"Where are you taking me?"

Ben ignored Cinnamon, continuing to row with the flow of his men.

"I said where are you taking me?" Cinnamon raised her voice, kicking Ben in the back as she did.

Ben swirled around, narrowing his eyes at Cinnamon. "Behave or I swear I will toss you overboard with your hands tied!" He had never laid a hand on the opposite sex, but she did not know that. She thought him a barbarian, he might as well play the role.

"You will not cast me out. You need me, otherwise you would have left me in Setauket. Now where are we going?"

Ben turned his back on her and just as she raised her foot to render another blow, Caleb answered her insistent question from behind, "to New London County, where we will arrange an exchange for your release."

"An exchange? A trade for who?"

"That is none of your affair! Now be silent and act like a lady!" Ben hissed over his shoulder. He had never seen any woman misbehave so boldly. He pitied the man who would one day take this willful woman to his side.

She kicked him hard this time. "I am a proper British lady! You are just a backwoods hick!"

On impact, Ben dropped his oar. He bit his lip to keep from groaning out loud. He swirled, hiding the fact that she had hurt him, and grabbed her by the chin. Defiantly, she jerked from his grip and spat, "do not touch me!"

The young major snared her chin tighter this time and warned in a low threatening voice. "If you kick me again, I will punish you severely."

Her cat-shaped eyes grew venomously as she hissed, "you are a brute who preys on innocent women!"

Ben chuckled smugly, caressing the hollow of her cheek with his index finger before releasing her. Caleb, amused by the scene, joined in with mocking laughter. Cinnamon grew silent, puckering her pouty lips in a pout, having no idea what the two found so amusing.

An hour later, the platoon docked in a mist of smoke. The land unearthly silent foretelling something sinister had come to pass.

Ben and Caleb, weapons in hand, slithered through the forest with Cinnamon sandwiched between them.

"Dear God!" Jeffrey, a lanky redhead, whispered as if in a trance. Before them lay a trail of mutilated bodies of an elder man and what seemed to be the remains of two young men. All that remained of their farmhouse and barn was a smoldering pile of rubble. A young dragoon fell to his feet, calling the dead farmer his father.

"The bloody Brits!" Caleb bellowed, twisting his jaw in anger. He had seen more than his share of charred homes these days.

"No!" Cinnamon said, shaking her head with disbelief. "No, you are wrong! My people did not do this! They would never commit such a heinous crime on civilians."

Ben turned on her, reflecting a rage gleaming glare. He took a step toward her, generating her to back up as if suddenly afraid of him. "This is the work of Robert Rogers, a murderous mercenary hired by the crown! He has a list of my men's families and is slaughtering them one by one!"

Cornered to an oak, Cinnamon's denial melted, her pretty eyes blooming with tears. Ben's face softened. He gently reached for her wrists and untied them. She rubbed them while holding his gaze. Through all the horror, Ben managed to find beauty and it lay in Cinnamon's innocent reflection. It was like a ray of sunshine creating a peephole through a midst of dark clouds.

"Shall we bury them, sir?" Jeffery asked, breaking Cinnamon's momentary spell over Ben.

"What? Yes...yes, lay them to rest," Ben ordered, tearing his gaze from the petite enchantress. Sensations birthed from his loins rippled through to the tip of his manhood. He was in the middle of a bloodbath and his thoughts were on a woman; a British one at that. He shook his head. He had been deprived of sex too long.

"Major!" Cinnamon called to him as he turned. "Is it possible these men were armed and threatened Rogers?"

"What you mean is it possible these Patriots resisted tyranny and defended what was theirs? Look around you, woman! You are not in England anymore! These people have bled for this land. They have endured hell and more to farm this country and do you think they should just step aside and allow some crown across the seas its ownership?"

Cinnamon cast her eyes down. "To say so is sedition and the punishment for treason is death!"

"So is the punishment for being a spy!"

At that her fiery nature reared. She captured his arm with anger spilling from her reflection. "I am not a spy and your mutinous country has no authority to charge me so!"

Ben slapped her hands away. "Do you want me to bound your hands again?"

Stomping her foot, "NO!"

He seized both of her wrists and lowered them to her side. "Then keep them to yourself or you will see first hand the authority I bear and what the punishment is for attacking a Continental Officer."

Ben abandoned their dispute to help his dragoons bury the dead. With tears streaming down her face, a palm over her heart, she watched the anguished solider weep over his father's grave.

Notes:

New London County housed Connecticut's Naval War Office.