“That he did.” Mrs. Pembroke reached behind a jar of preserves and withdrew a folded slip of paper.
Anna stared at her in shock. “How many things do you have hidden in this house?”
“Fewer than I would like.” Mrs. Pembroke pressed the paper into Anna’s hand. “Take this to the smokehouse behind the old cooper’s yard. Leave it beneath the loose stone by the rear wall. You will go by way of Mrs. Albright’s lane, not the main road. If stopped, you are fetching horehound from Mrs. Albright for Mercy’s cough.”
“But Mercy doesn’t have a cough,” Anna said.
“She will if I tell her to.” Mrs. Pembroke smiled.
Anna gripped the paper. “What does it say?”
“Bell. East Road. Tonight. Ellis moving him. Reed watched.”
“Reed watched,” Anna said. “That matters somehow.”
“Of course, dear. Because if Mr. Reed is watched, then anything he does may fail before it begins.”
“And you think I’ll not be watched?” Anna asked.
“I think Major Ellis believes he has frightened you into obedience.”
Anna’s shoulders slumped. “He may have.”
“Did he, dear?”
Anna glanced at the pantry door. Beyond it, Mrs. Fenwick was scolding Mercy about something ordinary, while elsewhere, British officers were deciding the fate of a man named Bell. Nathaniel might already be riding into danger, watched by men who suspected him, and distrusted everyone around him.
She didn’t know if Nathaniel served the British or the Patriots, but she did know he’d protected her twice now. She also knew, much to her irritation, that the thought of him being watched made something inside her twist painfully.
She tucked the folded paper into the cuff of her sleeve. “And if I see Mr. Reed?”
“You do not speak to him unless necessary,” Mrs. Pembroke said.
“But what if he speaks to me?”
“Then you remember that Mr. Reed may be very dangerous.”
A humorless laugh escaped her. “I have been trying very hard to remember that, ma’am.”
Mrs. Pembroke leaned toward her. “Try harder, dear.”
Anna’s cheeks warmed as she nodded.
“And don’t look at me like that,” Mrs. Pembroke said. “I was young once.”
Anna took a step back. “I said nothing.”
“My dear, you said a great deal, most of it with your eyebrows.”
Anna smiled before she could stop herself, then put the back of her hand to her mouth to cover it.
Mrs. Pembroke opened the pantry door. “Now hurry along before Major Ellis decides to be thorough.”
Anna slipped into the hall, fetched her shawl from a peg near the kitchen, and told Mrs. Fenwick she was going to Mrs. Albright’s for horehound.
Mercy immediately coughed. It was a terrible cough and entirely unconvincing. When Mrs. Fenwick glared at her, Mercy coughed again, weaker this time. “I feel a tickle.”
Mrs. Fenwick glanced between Mercy and Anna, then to the hall where Mrs. Pembroke had just appeared. Understanding moved through her face. So did the hint of fear.
