The day before theDark Ladywas scheduled to leave Tortola, Cloud and Alexis were picnicking on their favorite section of the beach, the area below the crow’s nest, when they were interrupted by a soft tread across the sand behind them.
Turning together, their faces showed opposite poles of emotion to the newcomer. Cloud frowned, irritated by the stranger’s intrusion, while Alexis smiled, elated he had returned safely.
Getting to her feet, she ran lightly across the white sand and hung her arms about his neck pleading, “Keep that horrible Captain Danty away from me! I won’t stay with him another moment!”
Cloud laughed with both of them. “You’re Scott Hansom, I take it.”
The laughter died in Hansom’s throat. He put Alexis to one side and took a menacing step toward Cloud, refusing to show he was impressed when Cloud didn’t move. “And you’re the son of a bitch that took Captain Danty and exposed her to those bastards—Howe, Farthington, and what’s-his-name? Richard Somebody or Other.”
“Granger,” Cloud supplied dryly, getting to his feet. “And you forgot Robert Davidson. Another bastard.”
“You should know.”
Cloud’s reply was cut off by Alexis. “But Mr. Hansom,” she reasoned, quickly perceiving the important issue, “how is it thatyouknow?”
Reaching into his back pocket, he threw several folded newspapers at Cloud’s feet. “It’s all there, Captain Danty. Everything. It’s what made me late. I left Baltimore for Washington when I first heard the rumors and I stayed there until I was certain the business was handled justly.”
Alexis tugged at Hansom’s sleeve. “Here, sit down. Don’t make us read the accounts now. Tell us what happened.”
Hansom eyed Cloud as if he were something to be stepped over before he did as Alexis suggested. Alexis seated herself beside him, while Cloud, in amused deference to the appraisal he was receiving, sat a few feet away.
“I heard your name linked with the senator’s several times. That’s when I thought you must be in Washington. I knew there was going to be trouble the momenthismen”—here the scathing tone was accompanied by a distasteful jerk of his head in Cloud’s direction—“started asking questions about you. I don’t suppose you ever received my message?”
“No, she never got it,” Cloud answered for Alexis.
Hansom gave him another narrowed look before he continued. “I found out that you had been in Washington a few weeks earlier, that you had been brought there byhimand were going to get some idiotic pardon for crimes you never committed by men who had no authority to offer one.
“Bennet Farthington confessed the whole of it to Little Jemmy himself. Jemmy’s war secretary, Eustis, resigned over this issue and some earlier conflicts. When Davidson discovered Farthington implicated all of them after Howe and he had tried to cover themselves, he killed himself. Apparently he couldn’t face the humiliation of the trial the others had to endure. The trial lasted four days and the jury was less than one hour returning a guilty verdict. All three men were given prison sentences for conspiracy to commit treason. If there had been proof that they had contacted the British, they would have been hanged.”
It took Alexis a while to take it all in. “It’s really over,” she murmured wonderingly. “I can hardly believe it. They can’t hurt us any more, Cloud.” A frown drew her eyebrows together as a terrible suspicion occurred to her. She grabbed for the newspapers on Cloud’s lap. “What do the accounts say about Captain Danty? Do they know?”
Cloud moved to kneel in front of her, stilling her frantic hands as she searched for the articles. “It’s all right, Alex. I looked through them already. I think it was a mixture of pride and fear that kept them from admitting all they knew. The world has Bennet Farthington’s sworn statement that Captain Danty is small and wiry and scarred so terribly in the face that he no longer resembles a man.”
Scott Hansom was relieved to find he could laugh with Captain Cloud after all.
Chapter 17
Cloud took a few moments to become accustomed to the dim light as he entered Alexis’s quarters. Instead of the usual lamps there was only soft candlelight and if Cloud had been asked to name the quality of the light, he would have answered: seductive.
Alexis was standing at the table, her head bent, adjusting a candle in its brass holder. Her slender fingers were wrapped around the candle and the tiny flame flickered across her face as she secured it in its position. Cloud smiled at the determined set of her mouth, so familiar to him now. His eyes darted from her mouth to her throat where the dancing orange light caught the silver chain, sending a spark in his direction. Emerald eyes continued their slow appraisal as Alexis straightened and stepped back to view her handiwork. She glanced up. Her face held no surprise at finding him in the room although she had not heard him enter. She saw appreciation of her appearance in the warmth of his eyes. His gaze had changed from casual to one she could only describe as reverent. Skirting the table, she took a few steps in his direction, the sky blue gown veiling her body whispered its presence with every movement. Unbound, her hair formed a golden aura about her oval face and shoulders. Her eyes were bright, anxious, when his eyes returned to hers, and his eyebrows arched in a question he could not have asked with his voice.
Alexis held out her hand, which he grasped firmly in his own, and led him back to the table. Cloud noticed the two goblets filled with dark, red wine only when she reached out to place one of them in his free hand.
“We are celebrating,” she said quietly, pressing her glass to his. The contact of the goblets seemed as warm and intimate as the touch of their hands.
“The occasion?” He raised the wine to his lips.
“Several things actually.” She tasted her drink sparingly, savoring just the hint of it in her mouth, over her tongue. “A few hours ago I completed my first full day back in command.”
“As if you had never left it.”
“Thank you. We are also drinking to the fact we are only one week from New Orleans and possibly Captain Travers.”
“And the end of your search.”
“Yes. Then there is the matter of theRaleigh.”
“Who told you?”
