Page 1 of King's Man

Part One

Chapter One

August 13th, 1778

Rosemont, Rhode Island

Sunlight fell in dreamy pools over the man drowsing at Nate Tanner’s side, burnishing his tangled hair with flecks of gold, and picking out freckles on the smooth skin of his back.

Nate lay watching him in the aftermath of their lovemaking, the warmth in his heart fading fast, cooled by the gathering storm. He recoiled from the knowledge that this would be their last afternoon together, but they lived in a time of war and there was no room for sentiment left in the land. Reaching out, he smoothed his palm over his lover’s shoulder and smiled when Sam blinked open his eyes.

“Well,” Sam said in a smiling rumble. “That was something.”

“So it was.” Curling his hand around the back of Sam’s neck, Nate pulled him close enough to kiss his lips. “Quite something.”

With a contented sigh, Sam rolled onto his back, rearranging them both until Nate’s head came to rest against his chest and Sam’s strong arms wrapped around him. Nate snaked his own arm around Sam’s waist and, for a moment, buried his face against his skin, breathing in the scent of him. Committing him to memory.

“Hush now,” Sam said, stroking a hand over Nate’s back. “And tell me what’s had you jumpy as a cat all afternoon.”

As always, Sam knew Nate better than Nate knew himself.

Amicus est tamquam alter idem: a truefriend is a second self.

Nate let his thumb run over the ring he wore — the ring Sam had given him two years ago, engraved with an abbreviation of those words: AETAI. Its twin felt warm against Nate’s back as Sam continued his steady caress. “I can’t come here anymore,” Nate said softly. A shard of sunlight lanced up from the heavy armoire by the window and Nate watched the dust motes dance, unable to meet Sam’s eyes. “It’s too dangerous — our friendship is drawing too much attention.”

Sam stilled to his bones. Only the accelerating thump of his heart beneath Nate’s ear told him that Sam still breathed. Outside, a songbird trilled, and a distant carriage rumbled past. If he listened very carefully, Nate could hear the distant rush of the Pawtuxet River. Inside Sam’s bedchamber, the silence grew thick. Nate levered himself up onto one elbow and Sam’s arms fell away to lay slack at his side, eyes fixed on the ceiling. “How long must you stay away?”

“I don’t know.” Despite his best intentions, Nate’s voice wobbled. “Until things calm down. The British are so close. People are afraid.”

“Is this — ?” A painful pause. “Is this because of Holden?”

Amos Holden. The swaggering little shit had resented Sam for years. Holden’s recent elevation to chairman of Rosemont’s Committee of Safety had only made his persecution more vicious. And Sam did nothing to mollify him. Quite the opposite in fact, the obstinate fool that he was.

Nate had to look away from Sam’s distress before he answered, staring at his chest instead, at his own hand resting there and the golden glint of his ring. “Not just Holden, the whole committee are against you now.”

Silence. Then, “And does that include you?”

“Of course not.” Nate spread his fingers, tried to find Sam’s heartbeat again. “But you’re not making it easy for me to explain our friendship. Not easy at all.”

Pushing his hand away, Sam surged upright and swung his legs over the side of the bed. “Oh, so it’s my fault?”

“Well…” He suppressed his flash of exasperation. “It’s your decision to refuse the loyalty oath.”

“It’s myrightto refuse it. I’ll think as I choose, and Holden’s mob can go to hell if they say otherwise.”

“Hiscommittee,” Nate corrected, “are trying to keep Rosemont safe.”

“From me?”

“Sam…”

“No, tell me.” Angrily, he turned around. “Does he thinkI’ma danger to Rosemont, to the place I was born? To the place my parents were born? Where they’re laid to rest?”

“Holden’s a bully, we both know that, and he’s using the committee to settle old scores. But the world haschanged, Sam. And you must change with it.”

“Must I? Why? Why should I change to suit Amos Holden?”

“Because —” Nate raked a hand through his hair in frustration. “Because a storm’s coming. Hell, the storm’s already here. And in a storm, you have to trim your sails or be wrecked.”

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