He knew he would have to be his most cordial during the upcoming evening, but he was finding it difficult to control the anger he was still feeling over the complications in his life and the way things were turning out. When Matt had come to him several days before with the invitation to join Faith and her mother for dinner, his first instinctive response had been to refuse. It had only been the realization that if he cut Faith and Ruth Hammond, he would be losing Matthew for all time that had forced him to accept. Noah did not want to socialize with these colonials. He did not want to become personally involved with any of them. He only wanted to complete the arms sale and return to England, but fate seemed to be intervening at every turn, wreaking havoc on all his plans. Matt had fallen in love with Faith and proposed to her against his expressed wishes. That had been distressing enough, but it also turned out that her father, though now dead, had at one time been a member of the dissidents.
