Chapter 18: Deceived

I decided to head back for Mrs. Snyder's welcoming bed and managed to get thoroughly lost within a hour after sunset. I spotted a campfire ahead and walked my tired horse in that direction. It proved to be two more Redcoats, obviously guarding a crossroads and very unhappy with their cold duties. They had a pretty good fire going and were grilling slabs of ham on their spike bayonets when I walked into the circle of light. One put down his meat carefully and lifted his musket in my direction.

"'Ou the 'ell are you?" he asked, sounding a bit worse for alcohol.

"Lost," I said, showing him my empty hands and inserting a bit of the Home Counties into my speech, "saw your fire, mates."

"Sit, then." he said. "We got plenty. Just raided a farm over yonder. Didn't have much left but we found this here big ham up in the rafters. Cut 'im a piece, Alf."

Alf did and handed it to me with his grubby fingers. I took a bite and said thanks.

"Better if you heats it some," Alf said, sticking his piece right in the flames.

I pulled my long, blade bayonet out of its scabbard, and they both looked at it with some concern as I used it to fry my bit of ham.

"Where'd you get that friggin' sticker?" the bigger and younger soldier asked.

"Took it off a man who didn' need it no more," I said. "Good 'am. Where's this place.? Maybe they got more, eh."

Alf gestured with his free hand. "Back in the bleedin' woods, track's just up this buggered road a mile or so, but I think we cleaned 'em out. Didn' even get a piece of ass back there. Might look agin in the mornin'."

I was on my haunches, squatting at the fire as I leaned forward with what was left of my piece of ham still on the tip of the blade. I stiffened my wrist, pushed hard with my legs and drove the blade into the Redcoat's chest. He looked very surprised and grabbed at my arm. I put my left hand in his face, pulled the bayonet out of him and swung my arm back toward Alf, catching him in the forehead with the heavy blade as he ducked. He screamed and I hacked as his neck, back and forth. A big artery spurted, and he fell beside the fire, fingers clawing at the mud. I went though their pockets and found very little except for a gold ring with a blue stone. I pushed both of them into their watch fire, head first, picked up the ham and left before the smell of burning hair and flesh got to my stomach.

I found the trail, just where Alf said it would be, and followed it to the small house on the edge of a clearing, deep in the woods. Two candles burned in the window, one much taller than the other. I put my horse in the crude, empty stable and knocked hard and then light at the back floor with what was left of the ham under one arm.

A man with a shotgun in his hands answered my knock and looked at the ham and then up at me.

"I think this is yours," I said. "I saw the candles."

'Come in, then, since you know you're welcome. I'm Ben Lartz." he stomped his foot on the floor and loudly said, "Come up, girls."

Two young women emerged from the cellar, smiling, and he introduced them as Danny and Dora. They made adequate curtsies. "Get this man some food, daughters. He's brought back our last ham. Come, sit," he said to me, and I set my gun aside, peeled out of my heavy coat and sat at his table. The whole cabin was only about ten feet square and the chimney was stone. Two beds sat in opposite corners, and there were two stools, a bench and two rickety chairs as well as the table, typical dirt-farmer digs.

Ben Lartz poured me some hard cider that was strong enough to take the varnish off a piece of oak, and his girls sliced ham and produced some cold biscuits. The four of us sat and ate and sipped the applejack, watered for the young women. The girls were very plain and looked much alike, almost twins but not quite. They had good, sturdy bodies and bright apple cheeks and blue eyes. They wore some sort of light caps on their carefully-braided, soft blonde hair.

I looked about as I ate and saw very little, no cooking tools, no dishes or pots, not even a cup, only a few wooden trenchers and the like. Mr. Lartz gave me the only glass in the house; he sipped from the bottle, and the girls drank flavored water with a tin dipper.

"Looks like you been stripped bare, Mr. Lartz," I said. When I looked at him, there was a tear in his eye.

"Three times," one of the girls said. "First time was them Germans. They killed Ma. That was in November. Then a pack of Redcoats, dragoons. And, and two more today. Pa hid us from them. We ain't got nothing left."

"Jus' our clothes," said the other girl, putting her hand on her sister's shoulder.

I remembered the ring and pulled it from my pocket. I laid it carefully on the table in front of the girls. "This yours?" I asked.

"Oh," the one on the left said.

"Oh my," said the other.

Mr. Lartz picked it up and studied it a bit. "This was my wife's," he said. "Thank you." He stuck out his hand and shook mine.

"Go fix this man a place to sleep," he said to his daughters and they scurried out the door. "All our animals was took, even the chickens, so the barn's pretty clean. They'll get you some fresh straw."

"I got a bedroll," I told him.

"Them Hessians, think there was six of them, big fellers, they raped my wife and the girls." He held out his gnarled left hand and pried open his fingers to show me a ragged wound. "Nailed me to the door post and made me watch. Killed my wife, they did. Cut her throat when she didn't please them. Then the horse soldiers come, and they raped the girls too and stole everything they could take; wasn't much left. Set fire to the barn, but we stomped that out. Then these last two, just wanted food, but one saw that ring, had it on a string round my neck. Tole 'em we didn't have nothing but corn, but they spotted that ham, hit me in the face." He fingered a bruise under his eye. "Took it. Least they didn' find the girls. Said they'd be back in the morning when the light was better."

I sat and did not say anything. He poured a couple of more inches from his bottle.

"You kill 'em?" he asked.

I nodded.

The girls came back in, smiling. One said, "We agreed, Papa, I get to wear the ring today and Dora gets it tomorrow. Is that all right, if we go every other day?"

He nodded, and I watched his mouth quiver as his daughters trotted off, happily trading jests and admiring the small ring.

In the barn, I pulled off my boots, checked the pistol's pan, and rolled into my blanket after making sure my old horse was happy. The house was dark, and I assumed everyone was asleep. Then I heard footsteps in the straw and sat up, pistol in hand, nerves on edge, squinting my eyes.

"It's only me," said a soft voice.

"Who's me?" I asked, taking the pistol off full-cock.

"Dora," she said. "She got the ring first."

A slight figure knelt beside me, shucking off her shoes, and I opened the blanket and she rolled in with her back to me. I slowly lowered my arm over her. She was wearing a heavy coat, but I could feel that her icy cold feet and legs were bare.

"Papa said we could help keep you warm," she whispered.

"Did he? Are you sure you asked him? And how old are you, Miss Dora?"

"Old enough," she said, squirming to get more comfortable and unbuttoning her long coat. I slipped my hand inside and found a lot of smooth girl skin and a small, soft breast. The hair between her legs was sparse and very fine.

"Are you old enough? And how old's your sister?"

"Oh, she's only fifteen," Dora said, squirming still closer. I thought of the ensign's sister in Cheltenham.

"Um, an' you are older."

"Of course. A lot. Can't you tell." She covered my hand with hers and squeezed her breast.

"Not really," I said. "You look alike."

"Oh, we don't," she said, "an' you talk too much." She rolled over so we faced each other, put her hand in my hair and kissed me while I stroked her back. "Please," she said, sliding her hand down my body and wiggling even closer, throwing her leg over mine.

She moaned happily and met me thrust for thrust until we reached our goal and sighed together, thoroughly satisfied. I was ready for more, but she pushed away and turned her back. I gathered her in, spoon fashion, and slipped my yard up into her, barely penetrating but fully and pleasantly engaged.

"That's nice," she said. "Let's go to sleep that way."

After a while, we did. In the morning I awoke with a young girl curled next to me, a very nice way to arise. I rose even more and slid my cold hand up under her coat. She shivered and turned toward me without even fully awakening. We enjoyed each other at some length and then lay on our backs, getting our breathing regulated.

"Dora was right," she said. "That was grand."

"Danny?" I asked.

"It's really Danielle," she said.

"Are you and your sister playing tricks on me?"

"No, we're just thanking you. Now let's get some breakfast."

After we ate some hoe cakes and ham, I headed back for Trenton, passing the burnt out campfire and grisly bodies at the crossroads. A flock of dark birds was at work there, flapping and cawing. Shortly after I reached the main road, a light chaise came along, driven by a British officer with a fat Hessian in a fancy blue uniform sitting beside him. The braided Redcoat halted his pair of matched greys and hallooed at me.

"How far is Trenton, my friend?" he asked.

"Ah, Trenton, is it?" I said, trying to sound as Irish as I could. "And why would you be going to Trenton?"

"None uff y'fuggin' business," said the German.

"Your English is admirable," I told him, leveling my big, old pistol at the young subaltern. "Now you sit still, Oberst," I said to the Hessian, whose eyes had grown very large indeed, "and you get down from there, you stupid shit," I said to the Redcoat.

I made the young officer hand me his purse and take off his boots, sword and britches. I probably should have shot him, but getting laid by two young women overnight seemed to have mellowed my outlook on life. If it had been the day before, I likely would have left him squirming on a tree with his own sword in him. As it was I just flicked open his nose with Magda's knife. He screeched and jumped.

"Go along, some eight or ten miles right down this road and you will find Trenton, couple of hours if you move briskly." He looked at me sourly, holding a handkerchief to his face, and I raised the pistol and smiled. "Or would you prefer to remain here, forever?" He started walking, trying to put in feet on mud instead of ice.

I tied the German's feet together with the Redcoat's sword belt and his hands with a piece of the reins. I got the light carriage turned around, took the leads and started back to the Lartz's place in the woods.

"Brought you another present," I said to the girls when I arrived. "Where's your father."

"Out hunting," one of them said. I still did not know one from the other. They both were young and willing so I guess I did not try too hard.

"This fat pig," I said gesturing at the officer, "is a Hessian. And I thought you might like to cut him up. You could slice off his cock, a bit at a time, and feed him his cods, fry them first if you wish."

"Oh, could we," one said, clapping her hands and smiling. "I'll get some knives. We'll bleed him dry."

"Vait, vait," said the German. "Vait. I ham a prisoner of d'var. You cannot do diss.

"Oh," I said. " I do not see any army here. These girls were raped by Hessians, repeatedly. Their mother was killed by Hessians, cruelly. Their farm was stripped by Hessians, completely, and they were left to starve in the winter by Hessians, viciously. They may not like your kind very much."

The girl returned from the cabin, holding up a small knife. "We only have one," she said, sadly, "and it's dull."

"Oh, dull doesn't matter. I've got another." I pulled Magda's filleting knife from my boot and handed it to the other girl. Then I untied the German's feet and pulled him out of the chaise.

"Dis is wrong," he said as I roped him to the broken fence post and tore away the front of his white britches. He was wearing heavy, flannel drawers. I pulled my big bayonet, laid it flat against his huge stomach and sliced open his underwear. "Well," I said to the girls, "you won't have much to work on."

They looked, pointed and giggled.

"What's going on," Mr. Lartz said, emerging from the woods with a pair of rabbits dangling from his belt. He handed them to the girl with Magda's knife, "Take care of these, Dora," he said. "Who is he?"

"I guest," I told him. "I brought him to entertain your girls. They are going to slice up his genitals for a stew."

"No they aren't," said the man, looking angry at both me and the Hessian. "Get him out of here. God will take revenge. We will not."

Danielle, standing with her dull knife, looked disappointed, but after we cleaned out the back of the carriage and dumped the gold coins from the German's fat purse, she was happier. He had been carrying a great deal of food and some extra uniforms with him. I gave his boots to Mr. Lartz and kept a sausage for myself, tied my horse on the back of the rig and set out for Morristown, some thirty or forty, hilly miles away.

Three days later, with the fat German and the promissory note both delivered, I was back in Felicity's bed, snoring away and quite pleased with myself. I had traded the greys for a pair of mules, used the lieutenant's money buy some flour, salt and other supplies, and dropped the animals and food at the Lartz home. I spent another very enjoyable night in the barn, unable to tell in what order the girls had swived me and not really caring since they both did it so enthusiastically and so thoroughly. I was glad that there were not three of them. In the morning their father smiled at me and asked how I had slept.

When I got back to Queen Street and rolled into Felicity's bed, she had not yet returned from the ball or whatever it was. Shortly after I blew out the lamp, the bedroom door eased open and someone climbed into bed and pulled up the covers. I sniffed. "Ivy?" I said.

"How did you know?" she asked.

"You do not smell like your mother nor are you as heavy."

"Humf, well, that's good, I guess. She smells like tobacco smoke sometimes."

"What are you doing here, in her bed?"

"What do you think?" She inched her long legs over until they touched mine.

"I don't know what to think, but you'd better get back to your own cot."