Chapter 2

On New Year's Day 1777, Edward Conroy, one-time member of Maryland's upper house and of the Governor's Council; his second wife, the widow Margaret M'Kenna of Prince George's County, and Anne Amelia Conroy, a long-legged young woman with a head of bright red curls that had only been trimmed once or twice since she reached puberty, ate alone an hour after midday in the ornate dining room of their Buckman-designed town house on State Street in brick-clad Annapolis. Their antique butler, Moses, who had been with the Conroy family since his birth as a slave on the Eastern Shore three generations ago, served the meal, all five courses of it. Philippa, the kitchen maid, brought Moses the dishes that her mother, Bess, prepared in the huge kitchen hearth at the back of the wide house, her soft slippers gliding on the polished floors.

Anne wore the same blue sacque dress she had worn to her sister's wedding but with a set of soft jumps and not the constricting stays that went with it. Her stepmother had donned one of her French-made gowns of pale yellow silk with a beaded fichu covering her broad chest and added a rope of dark pearls and dangling ear bobs. Between courses, Mr. Conroy attempted to promote polite conversation although he was well aware of the strained relationship that existed between the two women at his gleaming mahogany table.

"Well, the house seems to have survived Priscilla's nuptials with little or no damage," he said, smiling at his wife who sat at the opposite end of the twenty-foot table and then at his younger daughter. She smiled back and forked a tiny potato glistening with butter.

"The carpet is just full of wine spots," Mrs. Conroy stated coldly.

"It's an old rug, isn't it, Anne? Don't you remember it, in the parlor of Pirate's Luck?" She took a deep breath that resembled a sigh.

"Um," the girl said, her mouth full of creamed chicken.

"Please take smaller bites, Anne Amelia," said her stepmother sharply. "You eat like a starving teamster." She made a smacking noise of obvious displeasure and pursed her lips.

Anne used her napkin, put a smile on her lips and glared at the stout woman as she cut the next piece of chicken in half and then stabbed both halves and lifted them toward her mouth. She chewed ostentatiously, both elbows on the damask cloth, trying not to grin.

When she could speak, she asked in her father's direction, "Did I tell you that Billy Fields has joined the Maryland regulars, the Line or whatever it's called?"