Chapter 52: Sally

"We got us a new girl," Amanda said, putting down my beer and slapping my hand away from her dangling boobie. "See 'er over yonder? Big one, ain't she. Jus' yer size. Calls herself Sal, and she ain't swived none yet."

As the crowd thinned and the inn-keeper began to hustle drunks from his place, I beckoned to the tall, young woman, and she came and sat beside me. "Mandy said you wanted to talk to me," she said. She sounded New Englandish, and she looked fine. Big and healthy, freckled skin and tawny-streaked hair, hazel eyes under heavy brows. There was likely at least ten stone of her and all of it prime

"She tell you what I'm up to?" I asked.

"She tole me lots a'things." She laughed, pulled my beer to her side of the table and emptied it, wiping her mouth on her hand. Her face was sweaty.

"You interested?" I asked.

"In what?" she said, raising an eyebrow. "I sleep alone in the back there. Don't need no men."

"Not upstairs?"

She shook her head, tumbling about her heavy mane. She pushed her hair from her face with a graceful gesture and stared at me.

I explained what I was about, and she admitted that men did talk a bit when they drank. I suggested that if she listened and remembered, it would be helpful when British officers, especially, were in their cups.

She nodded. "What's in it for me?" she asked as Amanda brought three beers to the table and sat beside me. Everyone else had left and the slow-witted scullery girl was putting chairs up on the tables.

"Might be a few shillings," I said. "More likely Continental paper."

"I make enough here," she said. "Wha'chu up ta?"

"Freedom," I said, "independency."

She smiled. "Got mine. Served out my foah years, an' I'm wearing all I earned. But I'm free."

"Indentured?" I asked.

She nodded. "And he was an outright shit. Worked me hard and tried to mount me 'most every day. Never did. I'm a Scot, lowlan's. Not many women on the ship, took near two months, damn hard, but I'm heah."

I smiled at her and she returned it. Amanda said her goodnights and headed up the steps, looking back at me once. I told Sally that we sometimes hauled off Brits if they likely knew anything useful and always paid for them. She said she would think on it, shook my hand, and I hurried up to Amanda's warm bed and waiting arms.

The next morning, after Amanda had satisfied both of us, we had breakfast with Sally and Lynn, the quiet girl who cleaned up every night and worked in the kitchen. Sally said that she had thought about it and would try her hand at gathering information about what the British were planning. "I'm a right fair listenah," she said.

"Don't forget, we'd like to have a man or two if you decide one's worth taking off for a little talk," I said with a wolfish smile. Even after Amanda's vigorous swiving, Sally looked very good, very healthy.

"D'you kill them?" the woman asked, furrowing her brow.

"Nope, not usually. We trade them for our prisoners mostly, after we wring 'em out some."

She nodded. I went off on my rounds and returned to the tavern that evening. Amanda came over quickly with a beer and whispered, "Sal's got one. Hook's in his jaw, want t'reel 'im in?"

I looked across the smoky room and found Sally sitting beside a brightly uniformed but wigless officer with long, lank hair and polished boots. He was holding the girl's upper arm and talking earnestly about something, bobbing his head and stroking her pale skin, pushing her dirty lace aside.

I crossed the room with my beer, pulled up a chair and joined them. "Evening, Sal," I said.

"This here's Ensign Price," she said. "He's a very important staff officer, so he tells me. Howe don't make a move 'thout his say-so."

"That true?" I said to the boy.

He looked at me bleary-eyed, nodded and mumbled, "Thas' true. You know this here bitch, colonial?"

"Yep," I said, pushing aside the urge to break his nose, "Nice girl."

"Won't swive me, damn 'er," he said. "Offered her a crown."

"Well, spose we go out in the barn. I got a girl there that'll curl your hair."

"Want Sally," the boy said, reaching for her chest and almost falling on his face. He had been drinking apple brandy and smelled like the inside of an empty barrel.

"All right. She'll come out with us, see what cha got." I pulled him to his feet, but his ankles seemed soft. "Maybe she'll do it with it if you're man enough."

The girl made a face at me but followed the stumbling subaltern out the back door. I relieved him of his sword and purse after I knocked him unconscious. Sally dandled the heavy purse, smiled and kissed me on the mouth. I thought about that all the way back to camp with my sore-headed prize. In fact, the boy proved to be a winner. He was a stupid braggart, and they milked him dry before he was shot trying to escape. Pity.

I hurried back to town to collect on Sally's promise, still tasting her and feeling the nearness of her warm, lush body.

"Kiss you?" she said. "Did I do that?"

"How much was in the purse?" I asked, stroking the back of her arm and watching the hairs rise.

"Enough," she said. "You need some money?"

"Always," I told her, sliding my hand inside her bodice and cupping her large breast as she leaned forward.

She wiggled away and pulled up her neckline and shift strap. "How about five shillings?" she said.

"How about ten?" said I, "and a roll in the hay."

She shook her head.

"Why not?" I asked, returning to my steady stroking, letting the backs of my fingers feel her firm breast.

"You're too damn big," she said with a smile. "I like men more my size?"

"You're not exactly tiny, you know?"

I went back to trolling the docks and alleyways, and it was two or three weeks later that I got back to Amanda's place, eager for relief. No Amanda was in sight. I sat and drank and Sal approached, looking happy. "Where's my friend?" I asked.

"Visiting," she said. "Somebody took sick. Me and Molly's been doing all the work."

"Got anything for me?" I asked, taking out my small pad and stub of a pencil. She sat and told me a few interesting tid-bits. Then she said, "And I got me a colonel, a real live one. He's eager to bed me, panting and pawing, offering me everything but marriage."

"What unit?" I asked.

"Don' know, cavalry I think," she said, knotting her brow.

"Coming here tonight?"

"Every night," she said, smiling. "He ought to be worth a quid at least. A colonel. Wait'll you see his uniform, 'nough buttons to outfit a family."

She seemed so excited and I was so randy, that I made another pitch to get her upstairs. "Come on," I said, "won't be any business here till sunset."

"Why not," she said. "Been a long time." She grinned at me, called Molly and we hurried up the creaking steps to Amanda's room. It did not take us long to get down to shift and shirt, and the girl seemed to enjoy all the pleasant preliminaries, the kissing and the petting, the cuddling and the exploring. Finally I got her perched on the side of Amanda's high bed, knees wide-spread, unveiled my upright prod and walked it right into her, holding her hips and watching her pretty face as I entered her.