Eric Flint: 1812: The Rivers of War

And off he went. Scurrying, insofar as Houston could manage such an unnatural pace.

Puzzled, Ross peered in the direction that Houston had been looking just a moment earlier. He couldn't see anything especially noteworthy.

Well.

Except, perhaps, for a very attractive young Creole lady, moving slowly through the square. She was peering intently from table to table, examining their occupants. Her expression seemed to combine worry, eagerness, and suppressed anger, in about equal proportions.

She was trailed by an older woman. Her mother, perhaps, from the resemblance. The expression on her face was a bit similar, except that eagerness was entirely absent, and worry was overshadowed by anger. None too well suppressed, either, judging from the scowl.

"Ah," said Ross.

"You and Patrick both!" sniffed Tiana. She glanced at the two women as they slowly approached the table. "Which one's that, James?"

Her brother smiled. There was still a trace of sadness in the smile, but not much. A month after John's death, James's naturally insouciant nature had pretty well returned.

"That one's Dominique. I've forgotten her last name. Fortunately for Sam, she's nearsighted, and so is her mother. Or he'd never have made his escape."

Tiana sniffed again. "I told Patrick he shouldn't press the drinking issue. Sam Houston, dead drunk-in this city, anyway-doesn't get into half the trouble he can get into sober. Well, half drunk. I don't think he's had a purely sober day in weeks."

"Not one," James stated. "Not since it became obvious to everyone but Jackson that the war was over. Sam can stay away from whiskey when he needs to."

For now, Ross said to himself silently. While he's still very young. That'll change as time passes, unless he stops drinking altogether.

Like Driscol, he knew the Irish curse better than he wished. And, like Driscol, knew that Sam Houston's drinking habits went beyond the normal heavy consumption of alcohol, even for Americans.

But it was none of his business, after all. Just as it was none of his business if the most famous and dashing young officer in the United States-quite handsome, too, to make things worse-had as much of an eye for beautiful women as so many of them did for him.

Not the most beautiful woman in the square, though. Ross turned his head and looked at Tiana. Insofar as Ross had any personal business in America, it was the young couple he had adopted, in a manner of speaking. Not as a father, of course. More in the way of an uncle.

Tiana didn't notice Ross looking at her. As was so often the case these days, she was gazing off to the north.

In the black quarters of northern New Orleans, the lash of tyranny was the lightest. Andrew Jackson didn't care much what Negroes did, as long as they did it in their own parts of the city. So, to the nightly reveries in the Place des Negres, the area north of Ramparts Street had added feverish daily schemes and plans since the British had been driven off.

"You get two shares in the business, Jones, not three," Charles Ball insisted. "You just a corporal, and wasn't no chief gunner."

"Let's see what the major says," Jones replied stoutly. "Marie, you got any more soup?"

"Not for you, I don't. That other curree you arguing with already eaten me out of house and home. I goin' turn him into a spider, I think. I can afford to keep a spider around."

The next day, still farther to the north at Fort St. John, Driscol ruled in favor of Jones.

"Why not? He kept up our spirits, didn't he?"

Ball didn't argue the point. There was no point in arguing, when the troll made a ruling.

The troll had been back, these past weeks, and in a particularly foul mood.

Jackson insisted on keeping Driscol at Fort St. John. There was no telling, after all. The British might have faked the news of the peace treaty, and be planning a surprise landing on the shores of Lake Pontchartrain. After the battle on the west bank, Jackson was as sure as the sunrise that Major Patrick Driscol could hold off the hordes of Satan long enough for Jackson to get there.

No valiant deed shall go unpunished.

So, Driscol remained at Fort St. John-and Jackson forbade Tiana Rogers or Robert Ross to visit him. The British general might be a spy, using his injuries and illness to disguise malevolent intent, and Tiana was sure to distract Driscol from his patriotic duties.

The day the news arrived, that an official copy of the peace treaty had landed in New Orleans and Jackson was lifting martial law, the wildlife of the area was finally moving about again. Spring was coming, and the human critters seemed to have stopped doing their loud and frightening rituals.

Driscol eyed one such specimen of wildlife, which had just emerged onto the open ground below the fort.

"That is a deer, isn't it?"

The gunners at the six-pounder he was standing beside gave him an odd look. "Uh. Yes, sir," said one. "That is indeed an of-fi-cial American deer."

"Oh, splendid."

The manager of the Tremoulet House was livid.

"The carpet is ruined. You'll pay for it or I'll have you before the judge!"

Tiana kept laughing. Captain John, back from his mysterious absence-gunrunning, whiskey smuggling, who was to know?-just reached for his purse.

It was flush, fortunately. The carpet was ruined; for quite a stretch, despite the canvas.

"What in God's name did he use?" he asked his son, after the manager stalked off.

James grinned. "Grapeshot. What else?"

Captain John looked at his daughter. "You're probably crazy to accept."

She shook her head, still laughing.

Captain John looked back down at the deer. "Well, then again, maybe not. Interesting times ahead of us, I'm thinking. He might turn out to be a handy son-in-law."

It was a deer, all right, as custom required. Captain John was sure of it. He recognized the antlers.

As he could, Jackson switched from devil to devil-may-care in an instant. The day he lifted martial law, he declared a festivity in honor of the upcoming marriage of one of his officers and a Cherokee princess.

Yes, he used the term "princess." In fact, if anyone else used any other term, Jackson would start hollering.

It was a real wedding, too, by white men's standards. Jackson wasn't about to settle for one of his officers just getting married according to Cherokee custom.

"Do whatever else you want to keep the savages happy," he growled to Driscol, "but you will get married in a blasted church. Any church, I don't care so long as it's a church. I'll not have it said that one of my officers is a squaw man."

Driscol didn't argue the point. He didn't care, neither did Tiana-and Captain John was quick to point out that being legally married according to U.S. law would provide Driscol-not to mention his new in-laws-with a wide variety of legal opportunities-close enough, anyway-which he proceeded to enumerate in detail and with enthusiasm until Driscol finally told him to shut up.

The ceremony was blessedly brief.

When they emerged from the church, however, they discovered that the "festivities" scheduled to follow would be anything but. Jackson had the whole army turned out for the occasion, along with what seemed to be half the city.

The Plaza de Armas wound up serving as an outdoor dance hall, even more crowded if not quite as loud as the Place des Negres.

General Ross watched the festivities from a table on the side of the square. He'd had a relapse that had prevented him from being evacuated to the British ships when they left the gulf. So, as time and his condition allowed, he'd return to England-Ireland, rather, to see his family-on a commercial vessel. In the meantime, he was rather enjoying his protracted stay with Cousin Jonathan.

And with others, for that matter. His companions at the table this evening were the two young Cherokees, John Ross and Tiana's brother James. Robert had gotten to know both of them rather well, by now. He enjoyed John Ross's quiet and thoughtful assessment of things, perhaps even more than he enjoyed James's invariant wit.