“I was.” Alexis’s smile became full blown as she looked at her husband. “Danty was a name I chose for myself before the Quintons adopted me. But I’m Alexis Cloud now, and I’ve a fondness for the name, so I’ll ask you not to repeat the other. There aren’t many people who know the truth.”
“How did you know, Rhys?” asked Tanner.
“Something you said when we first dined in your home. You toasted your notorious wife.”
“Ah. Then I shall have to guard my tongue more carefully in the future.”
“It wasn’t merely that,” Rhys said to Alexis. “As I listened to Kenna several things began to make sense in my mind. For instance, the fact that you were the one commanding the schooner the day we arrived in Boston. And the way you held those pistols this morning. If that weren’t enough to make me suspicious, you’d already told me that you were responsible for the charges of treason brought against Senator Howe. At the time I didn’t ask myself how it was possible that you could be in a position to make those charges, but now I see it was not Alexis Cloud who made the claim, but Alex Danty. Is that correct?”
“Yes.”
Rhys leaned forward. “And my father knew who you were. That’s why you never fought him, never publicly acknowledged what he was doing to Garnet Shipping.”
“Yes. Roland knew. He visited Howe in prison several times and Howe must have told him. Do not mistake our reasons for silence. Neither Cloud nor I are ashamed of who I was or anything I’ve done. But I have no wish to have it known that I was Alex Danty. There are still those in England who would pay dearly for that knowledge.”
“If they believed it,” Kenna said. “I am finding it quite difficult.”
Tanner laughed. “You would not be the first. It’s for precisely that reason that Roland never spoke publicly of his knowledge. He would not open himself to ridicule any more than we would open ourselves to the possibility that he would be believed. Even though Danty is something of a folk hero on these shores, Alex would be ostracized by most of society if the truth were known.”
“I don’t care so much for myself,” Alexis said softly, “but it would be a burden for the children we may have some day. It’s better that everyone think Alex Danty is dead.”
“You didn’t have to admit the truth to us,” said Rhys. “Why did you?”
“Because I trust you, both of you, and I think you had a right to know what Roland was holding over our heads.”
“I thank you for that.”
Tanner stood and Alexis followed suit. “We have to be going. I’ll speak with my foreman about our plans to keep the wharf safe. You’ll have some additional men by this afternoon.”
Rhys escorted the Clouds to the street then returned to the office. Kenna had moved behind the desk but her attention was directed absently on the window rather than on the ledgers in front of her. Rhys shut the door behind him and leaned against it, studying Kenna. There was a serenity to her expression that captivated him. The corners of her beautiful mouth were turned up in the merest suggestion of a smile; her eyes caught the light filtering in the window and glistened with a faraway look.
“What are you thinking?”
Kenna started guiltily at having been caught daydreaming. “Just things,” she said, shrugging off her thoughts as if they could be of no importance to him. In truth she was a little embarrassed by the direction her mind had taken after Alexis and Tanner had left. Rhys had come upon her while she was thinking of children. One of Alexis’s last remarks had started her thinking about a family again.
Rhys pushed away from the door and rounded the desk, sitting on the edge with one foot propped on Kenna’s chair. “Just things,” he echoed softly. “They were lovely thoughts, whatever they were. You looked beautiful thinking them.”
“How kind of you to say so,” she said, tilting her head to one side and looking at him with a coy sideways glance.
“I’m no idle flatterer, Mrs. Canning. And if you keep looking at me that way I’ll not prove reluctant to show you what’s on my mind.”
“Rhys!”
“Kenna!” he mocked, grinning wickedly.
“I forbid you to make advances in this office!”
“Forbid, madam?”
She relented, knowing he would take up the challenge and she would inevitably surrender. “All right. I don’t forbid it, but if you ever want me to work in here again you won’t do it. I won’t be able to concentrate for thinking of other things.”
Rhys tossed his head back and laughed. “When you put it that way, I have no choice. I cannot afford to lose my best unpaid employee.”
Kenna pushed his foot off her chair and struggled to temper her own mirth. “Go on,” she said severely. “That ship is not going to build itself.”
At the door he smartly saluted her, winking for good measure, then ducked outside before he made himself a target for the book she was preparing to throw.
Rhys arrived home quite late that night. Kenna was reading in bed when he entered the room and she could smell spirits on him before he crossed the floor to kiss her.
