A couple of the windows had been broken during the invasion, but they’d been covered with wood planking that now served to keep out the thunderous rain. “Once again, we must contemplate building an ark,” said Ruth.
“So much for a tropical paradise,” added Sarah. “If this is a normal rainstorm, I wouldn’t want to be here during the hurricane season. I understand the winds can blow the trees right out of the ground, just like a tornado, only cutting a much broader swath. I guess there’s a lot to be said for living inland.”
“Good morning, ladies,” said a smiling naval lieutenant Prentice. He’d just ducked into the hospital and was soaking wet. “Once again we meet during a rainstorm.”
Sarah remembered the incident all too well. “Just as long as we don’t spend the day soaking in a trench and have it followed up by gunfire.”
“I have it on good authority that all of the Spanish warships, at least those that can do any real harm, are snugly berthed in Havana, and that is why I’m here. I’m working on the modification of a steamer for some very special purposes.”
“And what might those be?” Ruth asked.
Prentice was about to respond when he suddenly looked distressed. “Oh dear,” said Sarah, “is it possible that you’ve said too much already?”
Prentice looked around frantically. Had anyone else overheard him? “You’re right. I have a very big mouth sometimes. It’s only that what I’m doing is so remarkable that I have a hard time keeping my thoughts bottled up.”
Sarah had a hard time keeping from laughing. Good grief. The young officer was still in his early twenties. How much information could he possibly possess and how much impact could it have on the course of a war between the United States and Spain?
“Don’t worry,” she said. “Whatever you’re doing-and we really don’t know what that might be-your secret’s safe with us. We have shockingly little to do with the Spanish Army, except to patch up some of their wounded and none are around at this time.”
“I think I should leave,” Prentice said glumly.
“It’s still raining very hard,” said Ruth.
Prentice shrugged. “And not likely to stop anytime soon.”
The nervous young lieutenant stepped outside and headed to the bay and the spot where the Aurora was anchored. In only a step or two he was soaked to the skin. He wanted to kick himself. He was so proud of what he was doing with Captain Janson and the Aurora that he wanted to shout it to the skies. However, doing that might just get him either court-martialed or killed.
* * *
For a man with a strong fast horse and good guides, the distance from Matanzas to Havana could be traveled in a day and a night. Kendrick’s original idea had been to go to Cuba’s capital and simply observe what was happening. However, his informers in the Spanish camp had informed the American that his nemesis, Gilberto Salazar, was in a military hospital and was likely to be there for a while. Therefore, he thought it likely that Juana might be interested in having a visitor.
He knew he should not have left Ryder’s camp without informing him, but he was afraid that he’d be denied permission, which he knew would be the correct thing to do. He knew too much about the American army, its position, leadership, and problems. He also knew that, if captured, he would not stand up very long under torture by the people who had invented the Spanish Inquisition. What he was doing was insane, but he wanted to see Juana and know that she was all right.
With two of Diego Valdez’s men as guides they easily made their way through the Spanish army. As one laughingly said, the Spaniards had a large army but not large enough to be everywhere. Kendrick wondered if the American generals knew of the gaps in the Spanish lines. After a few miles in fields and woods, they took the miserable road to Havana and made no attempt to hide.
When he arrived at Juana’s house a servant directed him elsewhere, to the house of one of her friends. Cursing, he rode the couple of miles to an elegant estate on heavily wooded grounds, where he was further directed to a small cottage several hundred yards away from the main house. He dismounted and nervously walked the few paces to the door. It had begun to rain and if nobody let him in he was going to be a soaked fool.
He knocked timidly. At first, there was no response. Then it opened and a thoroughly surprised Juana stood there, barefoot and dressed in a robe. She stared at him wide-eyed. “How did you get here so fast? I just sent the message?”
* * *
The next morning the two of them bathed, dressed, and went by carriage into Havana. They were exhausted as very little of their night in bed had been spent sleeping. Instead, they had reveled in the re-discovery of each other’s bodies.
If Juana was annoyed that James wanted to take time out from their liaison to see what had changed in Havana since his last visit, she stifled the feelings. She was just so happy to see him and it was clear that he felt the same way. After all, he hadn’t had to seek her out in the first place. It clearly meant that he cared for her.
Kendrick took the reins of the carriage and followed Juana’s directions. Again they visited one of the internment camps. There were even more prisoners jammed into it and Juana said there were still more in the others. Again the hatred in the inmate’s eyes bore holes in them. “Don’t they know you’re on their side?” asked Kendrick.
“I hope not. If they do, then I will be useless as a rebel and will be caught by the Spanish and thrown into a dungeon. There are cells in the Castillo de la Cabana that are centuries old and have known great filth and agony. Neither you nor I would do well in there.”
He shuddered at the thought of her being violated by brutal jailers and him being tortured for information he didn’t have. Once again he wondered at the wisdom of his coming to Havana.
Juana continued. “Some of us are stockpiling weapons for when the war comes here and we can liberate our own city. We have few guns, of course, so we must concentrate on giving our people machetes and spears. I just don’t want to be mistaken for a Spaniard when the day of reckoning occurs.”
“How will you prevent that?”
“I have no idea. When the day of reckoning arrives, I hope I will have enough time to get to the homes of rebel friends who will protect me. Certainly, one of the first targets of the rebels will be my husband and people like him and that includes the large number of American Confederates who came to Cuba after your Civil War concluded.”
Kendrick understood. He had done an article on the unrepentant Confederates who’d fled to Mexico and Cuba after the end of the Civil War and the death of the Confederacy. He’d thought it ironic that people in the South had once wanted to occupy Cuba and turn it into a slave state to counter-balance the spread of Free states in the Union. A further irony was Spain’s freeing of its slaves, however gradual. Where, he wondered, was someone who truly believed in the institution of slavery to go? Straight to hell seemed like a good idea.
They continued to where they could see the main part of the harbor off the Plaza de San Francisco. They stopped and Juana pointed. “There it is, the target of the American navy, the Spanish battleship Vitoria. The original idea was to have her repaired at the Arsenal on the other side of the harbor, but the ship is too large.”
Kendrick noted several men taking photographs of the Vitoria and the several smaller warships clustered protectively around her. “I wonder if I could get a print?
“Why not? The pictures are for sale. It’s not like the battleship’s presence is a secret.” She chuckled. “I will tell one of the photographers that I am a loyal Spaniard who wishes to immortalize the triumph of the Spanish navy and then I will buy it for you as a present.”
“You’re too kind,” he said with a grin.
Juana put her hand on his knee and drew it up his inner thigh. “We have been riding around in this head for long enough. The clothing I am wearing is beginning to chafe my body,” she said as she glared at him sternly. “I am feeling an almost overwhelming urge to get out of them and have my body massaged.”