THE TABLE in the dining room of the elegant house assigned to us for the meeting with the Quaker delegation was set in keeping with the American principles and not those of the Quakers. In other words, it was not plain.
The most elegant silverware and crystal sparkled. The finest wine was served, and if the Quakers chose not to drink, so be it. The best cuts of meat were set out by the most well-trained servants.
"Act yourself," Nathanael told me as we entered the house. "Don't try to be something you are not."
Before we sat, both men and women stood around the great fireplace, sipping hot cider. I did my duty and circulated among the plainly clad women, feeling at least like a countess in my blue silk with the scooped neck in front.
"Welcome," I said. "We're glad to have you. I haven't met General Washington yet, but I'm told he's a great man. We're so glad he's on our side."
As formidable a face as that of my hated sister-in-law, Peggy, stared down at me. "That is all fine and dandy, young woman, but does thou know the Lord?"
My mouth fell shut. She was talking about the Lord as if He lived across the street. As if He just moved in and I should bring Him an apple pie.
But I wouldn't be bested. "Yes," I lied.
"Art thou sure thee knows Him sufficiently to someday dine at His table?"
"He hasn't invited me yet," I wanted to say, sassily. But, of course, I did not. Instead, I said, "Excuse me," and started toward the next group of women. I gave them a greeting much like I'd given the others.
"But does thee know the Lord, child," the eldest said to me. "If not, all this"—and she gave a sweeping gesture that included the table and the whole room—"all this means nothing. And thy General Washington is as nothing."
Well, to insult me was one thing, but to insult General Washington was another. I didn't feel that I had the mettle to defend him. I looked across the room to where Nathanael was standing, talking to a group of men. My look was appealing. Help me, it said.
Nathanael recognized only too well that I was in trouble. "Ladies and gentlemen," he announced loudly, "what say we sit at table and eat?"
There was a murmuring of joyous assent. Apparently, the table and all it held did amount to something after all.
It turned out that a smallpox epidemic had broken out in Boston, and Nathanael told our guests he had real fears that it might affect the colonial soldiers surrounding the city.
"You should get yourselves inoculated," he told the Quakers who dined with us.
"The Lord will care for us," Moses Brown said.
"Inoculation near brings on the sickness. It is toying with the work of the Lord," said another. And the subject was dropped.
"You have visited Washington, asking permission to bring relief to the people of Boston with food and fuel," Nathanael told them carefully. "Here is my advice to you. Five years ago you ran me out of your Meeting for having been seen watching a military parade in Connecticut. Now my life is devoted to the military and independence. Now I tell you this. Abide by your own principles, though I have abandoned them. Since you believe in them so much, they will see you through this fight. And though you threw me out of your Meeting years ago, I do not want to see you suffer."
A murmur of approval went through the room for Nathanael, and Moses Brown said he would pray for him.
We parted friends. I stayed close to Nathanael for the rest of the meeting, so none of the women pressed the matter of my knowing the Lord. They seemed afraid of Nathanael. But their eyes went over me in contempt as they left. One or two said they would pray for me, too.
"Do I need praying for?" I asked Nathanael.
"Right now we all do," he said.
***
I COULD NOT help but be both delighted and afraid for being presented to General Washington.
General Washington! I had always thought that my family was of some eminence in its own right, and I had been trained to be proud of their achievements, but never in all the world did I expect to be in a position in which I would meet someone like General Washington. Or in which my husband would be able to introduce me to him.
"Nathanael," I said, and my voice gave way.
"What is it, love? You aren't frightened of meeting the general, are you? You are." And he hugged me. "You will delight him. Just as you delight me. He loves to have pretty things around him. Oh, and you are not just pretty—you can hold your own, just as you did tonight with the Quakers."
"That's it, Nathanael ... Did they make me look stupid? I didn't know what to say when they asked me if I knew the Lord."
"Say no, that you haven't been around as long as they have, but that the Lord knows you. Come, smooth your hair. We mustn't keep Washington waiting."
***
GUARDS STEPPED aside so we could go in to His Excellency's office.
He was a presence. What more can be said of him? General Washington rose from the chair behind his desk in the paneled, book-lined, and map-filled office, and his height was greater than that of any man I'd ever met. His uniform, also, was impressive. Only a few scars from a past case of smallpox marked his face.
As Nathanael introduced me, the general took my hand and kissed it. Then, noting the spread of my dress in front, he congratulated us and asked when the baby was due.
We both answered at once. "Late December."
"Will you go home for the birth or have it here, where we have doctors and you are surrounded by an army for protection?"
We said we didn't know yet.
"My wife has had children," he said. "She comes in early December. When she does, stay close to her. She can advise you."
Then he looked at Nathanael, smiling. "How did you get on with your Quaker friends? Did they invite you back to Meeting?" He was enjoying the joke.
"You set them on me this night," Nathanael accused, "but no, they did not invite me back to Meeting. Only said they would pray for me. Apparently they thought I needed it. But I had their respect. I was in charge of myself."
"You are always in charge of yourself, my boy, which is why you were put in charge of the army of Rhode Island. I would say the General Assembly of Rhode Island made an excellent choice."
Nathanael blushed. "General, may I have your permission to name our babe George Washington Greene if it is a boy?" he asked.
Washington put his arm around Nathanael's shoulder and walked us out of the room. "You may, and I am honored," he said.