She took a seat in a chair opposite the couch where he was now reclining.
“Not as well as I hoped,” he admitted, staring at the ceiling. He crossed his hands behind his head and lazily lifted one leg over the back of the sofa.
“Not as well in what way?” Alexis leaned forward in her chair.
“The senator and I did not agree on a few points.”
“Concerning me?” Her voice was almost inaudible.
“Of course concerning you,” he replied curtly, then regretted it when he looked over and saw Alexis’s disturbed frown. “I have no other reason to see Howe except where you are concerned.”
“I do not need a champion.”
“What makes you think I took your side?”
“I only thought…” She stopped. She did not know what she thought.
He sat up suddenly, his face hard and unyielding as he spoke swiftly to cut through any illusions she had. “Perhaps I had better clear up any doubts you may be harboring, Alex. I want you. I love you. Don’t you dare frown. You know it as well as I, perhaps better. But right now, with my country at war, I also want you just as all the others do. I have told you before your assistance could make a difference for us and I meant it. The knowledge you have gleaned after almost two years of fighting alone is knowledge many of our commanders have learned only after years of service. You would be an asset to our cause, which I must add, is not simply our indignation at the British removing men from our ships and impressing them. It is also our indignation over the Orders in Council which substitute favoritism for skill by letting some shipping firms through blockades and denying that right to others. Neither France nor England recognize our position of neutrality in their war and Yankee traders fall prey to privateers on both sides. England presumes it has the sole rights to free trade on the Atlantic. If the outcome of this war is in our favor, I will be a richer man than before, because it will free Garnet Shipping to pursue ports all over the world without the threat of British interference. I am in this war to protect what I own and see that it prospers. Do you understand what the United States has to gain or lose depending on the outcome? Do you see what you have to gain?”
Alexis said nothing. She was not thinking only of Quinton Shipping, which would become more prosperous because of the increased competition she intended to beat. She was not thinking only of the people who would have a better life on Tortola as a result of her success. She was staring at Cloud, thinking that her cooperation could gain her what she wanted most: the man who was searching her face, waiting for an answer.
“I see,” she said, not taking her eyes from him.
Cloud nodded. There was a long silence, a pause of painful understanding. Cloud lay back on the couch and asked, almost rhetorically, “Alex, if the President were to present the facts to you as I just did, and ask for your assistance, what would your answer be?”
“Mr. Madison cannot do that.”
His eyebrows furrowed. “Why not?”
“I was brought here by force, Captain. You well remember the threat you used against me. I expect it will be used again in an attempt to make me comply with your President’s wishes. Of my own free will I would have joined your struggle and made it my own. The battle would have been worth the risk. But I would have joined you only after finishing what I set out to do. I would have completed my goal first, then I would have fought for your country. Don’t you remember? It was the United States I tried to reach when I was thirteen. I would not turn my back on the kind of life I expected to find here.”
“And you don’t think it is here now?”
Alexis looked around the room, seeing four walls closing in on her. “Where is my liberty, Captain? Where is my right to make a decision freely, without the threat of imprisonment? Your President has not offered me that.”
“And if he could?”
“He would have to allow me to seek Travers first; then I would assist you of my own volition, just as I would have if you had never brought me here.”
Cloud was ready to tell her this was precisely what he had told Howe, but a knock at the door interrupted him. Forrest entered with a tray of food and wine. After the cook left Cloud sensed the opportunity to explain his position had left with him. Between bites he answered Alexis’s questions about the house, thanking her for working so hard to make it presentable again.
“Do you own a home in Boston as well?” she asked, placing her glass carefully on the polished table at her side.
“No, I stay with Emma and Blake when I visit. They live where my parents lived, in the house I grew up in.”
“But when you eventually settle in Boston, would you give up this house?”
“How did you know I plan to live in Boston?”
Alexis smiled. “Because of the way you spoke of Garnet Shipping a while ago. You have no intentions of giving it up forever, if indeed, you ever gave it up at all. You could not run the line from Washington.”
Cloud laughed. “When I talked to Emma last she told me Quinton Shipping was cutting into our business. I did not tell her, but I knew for a fact, the owner was rarely around to see to the business personally.”
Alexis’s smile grew wider at the compliment. “I have some very good help and some from quarters I did not desire.”
Cloud frowned at the offhand reference to Lafitte. “Let’s not talk of Lafitte,” he said, pushing his tray aside.
“Why do you react that way when I mention him? He gave me assistance when I needed it. Surely you must realize I did not ask him to let my ships pass unharmed. He chose to do that on his own and I am not sure I understand his reasoning.”
