“Will you miss me?” he whispered.

“Yes,” I said, staring right into his eyes. “I will.”

“It pleases me to know that.” He smiled and traced a finger down my neck, toying with the chain that held my pocket watch. Fear washed over me—the code sheet was inside—followed by embarrassment as I began to feel like some sort of display. “There’s another thing I have to tell you. I have asked Dr. Holdridge for permission to carry on a private correspondence with you while I am away. He has assented.”

“That’s wonderful.”

“Yes. It is.”

I had nothing more to add. A private correspondence was a formal step forward for us—it would almost certainly lead to him proposing to me. Then to marriage. Which I wanted. Which would give me everything I could ever want.

I picked up my fork and pushed a piece of chocolate around my plate.

My hand was shaking.

I set the fork down.

The conversation had turned to the fine meal we’d enjoyed. Quantities of roasted meats and vegetables had been cleared away and replaced by platters heaped with jellies, syllabub cakes, and sweetmeats.

“What an exquisite table,” Liesje said. “The way my servants talk, New York is always on the verge of starvation. They make it sound as if every last one of our victualing ships succumbs to rebel privateers. I imagine them like a pack of wolves, lying in wait.”

Duncan smiled. “Take heart, Mrs. Devoor. We’ll not starve. We have the overwhelming advantage at sea. Our prisons are filled with your wolves, as a matter of fact. We’ve captured so many, we hardly know where to put them.”

I thought of the prison ships in Wallabout Bay and the men who were slowly dying on them. How could he sound so callous?

“That is a shame, Lieutenant,” Asa said. “Would that there were prisons enough to lock them all away. You would make my life much easier.”

“Yes, upright merchants such as yourself have suffered greatly at the hands of Yankee privateers,” Duncan said. “Especially those who’ve turned a quick coin and have no true wealth with which to weather hard times. I find it most unfortunate when bounty falls to low men who have no idea how to manage it. One sees them peacocking in velvet and silk today and dining on bread and butter tomorrow.”

I tensed. Asa wore a stunning blue velvet court coat embroidered with silk flowers in silver and gold. Bread and butter sat on the plate by his hand, left over from his meal. As I watched, his fingers slowly drew into a fist.

“It always saddens me to think of the prisoners in town,” Lucy said. Her eyes were wide with alarm as they flicked to me. Even she’d registered Duncan’s slight. “Rebels or not, their situation seems so wretched. I only wish I had Miss Coates’s charity and generosity.”

“Imprisonment is certainly a harsh fate,” Duncan said, “but ’tis one they chose.”

Asa shook his head slowly. “Surely you can’t mean that men choose to be captured?”