Chapter 2

Tom and Molly served the meal and then retreated to the kitchen to eat their own dinner. As he cut into Molly's excellent chicken in wine sauce, Matthew said, "Is your mother still in Newport, or has she gone up to Vermont?"

"She's still in Newport, and it looks like she won't be going to Vermont after all."

"Oh? Is she coming back here, then?"

"No, she may be going to Boston instead. The first week she was there, she attended a social evening at the home of Mrs. Matthew Calbraith Perry where she met a very distant cousin on her father's side, Captain Daniel West."

"Your mother's maiden name was West?"

"Yes. She's Dorothea West North. She used to joke that if things had been different, she could have been a point on the compass."

He chuckled. "Tell me about Captain West."

"Daniel West is sixty-five, went to sea at the age of fifteen in 1812 aboard the USS United States, and was in the gunroom when she fought and defeated HMS Macedonian that same year. He's been keeping Mother enthralled with tales of his travels and life aboard ship- carefully expurgated to make them suitable for a lady's ears, I'm sure – ever since they met, and now she's talking about going to Boston, where he has a home near the Navy Yard, for a visit. He's outlived two wives, has four children, and lives with his married daughter when he's not visiting or traveling."

"Well, if she marries him, she really will be a point on the compass – Dorothea North West."

"The same thought occurred to me."

"And does it bother you, the idea of her marrying again?"

"Oh, no. My father's been gone for two years, and Mother really does better when she has a man to - well, to tell her what to do."

"Unlike you, who definitely don't need a man to tell you what to do."

"Well, no; that was what made Daniel Macklin so unattractive – he was always ordering me around. It would have been bad enough if I'd married him, but he tried to do it even when we barely knew each other."

"Speaking of the worthy major, what do you hear from him?"

"Once a week, he writes me a letter telling me how important he is and how lucky I am that he's willing to consider marrying me. At first, I just didn't answer, but last week, I finally just wrote and told him that I would never marry him."

"And do you expect that to penetrate his thick skull?"

"Well, no, but my options were somewhat limited."

"True. But back to your mother and Captain West – has she mentioned bringing him to meet you, or inviting you to Boston to meet him?"

"Not yet. The trip to Boston is supposedly just a tourist visit. He's already taken her aboard the USS Constitution to show her how it and the United States were constructed; my mother now knows more about Joshua Humphreys and naval construction in the late 18th and early 19th centuries than she ever thought possible, she says. Apparently, Captain Daniel was invited to give a lecture to the Naval Academy plebes who live and study aboard the Constitution, telling them what it was like to be a midshipman fifty years ago, and Mother was invited to listen in. She found it fascinating."

"Or maybe it was just Captain West she found fascinating," he said with a smile.

"That's also very possible."

"I'm glad she's happy, Amanda."

"So am I. I love my mother, Matthew, really and truly I do, but when she has too much time on her hands, she … "

"Meddles in your life?"

"Well, yes. Do you know, that's the first time I've admitted that to myself, let alone to someone else."

"I'm just the sort of fellow who invites those sorts of confidences."

"If by that you mean you're rapidly becoming the best friend I have, Matthew, then yes, I agree."

There was a knock on the front door.

"Were you expecting company?" he asked.

"No," she said, and started to get up.

"No, keep your seat. I'll go. If it's somebody selling something, I'll get rid of them."

"I'll go with you. Sometimes I do buy things, especially from freedmen and women who've been put out of work because their former owners went south."

"Very well."

She followed him to the door and waited while he opened it. To her utter surprise, Daniel Macklin stood on her doorstep.

"Daniel?" she exclaimed. "What are you doing here?"

"I came to talk some sense into you, Amanda, only to find this…."

"Don't say it," Matthew growled. "You will watch your language in the presence of the lady, Macklin, do I make myself clear?"

"When did you get promoted, Davis?"

"Doesn't matter; I've got the same oak leaves you do, and I don't have to salute you or call you sir or anything else. Mrs. Bishop made her views very clear in her last letter: she is never going to marry you, so I suggest you go away and leave her alone."

"Amanda, you are making a big mistake," Macklin huffed.

"No, Daniel, the mistake I was kept from making would have been marrying you," she said. "Thank God Matthew met me that day in the depot and asked me to help him."

"You involved her in your sordid schemes?" Macklin accused Matthew, almost sputtering in his outrage.

"Careful, Major, or you'll have an apoplexy," Amanda said. "Go away, don't come back, and don't write any more letters. Matthew, please close the door."

"With pleasure."

Matthew closed the door just a split second before Amanda gave way to a fit of helpless giggles.

"Amanda, you are making a big mistake," she parroted. "Lord have mercy, Matthew, how did I ever put up with that old maid in trousers?"

"You are a very kind person, Amanda, and you don't like to hurt anyone's feelings. Fortunately, I have no such scruples."

"I did all right there at the end, though, didn't I? The bit about the apoplexy?"

"Oh, yes, that was perfect. Well, now that we've disposed of Major Pouter Pigeon, shall we go finish our dinner?"

"Oh, definitely."