, she was able to skim quickly over a short man’s shoulder at a proclamation entitled “The Quartering Act,” which apparently required that the colonist give food and shelter to the very British Army that was repressing their rights to live as free men.
Almost as soon as she finished reading and turned to continue to Mistress Wentworth’s, only to be confronted by the very reason for such an act – a regiment of British soldiers, a bright swath of blood red across the still late winter bland backdrop of the park, lead by a huge man on a large white stallion. One of the things that struck Hannah about the man was that although he was wearing a spit polished uniform and all the regalia of a British officer, he was not wearing a white wig, which set him apart from the rest of the dandified officers that accompanied him. She could hear him issue several curt orders, and felt a chill run through her at his tone, then realized she was standing in the middle of the common and staring up at him like a lack wit.
She’d always been just the slightest bit worried that her intended might send someone looking for her – not that he’d have any idea where to look. But still, the worry was always there, in the back of her mind.
Before anyone else noticed her slack jawed response to this strange man, she hurried herself off to work, knowing if she was late the kindly Mistress Wentworth would be worried.
But she couldn’t keep him out of her mind, for some strange reason. He kept popping up at the oddest of times – when she was sipping some of the strange tasting coffee her employer served with cream and scant sugar, when she was working on sewing the stomacher to the stays of a fine dress for one of their wealthier customers. Why that face should reappear in her mind for no reason, she had no idea. Perhaps she was just a bit tetched today, and that strong, masculine face was well burned into her memory.
Hanna tried desperately to turn her thoughts away from him and back to the task at hand. As much as she’d hated learning the needlecrafts her mother had insisted upon – she was much more facile at cooking and basic medicines, it had saved her life when she’d arrived in the Colonies, with little more than those skills to keep body and soul together.
“You cannot deny me, Mistress Cooper.”
Obsidian black eyes collided with startling blue ones that refused to yield demurely, as they should, if not merely to the man then to the uniform.
Sweet merciful Heaven, it was the commander of the regiment she’d seen earlier that day. She’d never forget that face for the rest of her days.
Hannah continued to stare up at him – and up it was. He had to be at least a foot taller than she was – he was the tallest man she’d ever seen, and broad as a barn, to boot. The crisp red of his uniform only served to accentuate his size. “I most certainly can and will deny you, Sir. We poor colonists are merely supposed to give you redcoats,” she gave that last word a twist that left no room for doubt that it caused a bad taste in her mouth just to say it, “food and shelter at public houses and unused shelters. I’m certain there’s room for you at one pub or another . . .” She did her best to close the door in his face, but he had one gigantic spit shined black booted foot that remained on the doorsill, regardless of how she tried to crush it.
Colonel Wolfgang Anders Preston III, Duke of Northumberland, Viscount Wexley, and Baron of several small dominions, could not believe that this little slip of a thing was actually leaning all of her inconsiderable weight against her front door – such as it was – in an obvious attempt to shoo him away like some common beggar man or thief. Even the women in this savage, upstart country were rebellious colonials.
Wolf was not entirely unsympathetic to the plight of these “Americans”, as they had come to refer to themselves – especially having spent as much time here has he had; he’d come to recognize a certain grudging respect for them and their savvy leaders – John Hancock, George Washington, Samuel Adams. They were all smart men with sound thoughts and ideas. He just thought there were better ways of going about it than the direct conflict with the largest military power in the world that they were heading towards, and which they would most certainly lose.
But these colonists had spunk, he had to give them that, case in point the small woman who was still pushing against her door, her Sampson to his Goliath, as headstrong and impulsive and bullheaded as the rest of her kind, despite her feminine appearance.
And she certainly was in the flower of her femininity, he had to give her that, despite the grunts and groans she was emitting while trying to stem the tide of his invasion. And despite his vast family fortune, he was the type of man to look past the rags she was wearing to see what was beneath them. He could see the masses of clean, curly blonde hair piled on top of her head, a few delicate ringlets framing her face. Her clothes were near worn clear through in spots. The fabric was so thin it was nearly an obscenity for her to wear them, but they were clean, and she smelled faintly of the wildflowers he’d seen blooming in the yard.
Wolf could feel a most ungentlemanly strain against his breeches, but he brought that to a full stop immediately, giving a carefully controlled shoved against the door so as not to hurt her, but enough to assure that he would gain entrance to her less than enchanting abode.
It was like trying to discourage a grizzly bear, no matter how hard she tried. She was leaning her entire weight against the door, and it was having absolutely no effect. He was slowly, and with depressing ease, gaining entry to her house and there didn’t seem to be anything she could do about it.
Finally, Hannah just let go and walked away, getting no small amount of satisfaction when he stumbled badly nearly fell flat on his face. She knew that that victorious feeling when he’d almost hurt himself was wrong, and said a quick prayer for forgiveness as she bustled about the place, suddenly realizing just how small it was with his imposing presence.
Hannah had never regretted leaving England, not from the moment she set foot on the ship at Portsmouth harbor – despite the fact that she nearly died of the seasickness throughout the entire voyage, along with everyone else who had booked passage. They were all held below decks nearly every day, herded together next to the animals, the air wreaking of both human and animal wastes, and the crew looking them all over as if they were going to be next in the pot – or worse, for the women.
It wasn’t as if she’d had much choice in the matter, regardless. Women in this world didn’t have much in the way of choices, which was probably why she’d taken the Colonists’ cause so much too heart. She had thrown off the yoke of her father’s oppression; why shouldn’t they do the same? While they were living in their father’s houses, as she had been, they were subject to his rule, benevolent or dictatorial. Then they were sold by virtue of their dowry, or the lack thereof, to the man most likely to aid her father in whatever his pursuits were, no matter that the man was ancient or a drunkard or likely to haul off and hit whoever was within striking distance for no particular reason.
Like her father.
Hannah wasn’t about to marry the man her father had chosen for her, although she knew that he expected her to do her duty as his daughter and simply surrender herself to his will. Deferring to her Father was the healthier thing to do, if one was interested in keeping body and soul together and avoiding broken bones and black eyes. She had done that only for her mother’s sake. Momma had made everything all right, while bearing the brunt of her husband’s anger herself to save her children from his wrath.
Despite his love for whiskey and not much else, William Cooper was a successful merchant with an eye on things well above his station. He wanted a title of any sort. He wanted to weasel his way into the landed gentry, into the posh set. And he most certainly wasn’t above using his children to do so. William liked to brag to his friends at the pub and anyone else who would listen that although every other man in the country prayed for sons, he was just as happy that his wife had seen fit to give him daughters for whom he could arrange advantageous marriages. Hannah – as the eldest girl – was the first candidate to be married off to some viscount or baron she had never even met, or anyone else he could wrangle into while holding out the carrot of a tidy dowry.