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ate, he listened to Josiah’s tale. No doubt he’d told it a thousand times, but the men here were replaying it for Alexander’s benefit.
    They told how Josiah had had a beautiful ship, one he’d been very proud of—but he’d angered John Pitman. Something about a piece of land Josiah owned and wouldn’t sell. Pitman said that he was sure Josiah had a hold full of green paint—a contraband article. Pitman seized Josiah’s ship but found no paint, so he brought a dozen soldiers and searched Josiah’s house in the middle of the night. In the course of the “search” a cellar full of food was destroyed, linens were ripped apart, furniture broken and his daughters terrorized. Josiah tried to get his ship back, but he was told that he’d have to put up a bond of sixty pounds. Since all his money was invested in the bond he had to give Pitman each time he sailed out of Warbrooke, he couldn’t afford another sixty pounds. His friends collected the money for him, but the burden of the proof of innocence was on Josiah’s shoulders. Pitman said there had been green paint on board; Josiah said there never had been. They stated their cases before the Colonial Admiralty Court—a judge, no jury—and the ship was given to Pitman and his officers since Josiah could not prove that he’d never had green paint aboard his ship.
    Alexander soon forgot his own misery as he glanced at Josiah, a man broken, all quite legally, by a greedy Englishman. Pitman wanted land Josiah owned and had not only gotten the land but had come to own everything else that had belonged to the Greene family.
    Alex kept his head bent over his food because he didn’t want them to see the anger that was boiling in him. If he was to keep his disguise, he could not allow them to see how their words affected him. He felt their eyes on him, watching him and waiting to see if he was the man they thought he was. They were like children who thought someone with the Montgomery name could fix their problems and make everything right once again.
    Alex was saved from showing his feelings because the door opened and in walked Jessica Taggert with a couple of big baskets full of oysters.
    Jessica took one look at the people, all of them standing completely still and looking as if they were expecting a storm to break, and knew immediately what was going on.
    â€œStill got your hopes up?” she laughed, glancing from one man to the other. “Still think this Montgomery is going to help you? God only made three Montgomerys: Sayer, Adam and Kit. This one doesn’t deserve the name. Here, Eleanor,” she said, handing the baskets to her sister. “It looks as if you’ll be needing these, what with a parade going through here all day.” She gave Alex a smirking look, although he hadn’t raised his head from the plate. “It looks like they’ll all get something to see with that one here.”
    Very slowly, Alex raised his head and looked at her. He tried to keep the fury out of his eyes, but he was only partially successful. “Good morning, Mistress Jessica,” he said in a low voice. “Are you selling those? Have you no husband to support you?”
    The men at the table across the room began to snicker. With Jessica so pretty, there wasn’t a man who hadn’t had contact with her in some way. Either they’d asked her to marry them after they’d worn out a wife with bearing babies, or they had a son who’d tried for her hand, or a cousin—or else the men just dreamed of having her. But now, here was a man who was insinuating that maybe nobody wanted her.
    â€œI can take care of myself,” Jessica said, drawing herself up to stand straighter. “I want no man under my feet; no man to tell me what to do and how to do it.”
    Alexander smiled at her. “I see.” He gave her a look up and down. Long ago, Jess had learned that she