“Because you’re right; I can’t disappoint Father. Because I know what he wants, and it doesn’t seem such a great deal to give him.” Adam shook his head. “He’s such a generous man, and he’s so often disappointed in people. I really would like to make him happy.”

“Then for God’s sake put on the uniform, play soldiers and pray for peace. Besides,” Starbuck said, deliberately lightening the mood, “I can’t bear the thought of a summer without your company. Can you imagine just me and Ethan as your father’s aides?”

“You don’t like Ethan?” Adam had detected the distaste in Starbuck’s voice and seemed surprised by it.

“He seems not to like me. I took fifty bucks off him in a bet and he hasn’t forgiven me for it.”

“He’s touchy about money,” Adam agreed. “In fact I sometimes wonder if that’s why he wants to marry Anna, but that’s a very unworthy suspicion, isn’t it?”

“Is it?”

“Of course it is.”

Starbuck remembered Belvedere Delaney voicing the same suspicion, but did not mention it. “Why does Anna want to marry Ethan?” he asked instead.

“She just wants to escape,” Adam said. “Can you imagine life in Seven Springs? She sees marriage as her ticket to freedom.” Adam suddenly leaped to his feet and scrambled to pull on his trousers, his haste occasioned by the approach of a small dog cart that was being driven by Anna herself. “She’s here!” Adam warned Starbuck who, like his friend, hurriedly tugged on his pants and shirt and was just pulling on his stockings as Anna reined in. Her cart was escorted by three yapping spaniels that now leaped excitedly at Adam and Starbuck.

Anna, sheltered from the sun by a wide, lace-fringed parasol, stared reproachfully at her brother. “You’re late for dinner, Adam.”

“My Lord, is that the time?” Adam fumbled for his watch among his rumpled clothes. One of the spaniels leaped up and down at him while the other two lapped noisily from the river.

“It doesn’t really matter that you’re late,” Anna said, “because there’s been some trouble at the camp.”

“What trouble?” Starbuck asked.

“Truslow discovered his son-in-law had joined the Legion while he was away. So he hit him!” Anna seemed very shocked at the violence.

“He hit Decker?”

“Is that his name?” Anna asked.

“What happened to Decker’s wife?” Starbuck asked a little too urgently.

“I’ll tell you at dinner,” Anna said. “Now why don’t you finish dressing, Mister Starbuck, then tie your tired horse to the back of the cart and ride home with me. You can hold the parasol and tell me all about the raid. I want to hear everything.”