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delighted,” she whispered back. Frances Endicott’s long-standing interest in Jamie Cutler had by now become a subject of good-natured banter between Richard and his daughter-in-law.
    â€œWhat are you two discussing in such secrecy?” Jack Endicott’s voice boomed out into the hallway. “I trust it has nothing to do with me!”
    â€œIt always has something to do with you, Papa,” Adele assured him. She gave her stepfather a peck on the cheek and disappeared inside the sitting room. Endicott motioned to Richard to follow her. “I have summoned a bottle of our best Madeira,” he said, clapping a hand on Richard’s shoulder, “as I do whenever you honor us with your company. I only wish your dear wife could be with us this evening.”
    â€œAs do I, Jack,” Richard agreed.
    â€œRichard, my dear, how wonderful to see you.” Without hesitation, Anne-Marie Endicott walked up and put her arms around Richard. As was normally the case, even in Katherine’s presence, she allowed her embrace and the kiss on the side of his face to linger longer than propriety might deem appropriate. As usual, Richard returned her greeting chastely. Although he realized that Katherine had long ago made peace with the affection Anne-Marie still harbored for him, her open sentiments made him uncomfortable, in part because it flouted normal social conventions, but in greater part because feeling her supple body pressed close against him inflamed memories best left forgotten. After giving her a brief kiss in kind, he backed away a half step.
    Anne-Marie backed away as well but kept hold of his hands. “I am so very sorry, Richard, about Katherine. I can’t imagine how terribly difficult this must have been for her, confronting such a cruel disease with you away in the Mediterranean. I wish there was something I could have done for her.”
    â€œYou did do something, Anne-Marie,” Richard said. “The very kind letter you wrote meant a lot to her. She keeps it on the table by her bedside.”
    â€œAlong with many others, I should imagine. So many people care so much about her—and with good cause. She is a warm and loving woman.”
    â€œShe is blessed with many friends,” Richard agreed.
    Just then a servant entered the room bearing a tray and four glasses brimming with rich amber liquid. Jack Endicott distributed the glasses and raised his. “To Katherine Cutler,” he said.
    â€œTo Katherine Cutler,” the other three said in unison, and four glasses clinked together.
    T WO WEEKS LATER , as the chill of November yielded to the cold of December, stirring reports headlined the front pages of American newspapers. A British naval fleet under the command of Admiral Horatio Lord Nelson had achieved a stunning victory against a considerably larger French and Spanish fleet under the combined command of French admiral Pierre-Charles Villeneuve and Spanish admiral Federico Gravina. For weeks the two massive fleets had been jockeying for position off the coast of Spain and across the Atlantic in the West Indies. On the twenty-first of October, Villeneuve and Gravina ventured out from the Spanish naval base at Cádiz and made a dash eastward toward the Mediterranean. Lord Nelson, however, caught wind of their intentions and was lying in wait for them off Cape Trafalgar near the entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar.
    Dividing his twenty-seven battle cruisers into two parallel columns—the weather column led by him in Victory , the lee column by Vice Admiral Cuthbert Collingwood in Royal Sovereign —Nelson had cast aside time-honored battle tactics by sailing his two columns at right angles against an enemy fleet strung out in traditional line-of-battle formation. Nelson’s unexpected tactic shattered the enemy line and tore into 100-gun ships of the line, raking them bow and stern, pulverizing one battle cruiser after another at point-blank range