Chapter 13

When the big maroon carriage drawn by four matched grays reached the stately home where Anne was the guest of her elderly aunt, the uniformed footman adroitly descended and helped the redheaded girl step up into the richly upholstered interior where three young maidens and their wide skirts already occupied most of the space. "Rebecca," said the dark-haired girl who had a circle of puffy fox furs about her slim shoulders as Anne squeezed in beside her.

"Anne Conroy, please excuse me," she said, hauling in the blue sacque dress she had worn to her sister's wedding.

"Glad to see you I'm sure. Those two fair-haired flirts across from us are both Peggys, and I can't tell them apart." Rebecca Frank laughed and put her fingers to her smiling lips.

"We've met," said Peggy Chew, extending a slim hand, fingers down. "The major told me you might be joining us."

"I thought he was a captain," said Anne, reaching for the other young female's kid-gloved hand. She managed to grasp her fingertips.

"He's whatever he chooses. Might be an admiral tonight. It's all a game to him. I'm Margaret Shippen. We're all about the same age aren't we, a quartet? Shall we sing?"

"I'm eighteen," said Anne, noting that the others were not listening to her but exchanging their own sly looks and tiny smiles. She felt left out somehow, at sea.

The crowded girls wriggled and adjusted their rich clothes. Anne was glad she had dusted her cheeks and chest with rice powder because she could see that all three of her coach-mates wore polonaise-type gowns that were quite open in front while hers had an embroidered stomacher. She felt old-fashioned.

Her aunt had watched her dress and said that her stays simply would not do, that a new pair would have to be acquired and soon. "Look how flat you are mashed, my dear. It must be painful to have your bosom squashed up like that. Looks like you've grown puff balls."

"I'm used to it," Anne had said as the elderly maid finished lacing the long corset and tied it off behind her, jerking her upright. She yanked the stiff garment a bit higher to hide her pink nipples and then pulled up her wide shift straps and tied her drawstring neckline loosely before donning her huge dress, ignoring the fact that it was hard to breathe deeply.

"Monday for sure, to the dressmaker we shall go. She is just wonderful. I've worn this set for two years in comfort." Her aunt had smiled at Anne, quite satisfied with her beauty and manners, but unhappy about her mop of unruly red hair and what she assumed was a rather coarse Maryland accent.

In the rocking and bumping carriage Anne pulled the dark Turkish shawl her aunt had provided across her chest and smiled at her companions, feeling somehow isolated and ill at ease.

"Are you wearing panniers?" asked Peggy Chew, a frown on her pale face.

Anne nodded. "They came with the dress."

"Well get rid of them soon as you can. There's sure to be a disrobing room somewhere." Young Miss Chew shook her head rather disdainfully. "Where are you from? You don't sound local."

"Maryland, the Eastern Shore actually," said Anne with a smile. "We live in Annapolis in the winter, the season they call it."

"Our fathers were judges," Peggy Shippen quickly said, making it sound conspiratorial. "They will be again when this, this silly thing is over. But Rebecca's is in trade, isn't he?"

"He supplies General Howe's army just now." She produced a sickly smile. "They just have to talk about their judges, you know, so high and mighty, the periwigged bench, y'know. Tra-la-la."

Anne smiled too. "My father was in the old proprietary government, on the governor's council."

"Did you see the gossip column in today's Gazette?" asked Peggy Shippen, leaning forward and spilling out of her dress.

"Where do they get those stories?" responded the young woman sitting beside Anne. She exhaled loudly.

"Well, it's probably true. I saw the three of them leaving together." Peggy Chew adjusted the heavy bracelet on her thin wrist and tossed her head, rocking her high crown of up-swept hair with some kind of feathers atop it. "Really disgusting. Common!"