Luke had been arrested for siding with Cuban rebels to oust the American presence that had been on the island since the conclusion of the Spanish-American War two years earlier. The island had been ravaged during the war, but the American government had flooded Cuba with money, supplies, and soldiers to rebuild the infrastructure. Most Cubans welcomed it, but a rebellious minority distrusted the American occupation and wanted them to leave. By siding with the Cuban rebels, Luke had made enemies of the local population who wanted the reconstruction of their island. He had been arrested alongside a group of rebels and had been sweltering in a Cuban jail ever since.

“I want him out of that jail,” Gray said tightly. “I toured the American military prison in Havana, and the conditions are better. Luke would be better off there, but he refuses to permit a transfer.”

“Can we pay the attorney to keep working on the transfer, even if Luke won’t cooperate?” she asked.

A brief smile flashed across Gray’s face. “I’ve already paid him to start the paperwork. There’s a hospital at the American jail, and decent medical care too.”

She sucked in quick breath. “Has Luke been ill?”

There was a long pause as Gray’s face darkened and he glanced away. “He got beat up by a couple of the guards the other day. I didn’t want to tell you, but we can’t keep secrets from each other. He looks bad. He’s lost weight.”

She flinched. The feeling of helplessness was strangling, but she couldn’t give up. “If the Cubans hate him, why won’t he ask for a transfer to an American prison?”

Gray had no answer, and it was just one of the many questions that swirled in her mind ever since hearing of Luke’s arrest.

“How are his spirits?” she asked.

Gray shrugged. “You know how he is. He always puts a bright face on everything.”

Caroline made no comment. From the time Luke was in long pants, his behavior had been outrageous. He indulged in endless pranks, broken curfews, overspending, and pushing the limits. He loved flirting with disaster and running risks. No matter how wild his behavior, he seemed to know exactly how far he could bend the rules before the hammer would crash down, and he usually managed to scramble back to respectability just ahead of the law, the debt collector, or the outraged father.

And the one time he hadn’t, Caroline was the only person he let know how deeply he’d been wounded. It was when he’d been expelled from the Naval Academy. His grades had been exceptional, but his demerits left him teetering on the edge of expulsion for three solid years.