The calm was over.
Cloud recalled the longboat and where they thought they had no energy, no hope, they found reserves of both.
That night Cloud stayed with Alexis while Jordan maintained the margin of safety Cloud had achieved for the ship.
Alexis had also been released from the effects of the calm. Now she stirred restlessly, shivering, trembling, and then growing still only to grow hot. When her breathing became labored he held her hand and stroked her forehead. When she cried out from pain he sparingly administered laudanum. He talked to her most of the night in low and gentle tones. He talked of his childhood, his first girl. He described his home, his parents, Emma, the streets of Boston. He told her about the wharfs, his first voyage, Landis, Harry Young, and the others. He told her things that would have made her laugh if she had been awake and he told her things that would have made her clutch his head to her breast if he had been in her arms. At times he hardly knew what he was saying, only that some part of her had to hear and realize it was his voice. It was only when he felt the warming rays of the sun at his back that he fully realized she had survived the night.
Cloud slept then. When he woke it was late afternoon and he had to accept Peter’s explanation that he needed his sleep more than they had needed him until now. Jordan had held their advantage admirably and they were within hours of Horse Shoe reef.
The reef was a bed of razor-sharp coral stretching in a perilous arc for thirteen miles. Located some twenty miles from Tortola, between the tips of Virgin Gorda and Anegada Island, it was a treacherous welcome for vessels entering the Caribbean from the Atlantic, its unique shape creating currents that were often swift and unpredictable. Like a tropical iceberg, Horse Shoe reef only rose above the water in a few places while the great bulk of its mass lay hidden, a series of hills and valleys ten fathoms deep in areas. Even in clear weather the reef was visible only to those who knew the meaning of the pale water surrounding it. Others, not familiar with the formation, had to depend on excellent navigation charts. Only in recent years had the reef been included on maps, and three hundred ships and many more men were mute testimony to this negligence.
It was Cloud’s intention to make this natural obstruction do the work of cannon and hot shot. He planned to skirt the reef, draw near, then retreat, always keeping theRaleighat a distance that would make firing her guns a useless exercise, but allowing her close enough to tantalize and seduce her into making a deadly error of judgment. The strategy was risky, the outcome uncertain.
“She’s following us, Captain! Just like you said she would!” Peach stared at the man beside him admiringly.
“Hard to starboard!” Cloud ordered as he felt the ship being pulled by a dangerous current. WhenDark Ladyhad shaken off the water’s clutch he glanced over his shoulder at theRaleigh.“Now we’ll see if they follow. If they don’t know the exact location of the reef, then they’ve learned there is some danger waiting for them.”
But theRaleighdid not slacken her pace, having pursued too long and hard to retreat now. When she reached the point where the current had tugged at theDark Lady,nothing at all rocked the frigate.
It was like a game of chess, a tournament marked by stamina, patience, daring, and eerie silences. For an hour theDark Ladyflirted with the reef, swinging in graceful arcs, the pattern of her taunting movements marked by her frothy wake, sparkling bread crumbs for her opponent to follow. TheRaleighmatched her steps, not gracefully, but competently and powerfully, as if she scorned the edge of strength which belongs to beauty.
It happened without warning. A powerful upsurge of water captured theDark Lady,and theRaleighwas forgotten and Redland and Cloud battled for life at the helm. Her sails strained and her rudder groaned at the position it was expected to take. Her crew was pitched forward and sideways while in her belly the other Dark Lady cried out in fear and pain for three people who could never answer. Then, as if she were shivering in revulsion at the current’s domination, the ship shuddered from stem to stern and pulled free moments before the reef would have claimed her. It was only then that anyone dared to look back and see how theRaleighhad fared.
Sounds travel in water. The great wrenching and scraping of theRaleigh’skeel as it drove into the coral reef reverberated in an underwater chasm. The slicing of her underbelly and starboard side delivered a message of splintering wood and shredding metal in fanlike waves to nearby animal life.
On the surface those sounds were muted. What the crews of both ships thought they heard clearly, they heard only in their imagination.
Water rushed into theRaleigh’shold and the frigate began to tilt at a dangerous angle before the boats could be lowered. TheDark Ladylooked on as men began to abandon their ship and strike out toward her. By the time four boats had been released, filled to overflowing with men of theRaleigh’screw, the surrounding water was dotted with the bodies of men who had been trapped in the current and was red with the blood of those who had been cut by the reef. One of the boats overturned before Cloud’s men could reach it with a hook. Sharks claimed all but fifteen of those lives. The remaining boats were towed until they were in sight of land and then were set free.
One hundred twenty men reached Anegada Island as theDark Ladysailed to Roadtown. Horse Shoe reef held two hundred of their mates.
“Did you really have a girl named Prudence?”
Cloud’s chair fell backward as he leaped from his place near the window to the four-poster where Alexis was lying. She spoke as if she had been awake for hours, listening to some conversation and only now deciding she wanted to contribute.
He knelt beside the bed and placed a hand on her forehead. She was watching him curiously, as if she did not know why he looked so concerned.
“Sally! Her fever’s gone! Sally!” he called for Mrs. Grendon.
Alexis brushed his hand aside with an air of impatience that made him laugh.
“Yes, Alex. Prudence.”
She placed a finger on his cheek and traced a line Cloud thought was imaginary until he saw her finger come away wet.
“You’re crying,” she said softly, wonderingly. She found his hand and held it, feeling no need to say anything more as she drifted back to sleep.
It was this scene that Sally Grendon viewed from the threshold of the bedroom. She dabbed at her round violet eyes with a corner of her apron and closed the door quietly.
When Alexis woke later she demanded to be allowed out of bed. Sally would not hear of it and called Cloud and her husband to restrain her. The threat of both men holding her down was enough to make Alexis promise to stay put, but when Sally told her how long she had been ill she was hard pressed to make Alexis keep her word.
Cloud visited her for several hours, entertaining her with carefully selected episodes of the days she had missed. He told her nothing of theRaleigh,preferring her to remain ignorant of the dangers they had faced while she was still weak. He described the hospitality they had received from the townspeople and the Grendons’ generosity in opening their home to them while Sally took over caring for her.
“I think she suspects,” he whispered conspiratorially, brushing his thumb lightly along the sensitive underside of her wrist.
“Suspects what?” she whispered back, equally secretive.
“That I want to crawl into bed with you.”
