I watch the prostitute slap Pearce. Hard. He takes a step back, hands up in surrender.

“Look, I know it’s been a while—”

“You almost killed me,” she hisses.

“I— am sorry?” he says helplessly.

“I couldn’t work for months after losing that bastard of yours,” she spits.

Pearce pales. “What?”

“Oh, pretend you didn’t get my letter. Go ahead. Play innocent for the other girls, so you can knock them up, too.”

He wobbles on his feet, reaching out a hand to steady himself on the wall, his face white as a sheet.

The girl hesitates.

“You did get my letter, didn’t you?”

“If I had received any letter,” he whispers, “do you really think I wouldn’t have come?”

“I—” Her face contorts with pain—and then she rushes into his arms, sobbing. He holds her close, but after a moment I see his eyes roll back in his head and he slumps down, unconscious.

I rush to her side and help her support him. He’s only out for a moment before his eyes open again, a bit of color returning to his face.

“Head injury,” he mumbles.

The girl helps him over to an empty chair. He takes a few deep breaths.

“Can we have a room to talk?” he says quietly.

“You can use this one,” an older woman, who seems to be in charge, says. She and the other girls file out.

Pearce gently takes the girl’s hands. “What… What happened, Anna?”

Anna swallows. “I fell pregnant. I suppose it might not have been yours, but… Regardless, you didn’t reply to my letter. Then I got sick—we had a fever come through here—and I— I lost—“

“Oh, love…” he whispers. I stiffen at the word. He pulls her close, gently stroking her back.

“I assumed you’d run,” she whispers.

“I’ve been moving around so much lately… I must have missed it somewhere along the way…”

She sniffles. He gently cups her cheek and kisses her forehead.

I stand awkwardly behind them. Pearce seems to notice me and draws back slightly.

“We’re going to talk about this more later, all right?” he says softly to her.

She nods. “You’re back to normal charge, by the way.”

“I’m not—” He sighs. “Anna, this is Captain William Lockland.”

I hold out my hand, and she shakes it tentatively.

“Is he a customer?” she asks.

“No. But we have… something of a proposal for you.” He motions for me to speak.

“I’m a captain of the Continental Army,” I say. “And also the leader of a budding spy ring. I recruited Pearce here into that ring. And when I asked him for ideas of who else might join, he suggested you.”

“You’re brilliant, Anna,” Pearce says softly. “And you’re in the unique position of working in a brothel frequented by redcoats.”

Anna bites her lip. “I don’t hear much, you know.”

“But you could.”

“I could,” she admits.

“And we would pay you.”

She considers.

“Fifty dollars a month,” Pearce says softly.

She hesitates just another moment. “That’s too much to pass up,” she says.

He smiles at her. “Then you’re in?”

“I’m in.”

Pearce's grin widens. "Fantastic." He motions for me to take a seat. "Then let us discuss our strategy."

“I don’t have much of one yet,” I say cautiously.

He looks over at me, looking surprised. “I thought you had a plan for this spy ring.”

“I do. I just don’t have much of a mission for us right now.”

“What about that spy? The one I ferried you over for the other night?”

“The messages are encoded,” I say. “We can’t break them without the key.”

“Then we need to get the key,” he says.

“It’s unlikely that the spy will visit this particular brothel,” I say. “Even less likely that he’d share anything useful.”

“But a high ranking officer might come in who knows something we can use.” His eyes spark. “If we could even get Anna into one of their own homes…”

“You can do that?” I ask Anna in surprise.

“Well, it’s not strictly in her job description, but sometimes when a client takes a liking to a girl, he’ll take her in as an official mistress,” Pearce says for her, and she nods her confirmation.

I nod, thinking. “We know the spy is based from Long Island. Probably New York City. Do you think you could get into one of the officer’s houses, Anna?”

She hesitates. “I could try. But you’d be putting a lot of faith into chance.”

“We make chance work for us by leaving ourselves open to it,” I say. “If you’re in a high ranking officer’s house, then you’ll hear things. Even if those aren’t always the things we’re looking to hear, they could be useful.”

Anna nods. “I’ll see what I can do.”

“And… you’re comfortable doing this?” I ask. “You know the risks associated with it, correct?”

Anna and Pearce share a look. “Just like old times,” he murmurs.

I frown, but they don’t elaborate.

“We’ll set a dead drop for you,” Pearce says to Anna. “The same place we’ve used before. You’ll leave any information you find after encrypting it, and we’ll leave further instructions for you there if necessary.”

“You already have a code set up?” I ask, curious.

Pearce nods. “I’ll walk you through it later. Unless you’d rather use your own?”

“No, if you have one… all the better,” I say.

He nods again. “Anything else, Captain?”

“It can be Lock around her,” I say. “We won’t have secrets between the three of us. Our lives are in each other’s hands.”

Pearce gives me a strange look. “Didn’t know you wanted to be called that.”

“You already call me it,” I say, shrugging. Truth is, I like that he’s given me a nickname.

“I said it once while… intoxicated.” His lip twitches in a small smile. “But I’m not averse to continuing.”

“Good.” For some reason, I blush.

Anna raises an eyebrow, looking between us.

“We were briefly shipwrecked on a small island on the way here,” Pearce says casually. “The natives gave us something strong. We both went a bit loopy for a while.”

“That wasn’t what I meant by the look,” she says dryly.

He just smiles at her. She punches his shoulder lightly, and he winces hard, holding his arm away.

“You knew what I would think,” she says to him. “You, coming here, with another dashing young spy?”

He grimaces. “Yes, but I was hoping you wouldn’t hit me.”

“You deserve it.”

He pulls down the sleeve of his shirt, revealing a mass of bruises from the wreck. She winces.

“Sorry…”

Pearce shakes his head. “It’s fine. I’ve had worse.”

“Well.” I stand. “We should probably go.”

He hesitates. “Would you mind if I took some time with Anna?” he says softly.

I can’t say no to that. “Of course not.”

He dips his head in thanks, then leads her from the room.

I’m left sitting alone in the darkened brothel. A couple of the girls come back in, casting me glances.

I raise a hand. “Good evening, ladies.”

They giggle, and one comes over. “Good evening, sir,” she cooes.

Right. They think I might give them business. I try to keep my posture disinterested.

“Care for a drink?” she asks. “You look tense.”

So much for disinterested and casual.

“I could accept that,” I say cautiously.

She smiles and goes to the side of the room to pour me a glass of wine. I have to admit, it sounds pretty good. My throat is parched. All I’ve had all day is water and the salted meat that the islanders packed for us.

She hands me the glass and settles on my lap with a smile.

“Ah—”

“No money?” She pouts. “I can give you a taste for free.”

“I’m not interested— thank you—” I try to be polite. But it’s hard when she’s so close and so very much on me.

She sighs, but seems to recognize a lost cause and goes back to her friend.

Almost an hour passes, and Pearce and Anna don’t come back. I start to get impatient, and call one of the girls over.

“Yes, handsome?”

I blush. “Er, where are Anna and Pearce?”

She shrugs. “Went to her room.”

“Could you show me where that is?”

She points me down the hall to a closed door with light shining faintly from the bottom. I hesitantly knock.

I hear Pearce curse faintly, and after a few moments he opens the door, his shirt on inside out.

I take a step back. “Oh.”

He flushes deeply. “I’ll— uh— just be a moment.”

“No, no, take your time—”

His face goes even redder, and he shuts the door. I can hear his footsteps across the floor, and a minute or so later he opens the door again, clothes on correctly, hair combed back.

“You really don’t have to be ready—” I stammer.

“It’s fine,” he says quickly. “We can go.”

I swallow and nod. He shuts the door behind him and starts off without looking to see if I follow. I do, though, and we head back out to the boat.

“It should be an easier sail back,” he says quietly, not meeting my eyes.

“I’d hope so.”

I feel a sinking in my stomach. I’m not quite sure why. This shouldn’t matter to me. Clearly, he has something with Anna. And that’s fine. He’s just a compatriot. Maybe a future friend.

But if I’m being honest with myself, then I have to admit that as soon as I found out that he was like me, I was hoping that we could be something more. How often do you find someone like that? It’s not like I can openly court whomever I please. But we both know each other’s secrets. So in some part of me, I had hoped…

Nevermind. Whatever I had hoped, it was foolish.

“You’re upset,” Pearce says softly.

“I’m not. I have no reason to be.” I keep my voice light. “Maybe surprised.”

“That I would have a continued dalliance with her?”

“Something— something like that.” I flush. I’m glad it’s dark.

Pearce goes quiet for a moment. “My relationship with Anna is complicated,” he says eventually. “Even to me.”

“I don’t need to hear about it.” I don’t want to. He’s off limits, now.

“Of course,” he says softly.

“I was just surprised. That’s all.”

“I was, too,” he murmurs, then falls silent again, focusing on guiding the boat.

We make it back to the camp by morning. Pearce talks me through the basics of the code system he uses with Anna while we travel, and promises to make me a code book when we get back.

I get into bed without saying anything. Pearce looks over at me like he wants to speak, but just turns in silently as well. I fall asleep with a lump in my throat.