Commander Cantrell in the West Indies(210)

“Oh. Still? Um, honey, are you still indisposed, too?”

“I am dressed, if that is what you are asking.” Anne Cathrine had to remind herself not to sound coyly seductive. Which is how she usually responded whenever Eddie had occasion to ask her about her state of dress.

“Yeah, that’s exactly what I’m asking. Because—”

“Yes?” Anne Cathrine stood. The tone in Eddie’s voice was uncommonly serious. “Is something wrong, Eddie?”

“Well, yeah. Someone’s making trouble at your party. Already.”

Anne Cathrine, without having any idea who might make trouble at a party that would not yet start for twenty minutes or how they would do so, gathered her considerable skirts and began walking to the door. “Who is making this trouble? Have you told Sehested about this?”

“Oh, he knows. Actually, he’s helping the troublemaker.”

“What? Who is this troublemaker?”

“Unless I’m very much mistaken, it’s your father.”

“What?”

“Honey, come on out and walk with me. I’ll explain on the way to the main conference room in the fort. I’ve already sent Matilde to get Sehested and the others.”





By the time Eddie reached the wide, shuttered room on the second story of the fort’s expansive blockhouse, Tromp, Sehested and van Walbeeck were all there. Sehested rose, smiling, “So, we are to have a meeting to settle this matter now? That is quite agreeable to—”

And then he saw Anne Cathrine enter from behind Eddie, who was holding the door for her. She was not smiling. “L-Lady Anne Cathrine,” he stuttered. “This is a most awkward surprise.”

“Yes,” she replied archly. “I rather imagine it must be.”

Eddie could hardly keep from beaming as he thought at her, you go, girl!

Sehested spread wide, temporizing hands. “Lady Anne Cathrine, I am dismayed that you were summoned away from a party being held in your honor. Of course, it is also for Lady Leonora as well, and it is a privilege to introduce Mistress Rantzau along with you. But you are the oldest king’s daughter, and so—”

“And so it is my duty to be present when the king of Denmark’s affairs of state are to be discussed. My husband was quite right to summon me, and I will be pleased to have you present this requirement that my royal father has evidently instructed you to impose upon our Dutch allies.”

Unless Eddie was very much mistaken, Jan van Walbeeck was ready to explode in amusement and enthusiasm for the spirited and capable young Danishwoman who had, uninvited, swept to the seat at the head of the conference table. Tromp himself hastened to hold her chair, which she acknowledged with a smile as radiant as the rising sun.

The men sat, and she nodded at Sehested.

He shifted slightly in his seat and gazed down at the table. “Lady Anne Cathrine, I must point out that, while I am delighted that you take such keen interest in your father’s royal desires and political actions, he did not ask you to represent him here in the New World.”

“He did not need to. I am his daughter. I do not need to be told that I should pay close heed to my father’s interests. And to my husband’s as well, since you told him that this conversation would concern him, too.”

“And so it does. But that is predominantly a military matter. And as a king’s daughter—”

Anne Cathrine’s green eyes were bright and wide, as if daring Sehested to take one step further down the inevitable path he intended: to point out that since she was not a princess, she had no material interest in the royal family’s possessions or affairs. She was not in line of succession herself, nor was she a full royal sibling to any of Christian’s potential successors.

But on the other hand, she was now sitting at the head of the table, her father’s very fiery and competent daughter, with her up-time, Danish-titled husband to one side, and the senior Dutch admiral and administrator in the New World seated on the other side. Sehested’s eyes rose from the tabletop, scanning their faces, and Eddie knew what he was looking for: the faintest hint of uncertainty or anxiety. He’s playing poker. He’s trying to see whether we’re bluffing or whether we will see his bid and call.

Sehested was no fool, and was evidently good enough at poker to see that the other players were not going to fold, but would see this hand all the way to the bitter end. Which meant that, even if he was perfectly within his legal rights to exclude Anne Cathrine from the conversation, and even the room, he would have destroyed his credibility with the three men sitting around her, to say nothing of his relationship with her. And, princess or not, she had her father’s ear and she would clearly not be an advocate for Sehested’s interests in court. On the contrary, she might become an implacable and quite effective foe. So Sehested shrugged. “As a king’s daughter, you are welcome to hear of your father’s wishes. They were given to me as a contingency that might require execution, based upon what we might find upon arriving in the New World, and what actions we might be called upon to undertake once here. However, while I would be saddened to displease you in any way, you must of course realize that, as the agent of your father’s will, I may not alter my duty to suit your own wishes.”