Chapter 28
The half dozen chairs on the balcony had been improved with padded burlap sacking and they made a fine gallery for viewing the bombardment of Baltimore. Callie and Sarah carried out platters of steaming ham and cheese biscuits, a pitcher of lemonade, and two small bowls of pickled onions.
Like the Pied Piper of Hamelin, they lured followers, in this case Molly and Trey, who had woken up hungry. Trey used an improvised cane Josh had fashioned for him.
Sarah asked, “How are you feeling? You look stronger.”
“I’m fine,” her grandson said cheerfully as he took a chair beside his grandfather. “I can go back to the battlefield tomorrow.”
“No, you will not!” Sarah and Callie said in unison. Sarah continued, “This battle will be won or lost without you. You’ve done your part.”
Callie chose the chair next to Gordon. Within patting distance, he was pleased to see as he bit through the crispy crust of a ham and cheese biscuit and washed it down with a swallow of lemonade. Lightly spiked with brandy, he noted. Sarah knew how to soothe a household in difficult times.
After swiftly demolishing a biscuit, Callie asked, “How goes the battle?”
“We don’t know.” He passed her the spyglass and reached for another ham and cheese biscuit. “Between the darkness and the rain, all we can see is the bombs and rockets blasting at the Star Fort and the battery across at Lazaretto Point.”
She adjusted the spyglass. “When a rocket goes off over the fort, I can see the brick walls, but nothing more.” She sighed and passed the spyglass on to Sarah. “What a very, very strange day this is.”
“Someday the history books will describe this day as the Battle of Baltimore and this will all be seen as obvious and predictable because history books know who won,” Gordon mused. “But tonight it’s a mystery. For what it’s worth, I’m beginning to feel optimistic for the city. The Royal Navy has been blasting away at the fort for hours to very little effect.”
“Looks to me like the British ships have cannons with a greater range than the American guns,” Josh said judiciously. “But keeping far enough away to stay safe maybe makes the cannons less accurate.”
“I can’t hear any firing from the east,” Molly said. “Do you think the British troops have withdrawn?” she asked without much hope.
“More likely the two armies are staring at each other and shifting their troops around like a chess game,” Gordon replied. “The American forces are much larger and they’re dug in behind formidable earthworks. My guess is that the British troops are waiting for the naval attack to succeed. If that happens, the British Army attacks and the city will be caught like a nut in a nutcracker.” He demonstrated a pincer movement with thumb and forefinger.
Molly winced at a particularly ear-numbing blast. “They must be able to hear this in Washington!”
“Maybe even in Philadelphia,” Trey said as he scooped up two more biscuits.
Callie sighed. “How long can the British keep this up? They’ve been blasting away for”—she paused to calculate—“fifteen hours now. Won’t they run out of ammunition?”
“Eventually, but they haven’t yet,” Josh said grimly. “The fort isn’t using as much since they know the British warships are out of range of their guns. I guess they’re saving their ammunition to use if the British come closer.”
They ate in silence until all the food and drink were gone. The spyglass had come to rest with Callie, who looked through it now and then. “Even though we can’t see much of anything, there’s a ghastly fascination to it all,” she observed.
“Maybe so,” Josh said as he got to his feet. “But I’m tired. Wake me if anything interesting happens.”
Sarah also rose. “You can get used to anything, can’t you? I’m pretty sure I can sleep through a few hundred more cannon shots. Molly, Trey, time for bed for you, too. These have been difficult days.”
Proof of their fatigue was that the young people headed inside without protest. Josh slung his arm around Sarah’s shoulders and they followed.
“It’s just us now. Come sit on my lap,” Gordon suggested. “I find it comforting.”
“So do I.” Callie rose from her chair and scooped up a blanket from their pallet, which was still made up between the tobacco barrels. When she settled into his welcoming lap, she tugged the blanket over them both and rested her head on his shoulder with a sight of relaxation. “I could become accustomed to this.”
“I hope you do.” Gordon toyed with her hair, pulling out the pins she’d used earlier to look like a respectable widow. Then he combed the heavy silken mass over her shoulders. “I love your hair. It shines red-gold in the glare of the Congreve rockets.”
“I think we’re a little too far away for that,” she said with a laugh. “I hate those horrible rockets—they shoot around like mad things. I’ll never forget when the British blasted two of them into my house.” She sighed. “That seems a thousand years ago.”
“I feel the same. So much has happened since then. We’re living in a strange limbo.” He frowned as he tried to define his feelings. “It’s odd not doing anything. I’m not used to being a spectator. Generally when there’s trouble, I’m either fighting or fleeing for my life.”
She chuckled. “I expect you fight more often than you flee. Where are your loyalties now?”
“I admire this city. Boys like Trey and a handful of canny old veterans like Sam Smith are facing down the greatest military power on earth. Wellington’s Invincibles defeated Napoleon himself, yet inexperienced American troops are holding the line against them.” He let his hand rest on the nape of her neck, warm and protective. “I don’t want to see Baltimore defeated.”
“Neither do I.” Callie yawned. “As Josh said, wake me if something interesting happens.”
“I will. Sleep well, Catkin,” he whispered. He loved having her sleeping in his arms. Their intimacies of the previous night had made this possible. How long until she was so used to having him around that she’d be willing to marry him? Not long, he hoped. He wanted to go home, and he wanted Callie by his side.
Despite the continuing cannonade, he also dozed. Then an abrupt change woke him up. Not more cannon blasts, but silence. Eerie silence. The bombardment had stopped.
He came sharply alert, staring out at the dark, rain-filled skies over Fort McHenry. In the distance, a clock struck four times.
Callie stirred, then snapped awake. “The guns have stopped firing! The battle for the fort must be over, but who won?”
“Impossible to tell,” he said grimly. “But even if Fort McHenry has surrendered, the Royal Navy will still have to pass by the blockade of ships that were sunk in the channel. That won’t be easy.”
She stared into the darkness with frustration. “I hate not knowing!”
“So do I,” he agreed as he tightened his arms around her. “There are so many things to hate about war, but lack of information about what is happening is one of the worst. We’ll have to wait until dawn to see which flag is flying over the fort.”
She slid from his lap and stretched. “You make a good mattress, but my muscles are stiff.”
“So are mine.” He rose creakily from the chair. Even burlap padding wasn’t enough to make it comfortable for a night’s sleep. “Shall we pace back and forth along the balcony?”
“I have an idea.” She moved behind the chair and began kneading his neck and shoulders. It felt wonderful. More proof of the physical ease between them.
When she was done, he did the same for her, some of the massage moving into areas that made her swat his hand away. “Behave!” she ordered.
“Yes, ma’am,” he said meekly.
When they were feeling more flexible, they walked back and forth on the balcony, holding hands while watching the darkness and rain. He thought about the troops out in the entrenchments on Hampstead Hill, who must be up to their eyeballs in mud. But he hadn’t yet heard anything to suggest that they’d been attacked by British forces.
Eventually the eastern horizon began to lighten, but to their mutual frustration, the sky was still too heavy to see any detail of the fort. Gordon retrieved the spyglass for a closer study, then shook his head. “I can see the flagpole and there is a flag hanging on it, but it’s impossible to see what flag it is.”
They were joined by Josh and Sarah, then Molly and Trey. Sarah fried up some eggs and sandwiched them into the last of the biscuits and served them with hot tea. They ate, watched, and waited, saying very little.
The clouds began to thin and the sky lightened. With striking suddenness, the clouds shifted and sunshine illuminated the star-shaped fort and the flag unfurling over it in the wind. “Look!” Molly breathed. “Just look at that!”
The morning breeze caught the flag and the huge banner rolled out with lazy power. Red, white, and blue, stars and stripes.
Fort McHenry was undefeated.
* * *
Callie gasped. The most beautiful flag she’d ever seen flew over the fort, the stripes and stars clear as the breeze snapped the banner out to its full, magnificent size. “We won,” she breathed. On the horizon she saw masts of British ships. They were sailing away, already disappearing into the morning mist.
As exhilaration blazed through her, she shouted it out. “We won! They’re gone! The little brick Star Fort withstood the greatest navy in the world!”
As Trey whooped, Molly wept, and Sarah and Josh hugged, Callie grabbed Richard and spun him around. Laughing, he caught her close. “They could be planning an attack from a different direction,” he warned, but he was also grinning like a fool.
“They won’t. It’s autumn and they’re going to go off to some nice warm place like Bermuda or Barbados,” she said firmly. “I have one of my feelings, Richard. Remember them? Baltimore is safe.”
“You’re usually rather accurate with your feelings,” he said as he tucked her under his arm and gazed across the harbor at the luxuriantly rippling flag as if he couldn’t get enough of the sight of it.
As she gazed in the same direction, she realized with a shock that it had been years since she’d had one of her feelings of certainty. They’d been common in her youth, but they’d vanished—when?
When she’d married and moved to Jamaica. For fifteen years she had done what was necessary and moved forward one step at a time, but the vivid, rebellious spirit of her youthful self had been buried.
With sharp-edged clarity, she recognized how she had adopted her stepchildren and their grandparents as family not just because they needed her, but because she had desperately needed them.
But now she felt reborn, and she was ready for a new adventure. As more jubilant cries began to be heard from the streets and rooftops around them, she grabbed Richard’s hand and drew him back inside, away from the rising clamor of victory.
Staring into his enigmatic gray eyes, she asked, “Lord George Gordon Richard Augustus Audley, do you still want to marry me?”
He blinked at her use of his full string of names. “Yes.”
“Then do you want to ask me again, or shall I ask you?”
He laughed exuberantly and embraced her with an energy that swept her from her feet as he swung her around in a circle. “Ask me, Catkin! I hadn’t realized that I was dreaming of a day when a beautiful woman would ask me to marry her!”
He set her down, his smile bright enough to illuminate the dawn-lit living area of their attic home. Becoming serious, she caught both his hands and looked up into his dear, handsome face, more familiar than her own ever since they were introduced in the nursery of Rush Hall.
“As you said to me, we’re both damaged in different ways, but we’re better off together than apart. Outside on the balcony I realized that I haven’t had any deep feelings of certainty since I lost you and had to marry against my will. Until today. I know that the British are withdrawing from this battle, and I know that I want to travel on the adventure of a lifetime with you. The same adventure that was cut off once before, but now it’s our time.” She drew a deep breath. “Will you marry me, my Lionheart?”
His expression changed and for the first time she saw vulnerability and need in his eyes. Ever since he’d galloped to her rescue in a ridiculously romantic fashion when Washington burned, he’d been endlessly competent and in control. But this was a glimpse of the deeper man, and it touched her heart.
“I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to give you as much as you deserve, Callie,” he said gravely. “But I swear and vow, I will marry you and give you all that I have.”
Her hands tightened on his. “What more can a woman ask?”
“Well, a roof over her head, and I can give you that,” he said with a grin. “It’s in London, but if you like, we can find a different roof in a different place.”
“Even here?” she asked, curious.
“Even here. I’ve developed a fondness for this city.” He shrugged. “Anywhere will do as long as it’s with you. But first—England!”
A shiver ran down her spine at hearing the words out loud. “I just had another one of my feelings.”
“They’re coming thick and fast this morning,” he said with interest.
That’s because she was reborn. “There are going to be great challenges when we return to England. Danger, even.”
This time when he smiled, it was gentle. “We’re going to be confronting our pasts, which will be challenging. As for danger—didn’t we want adventure?”
“The adventure of a lifetime.” She rose on her toes, wrapped her arms around his neck, and sank into a kiss that had no restrictions or doubts. She was marrying her best friend, and it was right.