Alex and Eliza: A Love Story(39)
The marquis’s legs squeezed tightly together. “Mon Dieu! I see your northern winters are as blasted cold as your women!”
“They are not my northern winters,” Laurens said, laughing. “I would give anything to be home in Carolina right now. But at least there is something here to relieve the cold. And, since the mar-kwiss has, despite his many names and titles, failed to ask, may I inquire as to your name, mademoiselle?”
“Unlike you, Colonel Laurens, I value my name highly, and don’t just hand it out to any lieutenant colonel or major general who asks, even if one of them is a mar-kwiss. So, what will you give me if I tell you my name?”
Laurens smiled. “I would offer you my heart, miss, but I fear it is not worth a tenth of what you offer in exchange.”
“Indeed, Colonel,” Eliza said. “Especially since you seem to deal it out like playing cards.”
“I, on the other hand,” the marquis said, reaching a hand into his greatcoat and pulling out a bottle of amber liquid, “have a bottle of ten-year-old cognac shipped from my estate on the far side of the Atlantic. Perhaps you would do me the honor of sharing it with me, Miss—”
Eliza put down her basket of supplies and extended her hand to the marquis. “Schuyler. Elizabeth Schuyler, but you may call me Eliza. Thank you kindly, but I have quite a bit more work this evening and will have to decline your good hospitality.”
“Eliza Schuyler?” said Colonel Laurens, with a piercing gaze.
“Yes, the one and the same,” she said, and wondered at the look he gave her.
17
Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner
The Cochran Residence
Morristown, New Jersey
February 1780
Eliza awoke the next morning to someone knocking insistently at her bedroom door. “Yes?” she called.
“Eliza, darling, it’s Aunt Gertrude. Your uncle John and I were asleep last night when you three returned home. I just want to make sure all is well. May I come in? I have coffee.”
“Of course, Auntie, I’m so sorry to have overslept. It was a long day.”
Aunt Gertrude entered, bearing a small tray with a covered pot and cup and saucer. There was concern on her face, as well as amusement as she set the tray on the bedside table. “Exhausted, no doubt! I’m afraid your mother would be quite displeased with me, working you girls so hard.”
Eliza smiled back ruefully.
“By the by, Colonel Hamilton was nice enough this morning to bring over the inoculation supplies you left in General Washington’s office. I think he hoped to return them personally.”
Eliza felt a blush spread itself on her cheeks as she reached for the coffee cup on the bedside table and sipped at it.
“Well,” her aunt said, “I hope yesterday didn’t take too much out of you, because there are festivities tonight.”
“Really? Is one of the officers’ wives throwing a party? Or the baron?”
“No, we are!” Aunt Gertrude said mischievously.
“You! Mama always said you had the festive sensibility of a . . .” Eliza didn’t finish the sentence. “I meant, she said that you and Dr. Cochran were both too busy with your important work to entertain much.”
What Mrs. Schuyler had actually said was that her sister-in-law was about as much fun as a Puritan on All Hallows’ Eve, dressed in black wool, clinging to a cross and seeing devils and witches in every shadow, but Eliza thought it better to rephrase her mother’s barb.
“Well, it’s not a party, per se, just a dinner gathering. Stephen Van Rensselaer is in town. I wager he couldn’t keep away from Peggy and followed her here, so we’re holding a small dinner for him. And when we heard that such prestigious figures as Colonel Laurens and General Lafayette were here as well, of course we had to invite them along . . . with Colonel Hamilton.”
Hearing that Colonel Hamilton would be at the party quickened Eliza’s pulse. Try as she might to pretend it wasn’t so, that rascal had gotten under her skin somehow. Suddenly the confident girl with the practical clothes was wondering what sort of fancy dress she might find for the dinner. Maybe borrow something from Peggy?
And that was surprising about Stephen Van Rensselaer. She had to give him credit for following Peggy to Morristown. He certainly couldn’t be faulted for lack of interest. She turned her attention back to her aunt.
“The marquis has already agreed to bring a barrel of wine with him. He seems, despite the British blockade, to have an endless supply. The French are of different priorities, I suppose,” said Aunt Gertrude, adjusting her cameo broach. “Well, perhaps you should rest this afternoon, dear, so that you have energy for the dinner.” A twinkle appeared in her aunt’s eye. “Colonel Hamilton accepted our invitation ‘most eagerly,’ and said that he was ‘especially excited’ to have the chance to continue his acquaintance with you.”
“Did he!” Eliza exclaimed before she could stop herself.
“He did indeed.” Her aunt smiled at her slyly. “Shall I have the maid bring up some toast in a bit?”
“Yes, thank you!” Eliza said. She barely heard her aunt as the older woman slipped out of the room.
SIX HOURS LATER found Eliza ready for the party, dressed in a violet gown lightly embroidered with gold threads and pearls. Her aunt had sent Louisa, the servant girl, up with it and Eliza decided not to pursue the same old argument about how it was unbecoming for a woman of her stature to dress in finery while the soldiers went about in rags.