Landis found Cloud still unconscious an hour later and brought him around with a liberal amount of cold water.
“Did she make it safely, John?” he asked, rubbing the back of his head gently.
“She did. Quite a sight too. You want a drink, Tanner? It couldn’t hurt your head none.” Cloud nodded and Landis poured him some brandy. “She really knocked you out,” he whistled softly.
“Do I detect a bit of admiration for her in your tone?”
“You should detect a whole lot,” he laughed. “I want to know something.”
“What?”
“Did you let her do that to you?”
Cloud chuckled then winced from the pain. “That, old friend, is something neither you nor she will ever know.” He was silent, thinking she was really gone. After a while he said, “Tell me about it. How did she do it?”
Landis eased back into his chair, stroking his beard, preparing to tell a good story. “She came on deck just as natural as you please, like nothing had happened down here. She walked over to the starboard railing and waited until the ship was closing in. Harry and I knew what she was up to so we warned her it was possible that…” His voice trailed off. Tanner was not ready to hear that they knew for certain Alex had gone to Lafitte. “We warned her that it would be dangerous. She just looked at us with those blasted eyes of hers, daring us to try and stop her. Harry and I looked at each other and then at the other men who were watching and we knew no one was going to try for it. At that point we were giving serious consideration to hailing the other ship for her.”
“You didn’t.”
“No, we asked her where you were and she finally told us she had persuaded you to understand she knew what was best but that you still would not help her leave. She told us not to hail the ship.”
“Damn fool,” Cloud said, smiling. “Well, she didn’t lie to you exactly. She did persuade me.”
“You should have seen the pained look on her face when she said it. She wasn’t happy at all with her explanation. She got on the railing then and just before she dove in she told me to check on you, that she had hit you pretty hard. Next thing I knew she was over the side. The men all went to the railing and yelled to her to keep going. She swam and swam and there were a couple of times we thought she wasn’t going to make it. Harry signaled the other ship and made sure they pulled her in. There was no return message. We have to be satisfied that she is all right.” His voice dropped. “It’s what she wanted, Tanner.”
And, Cloud thought, heading for his cabin, he had finally come to terms with that. He rested his head against the pillow and stared through the darkness, wondering if he had imagined her cool hands on his face after she had rendered him unconscious, wondering if he had really felt her soft lips brushing his, wondering if she had really said the words she hated to him. It was probably just a dream of what he would have liked. Even if she had said, “I love you,” that was going to change very soon.
If only he understood this assignment better. He was going to have to stop her in spite of his own doubts. How was he going to keep her prisoner when he was no longer sure he wanted to, not in the way Howe and the others demanded. She was going to hate him for stopping her and he would have to accept that. He and Alex Danty were going to be together again; still the time was not right.
Chapter 8
Alexis took off her ring and dropped it into the velvet lining of the ivory case on her bureau. The ring and the box were both gifts from Lafitte and she treasured them as a symbol of her friendship with the pirate.
“You were wonderful, Kurt,” she said to the man standing in the doorway of her cabin. “They never suspected for a moment you were not the captain of this ship.”
Kurt smiled. He leaned against the frame of the doorway, almost filling the open space with his muscular bulk. He crossed one leg casually in front of the other and eyed Alexis as her fingers closed around the jewelry case. “I wasn’t bad, but it was you, dear wife, who kept them from searching the hold. Vapors indeed. When did you ever have an attack of the vapors?”
Alexis’s eyes narrowed as she peered at the handsome, brawny seaman. Then she broke into laughter. “Wasn’t I convincing? I thought it was quite effective.”
Kurt Jordan nodded and crossed the cabin in a few strides, taking a seat on the edge of Alexis’s bunk. He rubbed a spot of dirt from his boots before he said anything. When he looked up at Alexis his blue eyes were bright with laughter. “You were quite effective, but I thought the crew was going to give it away. It was all anyone could do to keep a straight face when you started to sway. The men have seen you in so many dangerous situations I believe they thought you incapable of fainting.”
“It seemed like the only solution. The British are getting too serious and too close in their search for Alex Danty. Imagine them boarding a private merchant looking for that brigand. When I saw they were ready to make a thorough search I had a vision of Alex Danty swinging at the end of a rope and that is something she is not ready to do.”
Kurt shook his head. “Neither is anyone on Captain Danty’s crew.”
“And none of us will if we keep our heads as we did today. Were the others upset by the prospect of being searched?”
“They were prepared to fight if our explosives and extra guns were found, if that’s what you mean. But I don’t think they doubted you would find a way out of it. It worked well—me as the captain and you as my wife.”
Alexis smiled at her second-in-command and sat at her desk. She smoothed the folds of her dress with her hands then she placed them on the arms of the chair, curling her fingers around the ornately carved wood. When she spoke her voice was deep, serious, almost weary. “We can’t stay here long, Mr. Jordan. It’s too dangerous for us to remain in England. We’ll put into port tomorrow and as soon as we can find where Travers has been reassigned we’ll leave.”
Jordan nodded. “Are we taking on new cargo?”
“I’ve made arrangements to carry tea and cloth to Boston. We are going to get rid of the rum presently hiding our contraband.”
“No one will be able to say this was an entirely fruitless venture even if we never find Travers. You’ve been able to make a bit of money in the last eighteen months.”
“The money is secondary,” Alexis replied shortly. “Travers is the main thing.”
