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wring her hands. “My
husband will be home on Monday so I can’t stay here.”
    “I don’t understand. Do you
need help to get home?”
    “No.” She sobbed. “I’m only
staying here because I need to talk to Bill, but he won’t come or
answer my messages.”
    Thomas was unsure of what to
do. “He must be ashamed that he hurt you.”
    She shook her head, sniffed
and took a handkerchief from the sleeve of her dress to blot her
eyes. “He likes hurting me as much as I like being
hurt.”
    Thomas’s eyes wandered to
the prints on the wall. “You like being hurt?”
    “Yes. Not injured like –
like what happened.”
    He pointed to a drawing on
the wall. “Like that?”
    “Yes. It excites
me.”
    “Please forgive me, but that
seems absolutely mad.”
    “There are millions of
people like me. Men and women.” She got up and retrieved a small
book from the shelf, gave it to Thomas and sat back
down.
    Thomas leafed through the
pages looking at the drawings then put the book on the arm of the
couch. “There’s simply no way that I’m going to be able to
understand. Is there anything I can do for you?”
    “You could whip
me.”
    He looked
horrified.
    “Who knows? You might like
it as much as your brother. I didn’t know what I was missing until
Bill awakened me.”
    Thomas turned toward the
door. “I think you should seek help. Discuss it with your minister
perhaps.”
    “I’m Catholic and I don’t
even confess the things I do with Bill, let alone discuss
them.”
    “I’ll see myself
out.”

May 14, 1828
    Van Buskirk Point, New
Jersey
     
    “She said that she wasn’t
aware of her appetite for punishment until William awakened it in
her,” Thomas said. “I don’t know how he did it, but he corrupted
the girl.”
    Yank picked up a flat rock
and tossed it side-arm to skip across the water. “I think your use
of the word awakened is probably accurate. Something in the girl
was unbalanced before she met William.”
    “She really seems like a
decent girl, Dad. Well bred, intelligent. William’s done something
to her and as an officer I’m obligated to report it to Colonel
Worth.”
    “When you resigned your
commission you shed all the obligations of a serving
officer.”
    “Then the civil
authorities,” Thomas snapped.
    “I know how shocking and
upsetting this is for you, Thomas, but there’s nothing illegal in
William’s behavior. You have no obligation to report his activity
to Colonel Worth or to any civilian authorities.”
    “Surely William is in
violation of the Academy’s code of morality, Dad.”
    “I don’t know if there is a
code for staff. There wasn’t when I was there.”
    “There’s a code of human
decency and William has broken it.”
    Yank looked at Thomas. “You
asked me a specific question about your obligation as an officer
and I answered it. If you feel obligated as a man to take some
action, that’s an entirely different matter, and a question that I
cannot answer for you.”
    “I must say that you are
taking this far more calmly than I anticipated.”
    “Everyone seems to think
that I’m narrow-minded.” He picked up another rock and skipped it.
“I can’t think why.”
    “Have you heard of French
writer by the name of Marquis de Sade?” Thomas asked.
    “Yes, of course. He was
imprisoned by Napoleon and died in an asylum near the end of the
war.” He glanced at Thomas and then picked up another flat rock.
“Is that what you think William has become? One of de Sade’s
followers?”
    “I wasn’t aware that de Sade
had followers, only that he had written some disgusting
books.”
    Yank sent the rock skipping
over the water. “I’ve always been embarrassed by the discussion of
human sexuality so I’ve allowed you children to be educated in such
matters by your mother, who is untroubled by discussing almost
anything. As a consequence, I have no idea what you know and don’t
know.”
    Thomas chuckled. “I’m
twenty-three years old, Dad. You don’t