Chapter 9

Washington left by carriage to accompany Jefferson and Henry to Greene's headquarters. Julie asked to go with them much to Elizabeth's relief.

After their departure, Elizabeth heard a scuffle in the breezeway. She opened the door to find the baker and the butcher berating Hannah. They had her cornered. She was screaming, "But I do not have the money. Captain Gibbs forgot to give it to me this morning!"

"You are lying slave!" the butcher yelled. "I see the remains of a feast here. What is all of this you have served? We have an agreement with Gibbs to provide all of the bread and meat at headquarters!"

Billy rushed in and tried to protect Hannah, but the men threw the tall black violently to the ground.

They regarded Elizabeth with curious eyes. She shook her head. They turned from Hannah and approached her. "And you little miss maid that became a princess over night, methinks you have our money in your petticoats," the butcher growled. The two men spoke slyly to each other with their eyes and chuckled. "Shall we find out?" the baker asked.

Elizabeth felt two hands on her shoulders and warmth behind her. The threatening men's expressions suddenly changed from fierce to humble. They removed their hats and bowed their heads. "We only came for our money young master. We are due."

"I will pay you your last payment," Lafayette said from behind Elizabeth, "but you will be held in custody under guard until morning. General Washington will know of your actions this evening. I dare say it will be the end of your service here."

The men looked up aghast. "But, kind sir, please reconsider. We have families."

"What do you know of families? You have been threatening someone's niece here, and someone's mother in there."

The butcher scowled. Lafayette turned and yelled, "Hamilton, have you cash to pay these men?"

"Yes, sir," Hamilton called out from the front room.

"Please, do so," Lafayette called back.

A guard rushed into the breezeway.

"Guard, stay here. After these men receive their pay, confine them under lock and key for the evening. Do not allow them to speak to anyone or leave your sight."

"Yes, sir, General."

The baker and butcher looked at each other bewildered.

"Come, Elizabeth," Lafayette said, "I believe you will be more comfortable inside."

"Yes, sir." Elizabeth felt relief that she had not tried to question those two men earlier, but if either one was the suspected assassin, they would surely be compelled to act sooner than later after being dismissed by General Lafayette.

She turned back into the house. Lafayette followed, shutting and barring the door behind him. "I am very sorry, Elizabeth. I should not have been so distracted and allowed that to happen. Sometimes the locals can be rather rough in character."

"I understand, sir. I think I will go upstairs and rest a bit. I'm feeling very tired."

"Of course."

Elizabeth hurried upstairs.

She opened Julie's small toiletry bag and found no packets of letters! She put her hand inside and moved her brush and small makeup bottles about but found nothing. She rummaged through the dresser drawers, looked under the bed, and under Julie's pillow. Nothing. Elizabeth panicked. What if Julie has passed those papers to an informant in camp? What if her accomplice is the suspected servant turned assassin? The direction the young girl's thoughts took terrified her. She hurried out and headed to the carriage house to tell her friends what she knew.

Lafayette dared not leave headquarters with Washington unhappy with him and two drunken aides in the front room. He sat down at the commander's desk and pulled out a map of the vicinity to ponder where the farmers he visited hid their wagons and teams. The Schuylkill's snaky path across the page drew his attention. A thought occurred to him that even if they had the wagons and teams they could not cross the frozen river. He wondered how many of the Army's provisions might be sitting at the fords on the north bank. He needed Boggs' help. It galled him that Greene was tying everyone up with paperwork when the very provisions they needed were probably being hustled away by the British right under their noses.

The young man felt a headache coming on from the wine he had consumed at dinner. He rubbed his brow. A strange noise arrested his thoughts. He listened. A bump nearby to his left drew his attention to the hall outside. He arose and walked towards the opened door just in time to see a part of the floor under the stair move. A trap door!

Lafayette pulled his sword and pried up the hidden door. He heard the scuffle of someone moving about in the cellar below. "Hamilton, Laurens, quick!" The two aides were beside him in seconds.

"Someone is down there."

Hamilton said, "The cellar doors outside."

Laurens jumped to the back door and unbarred it but found it chained and locked from without. "Damn!" he exclaimed as he shook the door.

The three young men rushed out the side door to the breezeway and out to the back yard. The cellar doors were wide open but upon descending the steep steps, they found no life but the faint rustle of scurrying rodents.

Lafayette called for the guard that was patrolling the exterior. "Did you see anyone exit this hatch?"

"Why no, sir. I-I see the servants coming and going from there so often though, sir, I may have missed…with the dinner and all, several have been down there today taking loads of baskets"

"Of course, it's all right. Return to your duties."

"Aye, sir." The guard saluted and returned to the perimeter of the yard.

Lafayette turned to Hamilton. "Alexander, have that trap door nailed shut."

"Aye, sir." The young colonels was sobered by the sudden awareness that a stalker may have been entering the house from the cellar. The three men looked at one another, all thinking the same.

Elizabeth found Isak, Henry and Jeremy at the carriage house. "Thank God you are all here," she said out of breath.

"Elizabeth? What are you--" Jeremy asked.

"It's very important, Jeremy, listen."

The three men stood quiet and turned attentive eyes upon the panting young maiden.

"Julie Keating is a loyalist spy."

Jeremy and Henry's eyes flared. They gaped at each other then at Isak who looked askance.

"What makes you say that, Elizabeth?" Jeremy asked.

"I saw her late last night, after everyone had gone to bed, sitting at General Washington's desk. She was rifling through papers, searching for something and then copying and tracing maps."

"My God!" Jeremy exclaimed.

"We must tell someone," Isak said.

"Yes, but whom?" Jeremy asked.

"Lafayette?" Henry asked.

Jeremy took a deep breath. "I suppose that would be best."

"The general intervened on my and Hannah's behalf just now when the butcher and baker were angry at not having been paid. He had the guards take them to a holding place."

"Yes," Jeremy said. "We have a man that can potentially identify which servant at headquarters has a grudge against Washington for the death of his son. I'm sure the general just used that incident to safely sequester those men."

"Elizabeth," Jeremy said, "return to headquarters and tell Lafayette we need to talk to him right away."

"Of course, Jeremy. Will you wait here?"

"Aye. Hurry."

Elizabeth ran out of the stable and back to the house and discovered Lafayette was not present. She stopped at the door to the front room where the aides appeared busy with reports and letters. "Does anyone know where General Lafayette went?" she asked mindful of her rapid breath.

The men looked up. Hamilton said, "No, Miss. He did not tell us he was leaving. I'm sorry. Is something wrong?"

"No, Colonel. I am sorry to have bothered you."

"It is no bother, Miss. Just let us know if we can help you in any way."

Elizabeth ran out the front door into the darkening twilight and back to the carriage house.

She found her friends anxiously awaiting her arrival. "The general has left headquarters. No one knows where he went."

"Probably to his cabin," Jeremy said. "There are still the reports that Boggs is working on. Come Elizabeth, I hate to take you up there but you must go with us so you can tell the general what you have seen."

The young friends hurried to Lafayette's cabin. Jeremy knocked on the door. "General, it is Jeremy Larkin and friends. May we enter, sir?"

"Of course, Jeremy," the familiar French voice answered.

Jeremy opened the door into the dark cabin. His friends followed him inside. The general was sitting at his camp table with quill pen in hand, signing documents. Sergeant Boggs stood beside him. Lafayette returned his pen to its inkwell. "I was about to send out a search party for you, Jeremy. The sergeant didn't know where you were."

Jeremy smiled at his friends. "It seems no one at headquarters knew where you were…sir."

Lafayette appeared perplexed and then grinned. "Oui. I see your point. Maybe I should not reprimand you after all."

Boggs chuckled.

"I have two of the servants held under guard," Lafayette said. "I think it is imperative that they either be identified or eliminated."

"Aye, sir. I have something important I think you need to hear," Jeremy said.

The general turned inquisitive eyes upon the young captain.

"Sir," Jeremy said, "Elizabeth has brought us some troubling information."

Lafayette gazed at Elizabeth and smiled.

"Sir, she saw Mrs. Keating in General Washington's office last night, at his desk, copying letters and tracing maps."

The general frowned. "Are you sure about what she was doing, Elizabeth?"

"That's what it appeared to be, sir."

"Could she not have been just writing personal letters?" the general asked.

"I don't think she would have been searching through his papers in his desk if that were the case, sir."

"She could have been looking for paper. There isn't much of it around."

"Sir," Jeremy said, "if she was copying Washington's papers, that would mean she was a loyalist spy at headquarters with free reign to copy whatever she wanted, to overhear Washington's meetings with his staff--"

"Jeremy, you are jumping to a very serious accusation against a woman that Washington considers part of his family."

"I realize that, sir. I had no reason before now to question her loyalty, but what she was doing is serious." Jeremy suddenly felt he had just lied. His own first instincts about the woman and the gossip relayed to him by Sergeant McDonald had been brewing in his mind.

Lafayette sighed and looked at Boggs as if for advice but the older man remained expressionless. The general stood and placed his hands behind his back and paced the cabin from one end to the other then stopped at the fireplace. "I cannot make such an accusation to General Washington without hard evidence. I don't mean that I doubt you Elizabeth. I'm sure you are simply relaying what you thought you saw."

"I understand, sir," Elizabeth said.

"General?" Jeremy asked perplexed.

Lafayette shook his dark head. "No, Jeremy. I wish you to drop your investigation of Mrs. Keating. That is not your purpose here. She will not be here much longer--"

"Aye. She is going to leave with every bit of Washington's correspondence and strategic maps hidden in her petticoats!"

"Captain that is enough!" Lafayette said firmly with an unblinking stare. The general pulled his greatcoat and hat off the peg near the door. "I must return to headquarters. Sergeant, I will have to finish signing these papers there. Please bring them later."

"Aye, sir," Boggs said.

"Now, the matter of Slake and the servants," the general said turning at the door. "The butcher and the baker are being held for Slake's inspection. Jeremy accompany Sergeant Boggs and take Slake to view them. I need to know immediately if neither of those men are the suspect you seek. I had a discomforting encounter with someone who was hiding in the cellar a while ago."

Boggs face darkened with concern. "Sir?"

"Calm yourself, Boggs. I did not feel threatened, but I discovered a trap door that leads from the house to the cellar. Someone could have been coming and going using that means of entry, unseen by the guards at night."

"Did you see anyone?" Jeremy asked.

"No. Just a shadow and the sound of footsteps and the creak of wood. The aides and I hurried out to catch him escaping via the hatch behind the house, but we only found the doors wide open and no sign of a human being."

"Sir, were you alone at headquarters?" Boggs said.

"No, the aides were in the front room. The guard that was patrolling the exterior saw nothing. Needless to say, it now has me quite unnerved for General Washington's safety that anyone could have entered the house that way. I had seen a shadow on the stairs last night but had searched the house and found nothing and felt the house secure. Whatever I saw could have escaped via that trap door in the floor."

Lafayette opened the cabin door to darkness. "I must return to headquarters. I have the responsibility of acting as major general of the day the rest of the week and mustn't neglect my duty. Please take Slake to see those men and notify me at once of what you discover--and please stay out of trouble. I have enough on my hands without thinking about you meddling where you shouldn't." He went out the door and closed it behind him.

Everyone left in the cabin stood in silence for a long moment.

"Well isn't this a pickle," Henry said. "A loyalist spy at headquarters free to do as she pleases and a ghost in the cellar."

"He's in love with her," Jeremy said.

"What?" Boggs asked with a chuckle.

"That could be the only explanation for what we just heard," the captain replied.

"Jeremy, no," Elizabeth said. "You are drawing the wrong conclusion. He is just concerned for General Washington and the distress this news would cause him."

"Perhaps, but I would expect him to behave different if that were the case."

"From what I have seen and heard," Elizabeth said, "it is Mrs. Keating that is in love, not General Lafayette."

"What do you mean?" Jeremy asked.

"Captain," Boggs said, "you need to drop it or you risk angering General Lafayette. He could send you back to Chester without further ado."

"Sergeant, would you just drop something like this and allow the British to gain what information Mrs. Keating has copied?" Jeremy asked.

The sergeant sighed. "It would help to have hard evidence that she was copying Washington's papers. That is what I heard the general say. He wasn't really saying he didn't believe it."

Jeremy's brow wrinkled.

"The sergeant's right, Jeremy," Henry said. "That's what I heard as well. A subtle disclosure of his true feelings."

Jeremy turned to Elizabeth. "Do you think you could find and snatch one of the papers that Mrs. Keating took from Washington's office? One that she traced or copied in her hand?"

"I tried to find them before I came to see you but they were gone from the bag she had placed them in. I will keep an eye out for them, but if I lose too much sleep to do my job of accompanying and entertaining the lady by day I might earn a brisk reprimand from the commander just like Lafayette received at dinner."

"Oh, God," Jeremy's green eyes pleaded with Boggs. "Sergeant, General Lafayette is disturbed about something and I doubt it is just about Washington yelling at him. I could see it in his eyes when we were interrogating Slake--"

"I saw it too, last night at supper, Jeremy," Elizabeth said. "He is deeply troubled."

The young people pinned concerned stares upon Boggs.

The older man rolled his eyes to the ceiling and sighed. "It is not my place to speak with Lafayette or Washington or anyone else about that woman."

"Well, who the hell's business is it to protect them?" Jeremy yelled and then dropped his head dismayed with his show of anger. "I'm sorry, Sergeant. That was inappropriate. Come Elizabeth, Isak will walk you back to headquarters. You will be missed."

"I can see the benefit of Elizabeth obtaining the proof," the sergeant said, "but you heard the general say he did not want you pursuing Mrs. Keating. You and Henry and Isak best leave that alone and stick to your mission."

"I intend to show Lafayette whatever paper Elizabeth finds," Jeremy said, "rather he wants to look at it or not. There is more at stake here, than my friendship with General Lafayette or General Washington's feelings or that lady's honor."

Sergeant Boggs frowned at the young captain. "You better be absolutely sure, lad, before you broach that subject again. General Lafayette is very slow to anger but he can be quite voracious when cornered."

"Aye, Sergeant. Thank you for the warning. Now, Elizabeth, you and Isak return to headquarters."

"Yes, Jeremy," Elizabeth said. "Do be careful."

"I say the same to you. Do not try to confront Mrs. Keating, or risk being suspected by the remaining servants of your true purpose. If you feel frightened at all you go to Isak at the stables."

"Of course, Jeremy."

A mad mind contemplated a mad act as the house occupants scattered, preoccupied with their various affairs. He had nearly been caught. It thrilled his vengeful heart. He had escaped unseen, only to walk calmly in the front door and make his way to the bedchambers upstairs. No one was there to notice.

He knew now exactly how he would do it. A knife to the throat, silent, unnoticed in the night. It would leave a bloody mess for everyone to see in the morning. The faces of every man and woman he knew flashed in his mind. He liked to imagine their reaction as they learned of his deed. It would shock the world on both sides of the Atlantic and bring many to their knees in mourning.

The intruder walked into the bedchamber and dropped to his hands and knees then rolled over on his back and slid under the bed. A perfect fit he thought. He pulled his knife and laid it upon his chest. Now he only had to wait. He had waited almost a month, what was a few more hours?

Elizabeth and Julie went to bed at the same time. Elizabeth was nervous and couldn't sleep. She was still awake when General Washington returned from Greene's headquarters.

An hour after the general returned, Julie arose and left the room. Elizabeth suspected she was headed downstairs to copy more papers. She quickly arose, put on her slippers and grabbed her shawl. She lit a candle in a pewter holder and hurried out only to find Julie standing at Lafayette's door. Her wavy copper hair was down. It sparkled in the candlelight. She was wearing only her shift.

"Julie, is something wrong?" Elizabeth asked.

"No. Why are you up? Did I wake you?"

"I have a bit of a stomach ache. I'm afraid the generous dinner was more than I normally eat. I was going to go to the kitchen and heat some milk."

"I see. Be careful of the guards. Don't let them shoot you."

"Of course." As Elizabeth went to the stair, Julie opened the general's door and slipped inside. Elizabeth was frightened that she might mean harm to the Frenchman but she clearly had no weapons. The youthful girl hovered on the landing trying to decide whether to raise an alarm or let it pass. What if he and she were--? Elizabeth shivered and decided to go to General Washington's desk and see what letters Julie may have copied.

Lafayette went to bed early that night, but he lay awake for hours. Most of the time going to bed meant lying in the dark in a fatigued trance that came close to sleep but usually fell short. He had trouble stopping the voice in his brain, which was the only French he heard for great stretches of time.

The moon shown brightly through the open shutters leaving a pattern of small stark blue panes on the bare wood plank floor. He had managed to get his coat, waistcoat and shirt off, but once he had pulled off his tall boots, he fell back on the bed. His wounded leg throbbed. His stomach growled which made him chuckle. He, the Marquis de Lafayette, was hungry. That would amuse his friends back in Paris.

Outside his closed door, General Washington climbed the stairs and closed the door on his bedroom. Lafayette sighed. How was he to explain to his commander his discomfort over Julie's advances? Why this sudden conviction on the part of Captain Larkin that she was a Loyalist spy? Mon Dieu! She is just a bored spoilt fille coquette. Thoughts of his hungry cold men agitated his mind. He worried about Gates, Conway and Mifflin and their traitorous pack against his beloved adopted father. It sickened him still that he had been so easily swayed by the treacherous Conway's words of praise. The young general found he was gripping his pillow with closed fists. He rolled over on his side, and pulled the covers up over his lean body to ward off the constant chill, as the small room had no fireplace. Hours later he fell into a troubled sleep and dreamt his wife, Adrienne, had come to visit him. She was scolding him once again for having left without saying good-bye.

"Gilbert," she said.

"Oui, ma chérie? I am here."

"Gilbert, wake up."

Adrienne didn't speak English. He opened his eyes and felt movement at his side. A soft warm breath brushed his shoulder. The bed moved under him. Someone was in the dark room with him and it could not be his wife. He panicked until a familiar voice at his ear said, "Are you going to wake up or do I have to pour that pitcher of water on your head?"

"Julie?" The young man rolled on his back and found Julie Keating lying by his side breathing on him. "What are you doing here? Is something wrong?"

"No, mon chéri, I just wanted to pay you a visit. You seemed quite distracted at dinner. I suppose being berated by your dear adopted father in front of those Virginians was a bit….distressing, non?

The bed was too small for the two of them but she fit snuggly between the wall and his side. There was no way to move and avoid her touch. "What do you want?" Lafayette asked.

She sighed softly. "What does any woman want that sneaks into your bed?"

"This is usually where I call for the guards to escort her out."

"Oh, Gilbert, don't be childish. You are a man after all, isn't it time you acted like one?"

"Mrs. Keating, return to your room."

"Hmm….such a tone to use with a lady. That sounded like an order."

"It was."

As the general's eyes grew accustomed to the moonlit room he realized Julie was not clothed. She was barely covered by the bed cloth. It unnerved him that she would force herself on him. He was angry, but he admired her small curved form gently draped in the moonlight; her softness was enticing. She smelled of lavender. He wanted her embrace desperately--to feel the intimacy of a lover. Thoughts of his wife, his commander and Elizabeth so near would not leave his mind. "I don't mean to hurt your feelings, Julie. You are a beautiful woman, but this is not the place or the time."

Julie turned her head abruptly to look at him. The moonlight revealed her beauty. No man could turn her down, so why was he doing so? What is wrong with me?

He heard her sigh.

"Then name the place and time, darling. I will go anywhere with you. An abandoned barn, a hay field--my mansion." She sobbed.

"I meant to say, I am not the man."

Julie sat up and looked down at him; her satin hair brushed his face. "No, of course not, you are a mere boy."

Her words stung him. His anger returned. "Why are you doing this?"

"Doing what? Throwing myself at you? I thought I was making it easy for you, Gilbert. I wanted to give you a gift that I thought you of all the men in this camp, wanted and deserved. I saw a hint of lust in your eyes the first night I was here in this room with you. You can not deny that."

Lafayette sighed. "I don't feel that way towards you. I'm sorry--"

"Ohhhh….I suppose you prefer buxom women like Caty Green?"

"Non. I haven't even met her. I prefer my wife. I love my wife."

"You are such a boy. What does sex have to do with love? Since when does a French nobleman concern himself with love when lust will do? One would think you would enjoy an older woman, an experienced woman, seeing how you have only done it with a little girl."

"Julie that is enough. Return to your room at once."

"No. What are you going to do about it? Yell for papa?"

"Be quiet, you will wake--"

Julie giggled. "Elizabeth saw me come in here."

"Mon Dieu--"

"Don't worry. She is a good little confidante. She won't tell."

The Frenchman bolted up into a sitting position.

"Don't be angry, darling, please." Her warm hand caressed his bare back and move up to the nape of his neck. "You are a beautiful young man, Gilbert." She chuckled. "It was very dangerous for our dear papa Washington to put us together. I simply can't resist you. You know I live the life of a recluse. I might as well be in a convent."

"I am ready to put you in one," he growled.

Julie chuckled softly. "You're anger is only enticing me the more. Lay back and relax. Let me love you, Gilbert. You don't have to do anything you don't want to do. All I ask is that you hold me--really that is all I want…"

"I don't believe that."

She gently embraced him--the bed cloth fell away. He could feel her warm body; her soft breath upon him made his blood rise. She nuzzled his cheek, and kissed his lips as her hands moved over his taut body. "Relax, Gilbert, I don't bite. Will you not even spare me an embrace? A brotherly kiss?" She snickered.

For a moment as his heartbeat quickened, his breathing grew rapid, he ached to give in to this woman's seduction but he couldn't with Elizabeth on the other side of the wall. It bothered him that his body was reacting to her. He grabbed her small wrist as her hand slipped down his ribs.

She cried out in pain.

"Leave this room, now," he demanded quietly but firmly.

Julie jerked her hand away from his grasp. "All right," she said tearfully, "Please don't be angry." She dropped her head--her body shook with her sobs. "I am deceiving you, but what other option does a woman have? I am desperate for children…"

Lafayette gasped. "You want me to be a stud for the Keating family?"

"Rutherford would be overjoyed. He would accept the blessed child as his own. He so desperately wants a son. Must you be so cruel and selfish? You will have many children. Why deny me this small present? I promise you it will be nothing but pleasurable and you will have no obligation whatsoever."

Lafayette was appalled at this revelation. He dared not ask if this was Washington's idea. He really didn't want to know. Then he thought of Wayne. "Is that why you slept with General Wayne? Did you dump him when no child was produced?"

Julie caught her breath. "That is none of your affair," she hissed. "Don't you know? But of course, your youth blinds you. Poor Anthony's wife is going insane. She won't let him near her. He has watched her slow demise and transformation into a demented stranger. Yet he still cares for her. It is very painful for him to spend time in his own home."

He had not heard any of that. "I was not aware--he never speaks of his wife."

"We met and fed each other's need for intimacy--relief from the oppressive loneliness. What do you expect of me? My life is miserable. I have money, but I cannot get my hands on it. I thought maybe, if you did love me--and our child--you might help me with that. You could buy the land and free me from General Washington's control. You of all people know how controlling he can be. The child would inherit it all. He would need nothing from you."

The general was stunned. His head reeled at each revelation of Julie's. She had contrived her scheme even before she was invited to headquarters. He remembered the details she knew about his family and felt a frightful chill.

"You need a male heir to remain in control of your fortune," he said. "Of course, I suppose I should have guessed what might be driving your appetite for me. Does General Washington know of your plans in regards to me?" the young man murmured.

Julie hesitated. She stroked his hair. "I think he was hoping we could make some arrangement. It is common here in America. Is it not the same in France?"

Lafayette dropped his head, dejected. He could not do this thing. Maybe he was still a boy. It scared him to imagine what else this woman might have in mind. A mistress was not to be a burden on a man or his family and this woman promised nothing but a huge scandal--children--a control over him that would color everything he did. It would destroy his family.

She was forcing him to disappoint the man he held most dear in the world and he hated her for it.

Yet, his young heart heard her words and ached for her.

"Julie, there is a guard standing right below that window. One word to him and he will escort you from this room as you are. Is that what you want?"

"You wouldn't dare?" she whined.

The general remained silent.

"I should have known you were not different," she said, her breath hot against his cheek. "You are just an arrogant pompous…fiend like all the rest. A good woman should just suffer her whole life for the injustice made by a man in deciding her fate. Isn't that right, Marquis? Of course, I understand, you shouldn't be sullied by a real woman. Am I below your class because I'm merely an American? a colonial? or is it because I'm the daughter of a despised land speculator?" She slapped her hand to her forehead. "Oh, yes, of course, it must be because my money-hungry husband doesn't have sheep on his pastures."

Her mocking tongue bit him like a rabid dog. His anger turned to sorrow then shame as tears flowed down his cold cheeks. Her feelings were hurt. She felt rejected instead of understanding his position. Stupid selfish silly Gilbert you are a failure at everything! The anticipated angry reprisal of his commander he translated into his father-in-law's caustic words of rejection.

She climbed over him and out of the small bed, picking up her shift that was lying on the floor. She stood facing him to give him a full view of what he was rejecting--a perfect female form rendered in shades of cold blue by the moonlight. It brought to his mind the statues in the gardens at Versailles. He turned his head.

"Fine," she sobbed. She angrily pulled the shift over her head and was soon out the door, slamming it behind her.

He winced and dropped his head into his trembling hands.

Elizabeth deplored her unlucky timing. A door slammed just as she was tiptoeing up the stairs. This time, Lady Julie didn't notice her as she was stomping into their room scantily clad. After she passed, Elizabeth turned back and returned to the hall below. She stepped into Washington's office, closed the door and slumped dumbfounded into a chair. She had seen and heard far more than she had wanted and it frightened her. Mrs. Keating was a loyalist spy. That wasn't what had her shaking, though. She was scared for General Lafayette. What was she doing to him? She couldn't tell anyone about that--or could she?

Elizabeth took a deep breath. She had to think about her mission first. She had to get her hands on those papers Julie took with her from the office. As she struggled to get a grip on her nerves, she heard boots tramping down the stairs. She held her breath until the front door opened and closed. Elizabeth arose and lay on the red divan. She curled up on her side and pulled the down coverlet over her. She would try to sleep for a while.