“If he’s working that fast, then I suspect you’re right. Never mind though. You go and help him with the upstairs and I’ll clean after you.”
Harry started to go; then he paused, looking back at her. She was already back to scrubbing the floor and didn’t notice his hesitation. “Alex, I want to say something to you.”
Startled by the seriousness of his tone, Alexis looked up immediately. She wiped her wet hands on her trousers and partially sat up. “What is it, Harry?”
“It’s you, Alex. Here, in this house. I feel strange calling you Alex or Captain. It’s as if I should call you—” He stopped, unable to continue. “I talk too much. I’m going to find Landis.”
Alexis could only stare after him. She knew what he was going to say. She had felt it too. She tried to dismiss the feeling and what it meant while she put the food away. There was a sense of coming home that she associated with the house, something she had never experienced anywhere before. She was surprised Cloud owned such a large home when he probably had very little opportunity to use it. She wandered through the rooms on the first floor, noticing the expensive furniture, the rich rugs and fine paintings. The study was full of books, many of them ornately bound. She did not have to remember he was a wealthy man because of Garnet Shipping. Every room subtly stated that fact.
A knock at the door interrupted her from further exploration. She went to answer it. Tom Daniels stood grinning on the threshold, holding her bag of clothes under his arm.
“Tom, thank you,” she said, taking the bundle from him. “Come in. Did something happen to your jaw? You’re holding it oddly.”
“No, ma’am. I have a little toothache, that’s all.” Embarrassed by his lie he avoided her gaze. He did not want her to know about the fight.
“Well, if that’s all it is, then I’m going to put you to work. You can help us with the cleaning.”
Serves me right, he thought, as he allowed himself to be saddled with a feather duster and began working. “It seems I came too early,” he muttered under his breath.
Alexis ignored him, laughing to herself, and went upstairs to see what the other two were doing. She dropped her possessions in one of the rooms they had already cleaned and found them in another bedroom, struggling to make up the bed. Looking around the room she realized it was Cloud’s. A shiver passed through her as she glanced around her. Navigation manuals were neatly stacked on a bureau beside a hairbrush and razor. One of the men had thrown his duffle bag carelessly on the floor. Alexis bent to pick it up, setting it on a chair by the window.
She helped Harry and Landis make the bed. When they were done she told them to rescue Tom downstairs. Both of the men gave her gratified looks and went off to give Tom the good news.
Alone now, Alexis began unpacking Cloud’s bag of clothes. She neatly folded his things, placing them in drawers, and hung his dress uniform in the wardrobe. She noticed his carelessness with it meant it would have to be pressed if he intended to wear it while he was in Washington. The contentment she felt being in this room, touching things belonging to him, caused her to feel a longing she had tried to put behind her. Knowing he was fighting the same desire did not make it any easier.
She smoothed the thick spread on his bed, her fingers lingering on his pillow for a few moments longer than she had intended. Caressing the coverlet lightly, she felt as if she were caressing the hard planes of his face, willing them by means of her feather touch to relax and forget the orders which had come between them. She wanted the pleasure she had found in his arms and she wanted to return the pleasure he had known from her.
She stepped back from the bed and ran from the room, closing the door hard behind her, as if by doing so she could shut out all the room and the man who slept there meant to her. She knew she could not go to him, nor he to her, as long as she was his prisoner. It was different before, she thought, when he had held her captive because he alone wanted her. Now she was being pulled in different directions. While he had no choice in what had transpired, he was still pulling her in a direction she did not want to go. Now it was not only Travers who stood in their way, but also this war.
She thought how easy it would be to tell him that she would agree to help his cause; how easy it would be to fall into his arms, into his bed, after such a decision. But he would know better, and she was glad he would. She asked herself why she was holding back from him, why she was determined not to allow him more than a brush against her flesh or a gentle kiss. She knew the answer almost before the questions had formed concretely in her mind. If she lay beside him again and experienced all he could do for and to her, she knew she would not have the strength to do battle any longer. She knew she would give up everything in order not to leave Cloud. He must know it also, she thought. She remembered how he had weakened in front of the tavern. He had almost freed her then. If she had not stopped him, he would have put her on a ship for Tortola himself. She knew how hard he was fighting the conflicts within him. As Cloud he wanted her to reap her revenge and be free to be with him in every manner possible, but as the commander of theConcordhe had to see his mission through. And yet, he had a power at his disposal to see that she joined him, the power of him being who he was, and he refused to use it in order to achieve his ends.
She smiled, recalling she had accused him of believing the ends justified the means, but here was her proof he would never willingly agree to such a thing. The realization carried with it something that frightened her for a moment. She had lied to him on theConcord.He had bared his soul to her and she’d responded with a lie. She did love him, desperately, totally, irrevocably. Even as she thought it, she knew she would not tell him. His burden was already too great without the additional weight her words would carry.
She put her own things away, lingering over the worn linen shirt he had refused to let her throw away. Though she owned the shirt, she knew there was nothing more symbolic of Cloud’s ownership of her. When she slipped it on tonight she would be more of a prisoner than when he had had her tied. She pressed the material close to her cheek. When she pulled it away she saw, with a small shock that caused her body to tremble, that it was wet, and that she had been crying.
She erased the tears with the back of her hand and put the shirt away. Quickly, as if activity formed a substitute for her thoughts, she undressed, putting on the only dress Tom had had the foresight to pack. It was the same one she had worn the day Cloud had taken her from her ship, the day war was declared, the day she had seen revenge slip through her fingers. After smoothing out the wrinkles she brushed her hair and decided against redoing the braid. When she looked in the mirror and saw the hair fall around her shoulders, she thought of Pauley and the promise she had made to him. Quietly she reaffirmed one of the promises she had made to herself, knowing the other had been broken when she’d met Tanner Frederick Cloud.
After a two-hour wait that left Cloud impatient and irritable, he was ushered into Howe’s office by his secretary.
The senator rose from his chair and walked around his desk to shake hands with him. He stared pointedly at Cloud for several moments, gray eyes coldly assessing the man in front of him. When he spoke it was as if the pause had not taken place. “Sorry to have kept you waiting, Captain. I was only informed of your presence a short time ago. I concluded my business as rapidly as I could.”
Cloud smiled grimly and seated himself in a chair at the corner of Howe’s ostentatiously carved desk. He refused the drink he was offered and remained quiet while Howe fixed one for himself. He was fully aware of the senator’s guarded appraisal. Rather than making him uneasy, it made him want to laugh.
“I hope your being here indicates you have Captain Danty in your custody,” Howe said, taking his seat.
“I do.” Cloud noticed Howe’s thick lips curl slightly.
“Good. I knew we sent the right man. This is the first piece of encouraging news I have had all morning. Where do you have her?”
“She’s staying in my home for the present. I have men guarding the house to prevent her escape.” The senator’s eyebrows rose slightly and Cloud chuckled softly. “You didn’t think she would come of her own free will, did you? I thought I made that clear from the moment the subject of Alex Danty was brought up.”
“You did,” he said, taking a pull of his drink. “I was hoping that once war had been declared she might prove to be more cooperative.”
“Congress could not have chosen a worse day to act on Mr. Madison’s proposal, Senator.” The eyebrows lifted again, and Cloud explained everything that had taken place since he’d left Washington. He put special emphasis on Alexis’s escape attempt so Howe would understand precisely how determined she was to refuse them. “The last thing she told me today was that she had no intention of leaving Washington until she meets with the President. She believes she has a score to settle with him.”
Howe’s eyes narrowed. He tapped the side of his large nose thoughtfully. “I imagine she wants to tell him to go to hell.” Cloud nodded and Howe added, “Little Jemmy might like hearing it straight to his face for a change, instead of behind his back.”
Cloud got to his feet, uneasy with the derogatory tone in the senator’s voice. He wanted to end the meeting swiftly. “Senator, are you and the others still insistent upon using Captain Danty to provide a means to Lafitte?”
