His voice cut through the silence with its sureness. He spoke firmly, softly; the steely edge in the timbre of his voice came from knowing he was right.
“Alex will not help us, gentlemen. No matter what the President has asked you to do. Bennet, you may as well keep your orders where they are. Danty is involved in the pursuit of one man. The captain will not stop until it has been accomplished.”
“Why are you so sure?” Davidson thoughtfully tapped a finger on the side of his long, angular nose. “I can hardly credit he’s been sinking ships to get at one man. All that destruction with revenge as the sole motive? I find that very difficult to accept.”
“Then you are going to have greater difficulty accepting what I’m about to say. Danty is after one man and it isherquest,herpursuit, andheraid you wish to seek. ”
Total silence greeted his words. Howe coughed as the smoke from his cigar filtered from the ashtray toward his nose. Abruptly he snuffed it out and cleared his throat. “Are you telling us that Alex Danty is a…a…” He could not go on. His shock gave way to laughter and the others joined in.
Cloud had expected such a response. He tried to excuse them, thinking that they had only met him this evening and they could not know he never made a statement without being able to support it.
“I am telling you Alex Danty is a woman,” he said quietly. It was as if he had slammed his fist on the polished table. The laughter stopped.
Howe recovered first. “How do you know, Captain? Have you seen Danty?”
Cloud said nothing. The moment stretched into an eternity in his mind. He wanted to tell everyone to go to hell. His word should be enough. He had no doubt about Alex now but he could remember a time when it had been difficult to accept. Could he expect so much from them? They didn’t know her. The truth was he did not want to remember the incident and even less did he want to share it. Alex’s problems were her own, to deal with in any way she saw fit. He knew her reaction would be one of disgust if she ever learned she had been casually talked about in a meeting of this sort.
He sighed. She would never find out. At least he could be thankful for that. He would never see her again unless she wanted it, and once they heard her story they would understand why she would never join them. It was to save her from even being asked that he reluctantly decided to talk….
Chapter 1
“Damn ’im! Damn ’im ta ’ell!”
For all that it was whispered, the curse had a strangely virulent quality. It was born of hatred and fear, loneliness and anger, yet these emotions could not be heard, trapped as they were in an icy delivery. “Oi ain’t lettin’ ’im sell me! Oi ain’t!” This time the cry was accompanied by the panicked movement of small hands along the length of two braids the color of beaten gold. Amber eyes, seemingly overlarge in such a thin, somber face, stared at the betraying flutter as if willing the fingers to be still. Even as Alexis quieted her hands, her mind was working feverishly. The events of the past few hours made it clear that she would have to leave if she were to avoid humiliation at the hands of the man she had called her father for all of her thirteen years.
For as long as she could remember, Alexis had been asked to be grateful to the distant relatives who had taken her in, pretending to disregard her illegitimacy and the fact that Alexis’s birth had meant her mother’s death. But their pretense had long been obvious to Alexis due to the ill-timed remarks and blatant accusations tossed at her regarding the details of her birth. Although Charlie and Meg Johnson provided shelter, Alexis was well aware of her own value in this family of shiftless dreamers. Among the four children she had no friend, and for Charlie and Meg she felt only contempt.
Until recently Charlie’s schemes for easy money had not involved Alexis, but lately Meg complained she was not doing her share. “Givin’ ’erself airs. That’s wot she’s doin’,” Meg whined to her husband, referring to the time Alexis spent in the park, inconspicuous behind flowering shrubbery, listening to the conversations of the ladies who frequented the place. “She wants ta talk loike ’em laidies, she does.” And to further condemn her Meg went on to say that when Alexis wasn’t in the park she was escaping her work by walking along the river, watching the ships or simply daydreaming.
Charlie, in a typically impulsive gesture, decided to put an end to his wife’s needling and Alexis’s defiant, ungrateful attitude by selling her. Alexis knew only too well what that meant. Now that she was banished to her room she cursed Charlie as well as any swell who would purchase a virgin to rid himself of the pox.
Alexis shut her eyes and pressed on her lids with the heels of her hands, making everything black until fleeting sparks of color appeared. She watched the floating spectrum, a rainbow for her gray world, knowing it was hers alone to see. No one else could witness the display of fireworks she controlled. She released her hands and opened her eyes, blinking a few times to restore her vision. Reality was the cracked ceiling, the blistering paint on the walls, the streaks on the windows. Alexis laughed suddenly. This would be her reality for only a few hours more. Even before she’d reached the age of thirteen she’d known surviving meant escaping.
Her decision to leave London had been made over two years ago. A destination had been established at the same time. But the plan unfolded slowly. It depended only on one person: Alexis. She reviewed the risks and the possibility of being caught, and decided what waited for her was worth taking the chance.
There was a place for her in America. She knew it. The sailors who had become her friends during the time she spent at the river told her often about the sort of life she could have there. She had listened eagerly, anticipating what she would make of the opportunities. It was a young country. And wild. And there was a place for her there. She hugged herself tightly, pleased that she knew what she wanted and knew how to get it.
She was finished with being teased for the things she held dear. Meg laughed at her for spending time in the park. Charlie accused her of whoring when she visited the harbor. None of that mattered now. It was all part of the plan. She had learned things in both places and now she would put her knowledge to the test.
Alexis feigned sleep when she heard her sisters coming up the stairs and didn’t utter a sound as they crawled into bed beside her, pushing her out in the process. Ignoring their titters and giggles, she covered herself with the blanket she’d managed to drag with her and waited until she heard their even breathing before she dared to move again. Quietly she made her way down the stairs, secure in the knowledge that everyone in the house had followed her sisters’ example.
She searched through the laundry hamper on the kitchen table until she found what she wanted. Her worn and faded shift was discarded in favor of her brother’s short pants and shirt. She took the best pair of stockings she could find and slipped into a pair of her brother’s shoes to complete her masquerade.
Her knitted cap, a present from one of her friends at the wharf, she tucked under her belt. With the sharpest knife she could find grasped firmly in her hands, she deliberately chopped at her braids until they lay at her feet. She ran her fingers through her hair and tugged at the curls until she was satisfied she had achieved her purpose. She drew back, surprised, when she glanced at herself in the cracked glass.
Tossing her head, she laughed softly at her reflection, liking her new look. Alexis pulled out her cap and placed it firmly over her head, hiding most of the stubborn curls. Taking only some bread and cheese, she left the house and walked hurriedly toward the river, never looking back.
Even late at night the area was teeming with activity. She hid away in the stoop of a shop and watched the men with interest. Men well into their cups passed by without a glance in her direction. Cargo was being loaded on several ships and somewhere in the distance she could hear the sound of a ship’s bell. She leaned her head against the door of the shop and fell asleep, certain she would find a ship leaving for America in the morning and equally sure she would find a way to be on it.
Alexis woke to the sound of her stomach rumbling and the odor of fresh bread nearby. A hand held out a chunk of hot white bread to her but before she took it she examined the owner of this wonderful prize. A woman smiled down at her. Her face, smooth and round, had tiny laugh lines at the corners of the eyes and mouth. Alexis smiled back, producing the brightest smile she could muster.
“You look like you could use this, lad,” the woman said. Seeing the hesitation on the young boy’s face, she pressed on. “I have plenty. I made it fresh this morning. Why don’t you come inside the shop and have some?”
Alexis shook her head, remembering she had her own food. “Oi can’t, mum.” She stopped. “I mean I can’t. Oi ’aven’t a shillin’…Oi haven’t a shilling. I ain’t a charity case.”
The woman laughed. “Who said anything about charity? You come in and have some breakfast and you can clean my stoop when you’ve taken your fill.”
Alexis took the bread that was offered and followed the woman into the shop. Inside, her mouth watered, and she felt an uncomfortable twinge of envy at meeting someone who didn’t know what it was like to go hungry.
