Before long, only she, Kelf, and Ethan remained. She and the barman made short work of the night’s last chores and then she let Kelf out, and locked the door.
She crossed the great room to where Ethan still sat, blowing out candles along the way. He reached for his empty tankard, but she said, “Leave it.”
She held out a hand to him. He grasped it, stood, gathered her in his arms, and kissed her deeply.
Wordlessly, she led him up the stairs and through the narrow corridors to her bedchamber. There they lit a single candle and kissed again. Ethan began to unlace her bodice; she unbuttoned his waistcoat and then his shirt. The chamber was cold, but neither of them cared. Kannice laid him down on the blankets and straddled him, her hair like spun gold in the candlelight, her skin soft and smooth and cool. It occurred to Ethan that he had forgotten just how lovely she was. After that he lost track of time, and later, of thought itself.
They made love with a fierce tenderness that was as urgent and intense as the nights Ethan recalled from the first months of their love affair. Fueled by grief and passion and hunger too long denied, they came together again and again, until at last, sated and exhausted, they fell into a deep slumber.
Ethan woke early, as the first silvery light of the morn seeped into Kannice’s room around the shutters on her window. Usually she rose before he, but she still lay beside him, her breathing deep and steady, her body warming his.
Though reluctant to leave for any reason, much less an appointment with Theophilus Lillie, Ethan swung himself out of bed, making every attempt to move silently. But as he dressed hurriedly, shivering in the cold, he heard Kannice stir.
“Where are you going?” she asked, sounding sleepy.
“Mister Lillie is expecting me.”
She watched him, her brow furrowing once more, as it seemed to so often these days when they spoke of his work. There had been a time, only a few months before, when she had tried to convince Ethan to give up thieftaking and join her in running the Dowsing Rod. He had done little to encourage her hope in this regard, and it had been some time since last she even mentioned the possibility. But occasionally he caught her looking at him in a way that told him she still wished he would consider a change in profession. She regarded him in that manner now.
But all she said was “Be careful. It could be dangerous there today.”
“Aye, I will.” He finished dressing, and bent to kiss her.
“Are you sure you can’t stay a while longer?”
“I’m sure that if I stay for a minute it will turn into an hour, and if I stay for an hour, I’ll lose the entire day.”
She kissed him again. “You would consider such a day a loss?”
“Not at all. But I think that I had best leave now, while I still can.”
“But you’ll be back tonight?” she asked. Her smile lingered, but he could tell that she had asked the question in earnest.
“I promise that I will.”
“Good. Then go on.”
He left her, took a bit of bread and butter from the kitchen and left tuppence in the till, and let himself out of the tavern. Gray clouds still covered the sky, but the air had grown warmer. Ethan thought he could smell a storm riding the wind.
His hands buried in his pockets, he followed his usual circuitous route past Murray’s Barracks and into the North End. He found Middle Street largely deserted. Richardson’s house appeared to have been abandoned; Ethan saw no sign that Richardson’s wife and daughters remained within. The door had been propped up against the house, but the entryway was not secured. The broken windows had not been boarded. The facade of the structure bore stains from the eggs and pieces of rotten food thrown at it by the mob the day before.
Closer to Lillie’s dry goods shop, the wooden effigies and the hand-shaped sign lay in the street, broken and trampled. The structure itself, though, was unmarred, save for the tar and feathers that still covered the windows.
Ethan did not see Lillie moving about within, and when he knocked no one answered. He stood by the door, bouncing on the balls of his feet to stay warm, and waited for the merchant.
He didn’t have to wait long.
A few minutes later, Lillie turned onto Middle Street from Cross Street to the north. He halted upon spotting Ethan, and even took a step back; Ethan thought he might flee. But recognition flashed in his eyes and he came forward, glancing about as he did.
“I didn’t expect to see you here, Mister Kaille,” he said.
“We have an arrangement, sir. I feel that I owe you the courtesy of an explanation before I terminate it.”
The words crossed Ethan’s lips before he gave much thought to their meaning. But as soon as he heard himself speak them, he knew that this was why he had come.
Lillie scowled. “What makes you think that I have any interest in hearing your explanation?”
Ethan grinned, feeling better than he had in days. “Frankly, sir, I couldn’t care less whether or not you wish to hear what I have to say. You will hear it. And then I’ll be on my way.”
Lillie dismissed him with a wave of his hand and turned his back, fumbling with the keys to his shop. Ethan strode forward, grabbed the man by the shoulder, and spun him around so that they were face-to-face. The merchant shrank away, cowering like a cur expecting a beating.
“I just want to be left alone,” he said, his voice quavering.
“And so you shall be. But understand, you will listen to me first.”
“Why should I? To hear more insults? More threats? You’re all the same, you riffraff. I am a simple merchant, trying to make an honest wage. I’ve done nothing wrong, and yet I’m bullied and beaten. My wares are stolen, destroyed.” He slapped his leg, the sound echoing across the empty street. “I have done nothing wrong!”
Ethan laughed, which only seemed to infuriate the man more. “You count me with those who were in the street yesterday? You’re a bigger fool than I thought. They hate me because I’ve been working for you. What’s more, I’ve refused to ally myself with the Sons of Liberty because I believe their tactics to be … irresponsible. They have too little respect for the sanctity of a man’s property and too much confidence in their own righteousness. But you…” Ethan shook his head.
“Men like you and Ebenezer Richardson are worse by far than even the greatest fools in that rabble gathered here yesterday. Because you would dismiss their calls for liberty without a thought. Of course they’re naive. Of course they’re blinded by their ardor for the ‘great cause.’ I would even grant that many of them have been driven, at least initially, by parsimony, by their desire to avoid another tax. But they are, in the end, fighting for something other than the weight of their own purses.”
“You think me greedy?” Lillie asked, clearly outraged.
“I think you selfish and small.”
“You do me an injustice, sir!”
“If he was in that mob, with the rest of the rabble, he probably deserved it.”
Lillie paled at the repetition of his own words. His gaze, so angry a moment before, slid away. “I didn’t mean that,” he said, his voice low. “Ebenezer is an idiot. He should never have fired into that mob. I didn’t know at the time that the boy was so grievously wounded.”
“I told you he was.”
Lillie nodded. “You did. But I didn’t believe you. I thought you were exaggerating, that your passions were inflamed by all that you had seen.”
“They were,” Ethan said. “They still are.”
Lillie looked him in the eye, though this simple act seemed to take a great effort. “So, you no longer wish to work for me?”
“No, sir. I don’t.”
“I can make matters difficult for you, you know. I may be hated by the rab-” He licked his lips. “By those who support Samuel Adams and his kind. But I’m still an influential man. There are families who, at a word from me, would never deign to hire you.”