Starbuck stared down at his plate. Dinner had been a dish of boiled bacon, dried corn pie and fried potatoes. Washington Faulconer, his two children and Adam had been the only diners, and Truslow’s attack on Robert Decker the only topic of conversation. “Where can the poor girl have gone?” Adam asked.

“Richmond,” his father said instantly. “All the bad girls go to Richmond. She’ll find herself work,” he said, glancing at Anna and making a rueful face, “of a kind.”

Anna blushed, while Starbuck was thinking that Ethan Ridley was also in Richmond. “What happens to Truslow?” he asked instead.

“Nothing. He’s already full of remorse. I put him in the guard tent and threatened him with ten kinds of hell.” In fact Major Pelham had arrested Truslow and done all the threatening, but Faulconer did not think the distinction important. The Colonel lit a cigar. “Now Truslow’s insisting that Decker join his company and I suppose I’d better let him. It seems the boy’s got relatives in the company. Can’t you keep those dogs quiet, Anna?”

“No, Father.” She dropped another scrap of gravy-soaked bread into the noisy free-for-all. “And speaking of jumping over broomsticks,” she said, “you all missed Pecker’s wedding.”

“That was a very proper wedding, surely?” her brother said sternly.

“Of course it was. Moss officiated very damply and Priscilla looked almost pretty.” Anna smiled. “Uncle Pecker glowered at us all, it poured with rain and Mother sent six bottles of wine as a present.”

“Our best wine,” Washington Faulconer said stonily.

“How would Mother have known?” Anna asked innocently.

“She knew,” Faulconer said.

“And the schoolchildren sang a very feeble song,” Anna went on. “When I get married, Father, I do not want the Tompkinson twins singing for me. Is that very ungrateful?”

“You’ll get married in St. Paul’s, Richmond,” her father said, “with the Reverend Peterkin officiating.”

“In September,” Anna insisted. “I’ve talked with Mama, and she agrees. But only if we have your blessing, Papa, of course.”

“September?” Washington Faulconer shrugged, as though he did not much mind when the wedding took place. “Why not?”

“Why September?” Adam asked.

“Because the war will be over by then,” Anna declared, “and if we leave it later then there’ll be bad weather for the Atlantic crossing, and Mother says we need to be in Paris by October at the latest. We’ll have a winter in Paris, then go to the German spas in the spring. Mama says you might like to come, Adam?”

“Me?” Adam seemed surprised at the invitation.

“To keep Ethan company while Mama and I take the waters. And to be Mama’s escort, of course.”

“You can go in uniform, Adam.” Washington Faulconer clearly did not resent being left out of the family expedition. “Your mother would like that. Full-dress uniform with saber, sash and medals, eh? Show the Europeans how a southern soldier looks?”