“I won’t take it. I’m going to get that pardon.”
“Not before the election. Even if McKinley wins a second term, I don’t see him endangering his reputation until his very last week in office. You are in for a long wait.”
Caroline swallowed hard at the news. She couldn’t risk Luke’s freedom on the outcome of an election. If Mr. Alphonse wouldn’t help her get a presidential pardon, she would pursue one on her own.
The only person Caroline completely trusted to help with Luke’s situation was her older brother, Gray Delacroix. He was in charge of their family’s spice company, which had given him the freedom to go to Cuba several times over the three months since Luke’s arrest. He had returned from his latest visit only a few days ago, but duties kept Caroline trapped in the White House until Sunday afternoon, when she hired a carriage to take her to their family’s townhouse in nearby Alexandria.
“How’s Luke?” she asked the moment she took a seat across from Gray’s desk. With his dark coloring and serious face, he was practically a replica of their father. At forty, Gray was twelve years older than Caroline and Luke and the natural leader in their family.
“He’s being difficult,” Gray said bluntly. “He fired the attorney I hired for him and insists on maintaining his guilty plea. He also rejected my attempts to get him transferred to the American prison.”
Luke had been arrested for siding with Cuban rebels to oust the American presence that had been on the island since theconclusion of the Spanish-American War two years earlier. The island had been ravaged during the war, but the American government had flooded Cuba with money, supplies, and soldiers to rebuild the infrastructure. Most Cubans welcomed it, but a rebellious minority distrusted the American occupation and wanted them to leave. By siding with the Cuban rebels, Luke had made enemies of the local population who wanted the reconstruction of their island. He had been arrested alongside a group of rebels and had been sweltering in a Cuban jail ever since.
“I want him out of that jail,” Gray said tightly. “I toured the American military prison in Havana, and the conditions are better. Luke would be better off there, but he refuses to permit a transfer.”
“Can we pay the attorney to keep working on the transfer, even if Luke won’t cooperate?” she asked.
A brief smile flashed across Gray’s face. “I’ve already paid him to start the paperwork. There’s a hospital at the American jail, and decent medical care too.”
She sucked in quick breath. “Has Luke been ill?”
There was a long pause as Gray’s face darkened and he glanced away. “He got beat up by a couple of the guards the other day. I didn’t want to tell you, but we can’t keep secrets from each other. He looks bad. He’s lost weight.”
She flinched. The feeling of helplessness was strangling, but she couldn’t give up. “If the Cubans hate him, why won’t he ask for a transfer to an American prison?”
Gray had no answer, and it was just one of the many questions that swirled in her mind ever since hearing of Luke’s arrest.
“How are his spirits?” she asked.
Gray shrugged. “You know how he is. He always puts a bright face on everything.”
Caroline made no comment. From the time Luke was in longpants, his behavior had been outrageous. He indulged in endless pranks, broken curfews, overspending, and pushing the limits. He loved flirting with disaster and running risks. No matter how wild his behavior, he seemed to know exactly how far he could bend the rules before the hammer would crash down, and he usually managed to scramble back to respectability just ahead of the law, the debt collector, or the outraged father.
And the one time he hadn’t, Caroline was the only person he let know how deeply he’d been wounded. It was when he’d been expelled from the Naval Academy. His grades had been exceptional, but his demerits left him teetering on the edge of expulsion for three solid years.
His balancing act came crumbling down a month before graduation when he was sent home in disgrace. All they knew was that his final offense involved an admiral’s daughter, but Luke remained tight-lipped about the details. That night was burned into her mind. She’d huddled outside this very study while her father raged at Luke. Gray was overseas, managing their East Indian holdings, but she doubted he would have had any more luck in prying the story from Luke.
But he told Caroline everything.
It was after midnight when he tapped on her bedroom door. The two of them headed toward the harbor only a few blocks away so they could speak privately. They leaned against the railing and gazed at the moonlight glinting on the water. Luke had dropped his typical lackadaisical air and stared moodily out over the sea.
“Sally is a nice girl,” he said. “Her father ignores her, and she was desperate for a little attention. I was happy to give it.”
“Luke,” she said in an aching voice, dreading where this conversation seemed headed.
“He forgot her birthday,” Luke said dismissively. “It isn’t the first time that’s happened, and he swore he wouldn’t forget this year. I found her bawling behind the library and just wanted tocheer her up. I rounded up a few midshipmen, and that night we all stood beneath her bedroom window to give her a rousing serenade. She leaned out the window, and I’ve never seen anyone so elated. Her father woke up and started tearing into her. I could hear everything from outside. All the other guys ran, but like an idiot, I stayed to make sure she’d be okay. Anyway, I got left holding the bag for it.”
“That’s all? You hadn’t taken any other liberties with her?”
He shrugged. “A peck on the cheek, but I guess when her father questioned her, she confessed to carrying a torch for me. I didn’t know, I just wanted to cheer her up. My hand to God, I never touched her aside from that one kiss on the cheek. Her father went to the academy’s superintendent, and that was the end for me.”
“Do you think she might intercede for you? If her father blew this out of proportion, maybe there’s still hope.”
Luke shook his head. “If I was squeaky clean, I might have been able to survive it, but I guess I’ve been walking along the edge for too long.”
To her horror, tears welled up in his eyes. He swiped them away with an impatient hand, but he couldn’t block them from his tone.
“It’s probably just as well,” he said in a shattered voice. “I never wanted to be a naval officer. I just wanted to make Dad proud, you know?”
