She smiled. “No, you don’t. I think this is going to turn out very well in the end. I doubt The Winds line will survive very long, and when they go under, Father will be able to get back his old contacts, and with the new ones he gains from this trip, why, he’ll probably have to buy new ships to keep up with it all.”

“And I think you’re just hoping The Winds will go under, when they aren’t likely to, if they had such deep pockets to begin with, to get away with what they did.”

“Oh, I’m not talking about their finances. I’m talking about the bad will they’ve spread, starting out in such an unethical manner. Consider, the merchants who sold to them for the huge profits know exactly what they were up to, and anyone that underhanded can’t be trusted. But many of the goods involved are perishable, in need of timely delivery—and trustworthy captains to arrive on time. If The Winds line is late in the future, the cargoes could spoil before they are even picked up, and of course, they won’t be bought spoiled. Do you see what I mean?”

“So you’re thinking that Father’s old contacts will want to deal with him again, because he’s well established and, of course, trustworthy?”

“I think they will prefer to, yes . . . and will you look what we’ve done. We’ve put Mara to sleep with all this talk of business that she doesn’t find the least bit interesting. But no wonder, it’s time for your nap as well.”

“I’m not tired,” he complained.

“I saw those eyes drooping.”

“Didn’t,” he grumbled.

“Did, too. And besides, you need the rest whether you sleep or not. When your fever is completely gone, then we can negotiate an end to these naps.”

He conceded. He loved to negotiate, which was why she’d mentioned it.

She headed to the door. But he stopped her there with one last question that she really wasn’t prepared for.

“Where are we going to put the Christmas tree this year, Rissa?”

It wasn’t the question, but the quaver she heard in his little voice as he asked it. It was her undoing. She hadn’t even thought about spending Christmas without her father. She hadn’t thought that far ahead, couldn’t, because there was too much grief awaiting her down that road.

“It’s too soon to think of the tree, this early in the month. But we’ll have one, Tommy, even if we have to share the Baron’s—”

“I don’t want to share, I want to put on the decorations we’ve made. You did bring them with us, didn’t you?”