The worst thing was that for the first time in his life, everything Luke said was entirely correct. That didn’t make it easier as Gray bid his brother farewell, possibly for the last time on this earth.
Caroline would not accept it. The morning after his ship docked in Alexandria, Gray headed straight for the White House to see his sister. She’d just come from facilitating a luncheon with a group of congressmen’s wives and still wore an elegant day dress of pink-and-black-striped taffeta.
Oddly, she wanted to meet with him outdoors. Visitors swarmed the public gardens surrounding the White House, so she guided him to a cramped area near the service entrance that was screened from public view by a boxwood hedge. This was a part of the building few people saw, and it showed the age and genteel dilapidation of the White House. The cobblestones were buckled, and the loading area seemed too small for the traffic it received.
“There is a new security team in the White House,” Caroline said. “The head of security is determined to make my life miserable, so it’s easier to meet out here.”
Gray and Caroline sat on a low hip wall beside the openservice doors where a wagon carrying crates of oranges had just arrived. The workers paid them no attention as they offloaded the produce. Gray kept his voice low as he filled Caroline in on details of his visit to Luke, but throughout it all, she kept shaking her head.
“This doesn’t sound like Luke,” she insisted. “We both know he’s always been the first man to dive into mischief, so it’s possible he’s been up to no good, but I don’t believe he would give up. Something doesn’t smell right.”
Gray understood, for he’d wanted to deny his brother’s guilt all the way up until he saw the utter hopelessness on Luke’s face. An innocent man wouldn’t be so resigned.
“He’s admitted his guilt. We need to accept that.”
She still didn’t look convinced. “But how did they find him out?”
“They found his code book with the list of his contacts in Cuba. He said he kept it in the raccoon shed out at Windover Landing.”
Caroline’s expression was grim as she watched the deliverymen close the wagon bed and prepare to leave. The corners of her mouth turned down, and her eyes darkened. “And how did they know about the raccoon shed?”
He’d already asked himself that a dozen times and come up empty. “I don’t know.”
She looked sick as she turned to him. “Otis.”
The possibility hit him like a slap in the face. Otis rarely went out to Windover Landing, but when Gray was overseas, he had no idea what Otis got up to. Otis knew Morse code. Otis spoke Spanish and had contacts everywhere. And as a black man, Otis had plenty of reason to resent the government.
“Could Otis and Luke have been in this together?” he asked Caroline. “If Luke is covering for him, it would explain why he isn’t fighting too hard.”
Caroline shook her head. “I think Otis turned him in. He’sthe only one with the means and the motive. And he would have been well paid for that sort of information.”
Gray curled over, bracing his head in his hands. Was there no one he could trust? His father had given Otis a good job and paid him well, but Gray had been out of the country for most of the last twenty years. He didn’t truly know Otis.
“I’ll figure this out,” he said grimly. “If Otis stabbed us in the back, I’ll catch him in the act.”
“In the meantime, I’m not giving up on Luke,” Caroline said, but this was a battle she shouldn’t waste her strength on. Luke was deliberately sacrificing himself so as not to suck the rest of his family down with him.
“Luke wants the best for you,” Gray said gently. “He specifically said he wants you to soar.”
She kept her chin high but blinked furiously to stop the tears from falling. “I will never,nevergive up on him.”
Gray reached out an arm to pull her against him. This horrific crisis had brought him and Caroline closer than they’d ever been. She no longer bucked against his rules, and he’d lost interest in trying to mold her into the sort of sober, conventional woman he thought she should be. They both had bigger problems to confront, and the stain on their family’s honor was going to scorch. Gray could afford a hit to his reputation, but Caroline couldn’t.
“Once news of the scandal breaks, you may not be able to keep working here.” He’d never approved of Caroline getting sucked into the McKinley administration, but she loved her work and was likely to become a casualty of Luke’s disgrace.
“I’ve already told Mrs. McKinley and the president everything,” she said.
“And how did that go?” he asked, stunned that Caroline could still be employed if news had already reached the White House.
“Not well. Mrs. McKinley was so appalled that she recoiledfrom me as I talked. I hadn’t even finished before she raced straight to the president’s office to tell him everything. But, Gray ... President McKinley was so kind. He actually tried to comfort me instead of hurling me out of the house as I feared.”
“So that’s it?”
She nodded. “I think so. Mrs. McKinley takes her cue from the president, and since he accepted it, she fell into lockstep behind him.”
“A matched pair, then.”
The tone of his voice must have irked Caroline, for her spine stiffened, but her voice became earnest.
