"Oh Lord, not you." Constance glared at the fidgeting little man. Her eyes were hard and piercing. Fife dared to meet her gaze, then shrank away under the characteristic Tavington rage.

"Constance, I—"

"Miss Tavington!"

"Miss Tavington, I just want to say that I was wrong to look at you while you were bathing. I can't believe that I did it."

"Doesn't surprise me in the least," she huffed matter-of-factly. "You're almost as bad as Wilkins."

He waved his hands, shaking his head. "No, no, no—I'm actually a pretty decent man, Miss Tavington." He smiled a little recklessly and shrugged. "What I did is not characteristic of me, you see."

"Oh, yeah, yeah. I'll pretend to believe that," she snarled. "You had me going for a while, Lieutenant Fife. I thought you may have had a shred of decency in you, however, last night's incidents have proved otherwise. And the fact that you would turn me in to my brother like that with absolutely no concern of the consequences I would suffer seriously upsets me and diminishes any affection I may have felt for you, on terms of friendship or in a romantic sense."

Fife was confused. "Had you going? Affection." He covered his face with his hands and slid them down his face, ending with gnawing on his fingertips in anxiety. "Gaaaaaaawd!"

She pursed her lips and snorted.

"B-b-but, you have the captain! How could you—oh no!"

"Guess you'll never know now, will you?" she said with saccharine sincerity.

He mumbled mournfully into his palm as he stared at her, completely lovelorn. Finally, he looked back to her with a glimmer of the previous mischievous spark in his eye. So you want to play THAT game, eh, lovey? "Miss Tavington, may I comment to you in complete confidence and sincerity?"

"I don't have much of a choice—you'll tell me eventually."

"Madam, the moon illuminates those fine, pale breasts of your magnificently." He darted forward and stole a kiss. "Che gusto*!" Tobias cried before dashing off, chuckling heartily.

Constance's jaw dropped in horror, praying no one had seen that. She put a hand in astonishment to her chest, and for some odd reason, felt her heart fluttering.

---

William was sullen, even more so than usual. He would not dare follow through with today's plan if he had not sunk into desperation. Too much stress was riding on his shoulders. But that was not on his mind at the moment. His little sister pervaded his thoughts. What was he going to do with her? Two men already knew about her masquerade, and now she had returned to play soldier again. What to assign her today to keep her out of the fighting?

A good load of paper work needs to be done. And I have some laundry, too. Hmm.

She definitely would not settle for that. He would be lucky to escape the wrath of the colonists and his little sister that day.

I'll keep her with Wilkins' group. It's safer.

---

I cannot believe it! He's actually allowing me to come along! Constance was peculiarly happy about being included in today's mission. It definitely beat sitting around camp.

The colonel cantered along at the head of the column, stone faced. Bordon and Wilkins followed close behind, the former looking rather nervous. Wilkins was openly relieved. His wife had dutifully chased after them, bawling, as they rode away. She waved after her husband and warned him severely to stay away from the village women.

Tobias Fife was pleased as pie with himself, and so being endangered Constance's secret. He rode beside her, batting his eyelashes and blowing lusty kisses to her. She wished to strangle him, but instead remained calm and restrained, every inch as dignified as her brother. That was, until the lieutenant muttered something to her in a low and seductive tone. She became flustered and refused to look over at him.

Bordon rode back. "Joseph Carleton, the colonel wishes to have a word with you."

She nodded and loped up the front with the captain. William turned to her.

"Constance, you are going to stay in the village with Wilkins today. I do not want you to follow me when I leave. Please do not protest, for this is the safer way."

She, of course, opened her mouth to contest. His eye narrowed on her, ending the argument right there. Constance snorted and fell back in to place.

Soon, they rode into a small village. A mass of British soldiers waited there, their coats a blaring contrast to the moody grey sky above. Wilkins gasped and became more at ill ease than Captain Bordon. He shook his head and held back by a gnarled old tree.

"Captain Wilkins!" Tavington called.

Reluctantly, Wilkins returned to his place. There was great fear on his face.

Perhaps Constance was fortunate that she was short and toward the back of the group. She could not see what was going on and, therefore, found it entirely appropriate to mock Lieutenant Fife. Little did she know that her brother had herded all the villagers into the church and had the doors locked. Constance was too busy making a face at her companion.

Will did not want to do it, but hey, Machiavelli said the end justified the means. Good, because Lord Cornwallis had definitely been sardonic as of late, and just all aroundMachiavellian. Besides that, there was a whole ego thing at stake—Tavington most definitely would not stand to be bested by some slack-jawed yokel.

Bunny's going to Hell. Bunny's going to Hell. Bunny's going to Hell. Constance's jab from a few days prior returned to him now. The colonel could not stand to light the church himself and, so, gave that task up to Captain Wilkins before riding away with a few others.

The smell of smoke and muffled screams rose Constance's suspicions, and she wanted to ride off after her brother. However, as he had not been the friendliest of people recently, she quickly put pursuit out of thought.

Tobias was in mid dirty limerick when the stench hit. An epithet that would have made even Wilkins blush tore from Constance's throat as she wheezed and choked.

"What is that?" she cried, eyes watering. From her weskit she pulled a perfumed handkerchief and covered her nose with it. Fife shook his head, nauseous.

"That's people, girl. People burning."

*Che gusto- "what a delicious taste" in Italian, or something along those lines.

Next chapter: Constance makes due of her promise.