Free Savage Deception (Liberty's Ladies) by Lynette Vinet Page A

people, mostly loyalists who’d come to Charlestown for protection, lived in squalor outside the city limits in a section called Rawdontown. The marketplace, which Diana recalled as picturesque and filled with fragrant smelling fruits and fresh meats, was now inhabited by ravenous buzzards who perched on the rooftops. With a sense of sick dismay, she watched as the creatures flopped beneath the hooves of passing horses to fight other buzzards and stray mongrels, even a person or two, when the market man appeared and threw scraps of meat and fish into the street.
    “This is appalling,” she spoke aloud and looked at Samuel Farnsworth who rode alongside her. “Is everyone starving? General Lord Rawdon should do something about this.”
    Farnsworth clucked his tongue in disgust, apparently stung by her less-than-kind comment about his superior, a comment that also heaped blame upon himself. “Heavens, Diana, riffraff isn’t Rawdon’s concern, and certainly not mine,” he made a point of reminding her. “Our people are well fed and clothed, no one who is one of us goes hungry. We have a large number of soldiers to feed to win this war. Certainly Rawdon is sorry, I’m sorry about many things, but as in all wars, some people must do without.”
    He sounded so callous to Diana’s ears, but she couldn’t deny the truth of what Farnsworth said. She just hoped that Anne and the children hadn’t come to such a fate.
    When she arrived at Anne’s house on Orange Street a smile broke over Diana’s face. As Farnsworth helped her dismount he held her against him for a moment longer than Diana thought was necessary. “Should I go inside with you?” he asked in a husky, suggestive voice that caused her to cringe. He’d been such a solicitous companion during their journey, never mentioning anything about what had transpired between them in the kitchen, not giving a hint that he felt anything more than friendship for her. Why did he have to go and spoil all of it now by making her feel uncomfortable?
    “Thank you, but I’d like to be alone with my sister. I have no idea what might be wrong with her, and she could be contagious, you know.” That should cool his lust, she decided.
    It did.
    Captain Farnsworth cleared his throat and released her, waiting until after she’d knocked on Anne’s door and was admitted into the house by Ruthie, an old family servant, before departing.
    “Whatever are you doing here, Diana?” Anne inquired minutes later when Diana entered the darkened bedroom.
    Diana found Anne huddled in the large bed, a blanket wrapped around her. She looked at Diana like she’d materialized in thin air. The drapes were pulled shut and the room was unbearably cold. No fire roared cheerily in the fireplace, either here or in the parlor where Diana had greeted the children when she came inside.
    “I thought you’d be more pleased to see me than that.” Diana kissed Anne on the forehead and would have removed her own cloak but for the chill in the room. “It’s no wonder that you’re ill, Anne. The house is freezing and the children’s’ noses are running. I’ve gotten here just in time. Wait until I see David. I’ll take him to task for not bringing in firewood. Where is he anyway?”
    Anne stared at her dazedly. “David’s in prison. He … he … was arrested for trying to join his regiment.”
    “What! When did this happen, why did he do that? He knew the conditions of his pardon. Oh, Anne, how awful!”
    Diana sat on the bed beside her sister, who started to cry. ‘‘I told him … not to … go,” Anne choked on her tears, “but David has a stubborn streak. He assured us he’d be all right, but … but,” Anne gulped convulsively, “he might be hanged.”
    Holding her sister against her as she wept, Diana felt numb with the cold and her own utter disbelief. David Richmond, a man who was kind and gentle but also determined, was going to hang. Diana shivered with the sickening dread that