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my business partner. Prudent and fast as a hare,” he chuckled, bringing the other two into his laughter. “And we’ve done well for ourselves. Despite a few losses to Hall, as you said, this is a big territory. Everywhere we look these days, we see new opportunities. Perhaps Storm Enterprises would like to hear about a few of our ideas.”
    Trent looked from Bradford to Karl and smiled. He was approachedweekly to help finance new “opportunities.” But there was something about these two young men he liked. He immediately trusted them. And after his last exchange with Tora, he felt like a hungry trout ready to pounce on a fat worm. This was just what he needed, the chance to jump into something with both feet, the opportunity to feel genuinely good about something. And these men were good at heart—he could sense it in his gut.
    “Gentlemen,” he said, “I’m interested. Tell me what you have seen, and what you would like to do.”

two

    July 1886
    E ven weeks after their hasty departure from Honolulu, Elsa could not get Mason Dutton out of her mind. As Kristian napped, she took her accustomed position over the captain’s cabin and began sketching his face in the merchant window, hoping to eradicate his image once and for all. For Elsa, there was something about getting an image on paper that allowed her to move on to other ideas, thoughts, images. She had been avoiding drawing his haunting image, fearing what Peder would say, when genius struck.
    What if, for the
New York Times
, she wrote of her initial encounter with Mason, and then their brief encounter in Hawaii? She’d always heard the pen was mightier than the sword. Perhaps some American diplomat would read of their plight and investigate. Who knew? Mason might be an impostor or might have been wrongly awarded a British military position, his government not aware that they employed a pirate. Imagine! A pirate in His Majesty’s Royal Navy! Why, they’d be appalled, and likely grateful to the American who uncovered such an unsavory scheme.
    With a smile on her face that melted away the worry lines in her forehead for the first time in weeks, Elsa sketched madly, recreating the man’s image as she’d seen it in the store window in uniform, as sheoriginally saw him in street clothes, and in profile. The detail she could conjure up surprised even Elsa, for it had been years since their first encounter, and their meeting in Honolulu was brief and distant. But his eyes, his cold, penetrating eyes, had pierced her soul and made her tremble if she thought too much about them. He was clearly a man with a vendetta. And Elsa had to strike first.
    When Kristian awoke, Elsa climbed downstairs and comforted her sleepy, grumpy tot with a quick cuddle and a story. Then she walked hand in hand with him, leading her son to Cook, who usually looked after him for an hour or so before beginning dinner preparations. She smiled at Peder as she exited the galley, proud of her handsome husband at the wheel shouting orders to the crew to raise more sails to take advantage of the trade winds.
    Memories of departing Hawaii at a mad pace clouded her vision. The crew had stared at Peder in wonder as he ordered all aboard within the hour, those not reporting left behind. Afterward, they were even more surprised as their captain ordered all sails set in dangerous winds. Why, they had nearly capsized in Peder’s effort to put miles between Mason and his family. For the first time in a long while, Elsa was genuinely afraid. Because Peder was frightened. She ducked into their cabin before Peder could detect any change in her mood. He had said little to her about Mason, dismissing the suggestion that they report him to the authorities, claiming that they’d never see him again anyway. Elsa decided he was unnerved by the uniform, unsure what power Mason might wield now, and what he could use that power to do to an innocent man. No, best to steer clear of him entirely, he obviously