“I do,” James agreed. “It’s the part about the warden refusing to allow your brother to see Lacross for himself. Drew is the only one of you who would recognize Pierre Lacross if he saw him because he was with me when I captured Lacross.”
“The warden could have denied Drew’s request for any number of reasons,” Warren put in. “Knowing Drew, he’s just annoyed that he couldn’t talk his way around that warden.”
Boyd added, “And that could mainly be because it’s a British prison and Drew’s American origins become obvious the moment he opens his mouth.”
Anthony chuckled. “Now that’s the more likely reason when Englishmen tend not to be cooperative with you Yanks even on a good day.”
“We’re not antagonizing them, Tony,” James warned his brother. “Keep your annoyance with me on me, not on them.”
“Then what am I even doing here?”
“I thought you might want to be included, in case you change your mind and decide to sail with me.”
“Not bloody likely, old boy. I’m staying close to home in case Judy changes her mind about that bounder Tremayne and returns home, needing a father’s shoulder to cry on. You can tell me all the gory details when you get back to England.”
“Then you might as well return to the party,” James suggested.
“Didn’t say I wasn’t interested,” Anthony grumbled.
Warren said, “Well, even if we still don’t know who we’re looking for, I’m game to leave now. I’ve been landlocked far too long. And we can investigate more once we get to the West Indies.”
James said, “If Drew and I didn’t both suspect Lacross is responsible for Jack’s abduction, I wouldn’t have given him this much time to try to confirm it. Drew checked Pierre’s old fortress island. It was deserted, but there were signs of recent occupation. And he wasted weeks trying to find out who had been there recently and where they went, which is why we didn’t hear from him before now.”
“But if Lacross is still in prison, what did Drew even hope to find there?” Boyd asked.
“Not all of that pirate’s men were captured the night we defeated him. But in any case, I should have been on my way back there long before now, considering that when I retired from the sea, I left more’n one enemy behind in the Caribbean. Drew wouldn’t know them if he met them. I need to talk to them myself to determine if any of them hatched this plot. Drew doesn’t know who to question to get answers that might be helpful, whereas I—”
“Get answers by any means,” Warren said, then added abashed, “That was a compliment, James, not a slur.”
Anthony chuckled. “You’re taking all the fun out of this, Yank.” But then he said to his brother, “No need to fry me, old boy. You might have upped your truce with them a notch for the duration of this mission, but I haven’t.”
James ignored that remark, saying, “I would have left sooner if my darling Jack hadn’t kept this from me. She found it on the ship that sailed off with her from Bridgeport. Her abductor, the ship’s captain, insisted on sending us a more polite version of the original ransom note.”
“A polite kidnapper?” Boyd said in surprise.
Warren snorted. “What kind of pirate writes a polite note?”
Anthony read it aloud: “ ‘Your life for hers. Sound familiar? You know the place. Do hurry,mon ami.’?”
James explained, “Jack made a copy of this more goading note penned by her abductor’s boss before she forgot the exact words.”
“Yet she kept it a secret from you all this time?” Anthony asked. “Why?”
“She was afraid I would be walking into a trap if I returned to the Caribbean too soon, that they would be expecting me. The writer, who she knows is Catherine Meyer’s father, obviously thought I would know exactly who he was by those otherwise cryptic words.”
“Do you?”
“Yes, except he’s still in prison.”
Warren said, “Lacross again?”
“Now wait,” Boyd put in. “You can’t assume the man is French just because of thatmon ami. I’m not all that familiar with the French language, but doesn’t that particular phrase mean ‘my friend’?”
“Sarcasm at its best,” James replied. “That note implies he wanted me to know exactly who was orchestrating my demise without providing proof that could be used in a court of law. And that, more’n anything else, sounds like Lacross. I also wouldn’t be surprised if Lacross has a daughter who’s a jewel thief and as clever as a fox, that shrew Catherine Meyer, who our fake distant relative Andrássy brought aboardThe Maiden George.”
“Does she resemble Lacross?” Warren asked.
“Not closely enough for me to conclude that she’s his daughter,” James admitted. “But she could be doing Lacross’s dirty work. Either the warden in Anguilla lied to Drew, or Lacross is pulling strings from inside that prison. The point of this entire plan could have been to hand-deliver me to that prison and right into his cell.”
