“Are you in school?”

Mick laughed. “What do you think?”

“Do you have a job?”

The boy shrugged. “Sometimes.”

“Let’s see what you can do.” He shoved the boy toward the engine pulling the hayride, calling out, “Put this one to work on the tender.” Then he turned back to me with a shy smile. I wondered if he was remembering our kiss from the night before the way I was. “Are you enjoying yourself, Verity?”

“I’m not sure ‘enjoying’ is the right word. But it appears you were right. The British are staying in the fort and leaving us alone.”

“Of course I was right.” He raised an eyebrow. “I can’t believe you doubted me.”

“I won’t do it again,” I promised.

“It’s time you had some fun, too,” he said, and before I realized what was happening, he’d caught me around the waist and boosted me up into the hay wagon, then he jumped on board and sat next to me with his arm around my shoulders. I leaned against him and laughed when one of the boys threw a handful of hay at him. Then I yelped when I got a faceful of hay, and it was Alec’s turn to laugh. To get him back for laughing, I pushed him into the hay, but he pulled me with him, so I fell face-to-face on top of him. Suddenly, we weren’t laughing anymore. I wasn’t sure who started the kiss, but I pulled back hastily when the boys’ catcalls reminded me where I was.

With the steam engine so close by, the shouts of the children, and the sound of all the other machines and the calliope music, I didn’t notice the drumbeats at first. Eventually, I became aware of a steady rhythm slowly growing louder and louder. I turned to see that the gates of the fort had opened, and rank upon rank of red-coated soldiers were coming out, heading straight into the park, their weapons resting against their shoulders.

“On second thought, I might not be so sure of your infallibility,” I said, tugging Alec’s sleeve.

Alec turned to see the soldiers and went pale beneath the layer of soot and dust on his face. He jumped off the hay wagon and reached up to help me down. “Go,” he said, giving me a slight shove. “Make sure everyone else knows.”

I ran to where Lizzie was dancing in a circle with a group of girls. Behind me, I heard the hayride’s engine stop as Alec shouted to the other men to help him get Bessie stoked up and ready to go. “Lizzie!” I called out as I ran, but she’d already noticed the soldiers.

“This doesn’t mean anything,” she said when I was close enough to speak. “We should continue what we’re doing. We have a right to be here.”