Wind of Destiny

by Christopher Nicole

  ‘The whole concept is inconceivable,’ Rafael said. ‘It … it is not decent. And besides, to place Toni in possible danger … ’

  ‘Danger? What danger can she be in? I have told you, no one is going to attempt to harm the daughter of Jerry McGann. Because that, were it ever to happen, might well bring the Americans in on our side. And even men like Juan Lumbrera must know that.’

  Rafael could not prevent the suspicion that Marti might even hope that would happen, to further the cause, from flitting through his mind. But he immediately dismissed it as unworthy, returned to his theme. ‘But still, to marry with such an ulterior motive … ’

  Marti came back and sat beside him. ‘You wish to marry Antoinette McGann because you love her. You have just told me this. There is no ulterior motive. Now you are afraid to do so because of some imaginary danger to her. Even if it were real … Rafael, listen to me. This is the very life of our country, your country, we are speaking about. It may well be that one day, in the not too distant future, I will be able to give the signal for the revolt to begin. Then you will, I trust, be prepared to offer your own life for the cause of Cuba?’

  ‘Of course I will, sir. But … ’

  ‘Thus, if you are prepared to do that, you must also be prepared to do everything in your power to further our cause. My God, would that every man who had to undertake an action for the sacred cause of Cuban liberty could be presented with such a pleasant task. You love Antoinette McGann. Does she love you?’

  ‘I … I think she may.’

  ‘Then press your suit. Make her fall for you. Marry her. Take her back to Cuba as soon as possible.’

  ‘I will have to discuss the matter with my father first. He may not approve.’

  ‘Leave your father to me. I will wire him a message today, telling him how much I approve of the match. He will not stand in your way. Marry Antoinette McGann, Rafael, and I see great things for you in the future. With her at your side, you will stand at my side when we accept the final surrender of General Blanco and his minions. God and Fate have placed you in this happy position, my young friend. No man can go against God and Fate.’

  *

  ‘Well, Lieutenant, how’s the Navy?’ asked Jeffers the cabbie, as the pony and trap trundled over the country lane from the village towards the McGann farm.

  ‘Stumbling along,’ Joseph McGann told him.

  ‘Then you’re going to be a captain, one of these fine days.’

  ‘I’ll be a captain when the Navy Department builds enough ships to let me have one,’ Joe said. He spoke with less bitterness than would have been the case a few years before. He was nearly thirty-two years old, and as Jerry Mc-Gann’s only son, he had been destined for the Navy since birth. And his birth had come late in 1861, when the North and the South had already been locked in mortal combat, and his father had been at sea, earning fame and promotion in a series of battles fought under the immortal Farragut. In fact, Father had not laid eyes on his baby son until Joe had been four years old. Which was when memory began, for him. Those early memories were clouded, with the understanding, even at that tender age, that all had not been well between his parents. They had married just before the start of the war, and thus had found themselves with opposing sympathies, out of which had come a great deal of grief. Father, he suspected, might even have reclaimed Mother from the wreckage of the South as a conqueror seizing his rightful prize — Father was that sort of man. It had taken some years for the wounds to heal, and for them to achieve the measure of domestic comfort, and even happiness, that they now enjoyed.

  By then he had been in the Navy, and facing problems of his own. The Federal Navy, like the Federal Army, had been expanded to an enormous size during the war; the one thought uppermost in the mind of everyone after the surrender at Appomatox had been disarmament, total and utter. The army, which under Grant had numbered well over a hundred thousand veterans as he and Sherman had hunted the Confederates to their doom, now contained twenty-seven thousand regulars. The navy had been reduced even further. Worse, many of the ships had been kept going much longer than they should have, until some of them were not even seaworthy. Lack of ships and opportunity had combined to make a soulless profession. Those who adopted the navy as a career were regarded as being totally without ambition. No attempt had been made, until almost yesterday, to keep abreast of the enormous developments in armour plating and steam power which had taken place in the quarter of a century since the war had ended. There had not been a single battleship flying the stars and stripes, while every other nation in the world which aspired to any maritime power had several.

  This was at last in the process of being put right, he knew. The Texas had actually been launched, and would be in commission this year. The Indiana, the Massachusetts, the Maine, and the Oregon were all building, and the keel of the Iowa had already been laid. These were all going to be big ships. The Texas and the Maine were in the nature of experiments, and would displace just over six thousand tons each, in order to give them greater speed, but the others would be all over ten thousand tons displacement, and would be protected by massive belts of armour covering everywhere vital. All would be armed with four mammoth twelve-inch guns, and the very slowest would be capable of steaming at faster than fifteen knots, thus each would be worthy of taking on any warship in the world. This was the belated response of the Navy Department to the several occasions when American merchant ships had been seized on the high seas by pirates, insurgents, or even by legitimate governments, without any hope of response from Washington; the tragedy of the Virginius was only the most serious of such events, and even it had taken nearly twenty years to stir the government into action.

  But at last opportunities were being opened up for young men of talent and ambition. Joseph McGann certainly counted himself in both of those categories. The sea was his life. Returning here to Long Island was like stepping out of the real world into some fabled existence. He never failed to enjoy it, but he knew it could ever only be an interlude in the business of living, sailing ships, and hopefully, one day, even fighting them — although it was almost impossible to discern a possible enemy at this minute.

  The trap came to a halt, and Joe stepped down. Like all his family he was well over six feet tall and built like an ox, with ruggedly handsome features and a wealth of thick black hair, in his case tempered by streaks of his mother’s red. He was as strong as an ox, too, hefted his grip in one hand while he paid Jeffers with the other, caught Rufus by the scruff of the neck and brought the hound to a standstill as he came galloping round the side of the house. ‘Whoa, there, lad,’ he said. ‘You’re putting on weight.’

  ‘Joe. Oh, Joe! Welcome home.’

  Joe looked up the steps, and released the dog to smile. It was sometimes very difficult to accept that this tawny tomboy was his sister. She had been so much of an afterthought, so much the product of that final reconciliation between his parents, that she was thirteen years his junior. More, apart from her height, she did not even look like a McGann. But she was the most cherished thing in his life.

  ‘Hi.’ He went up the steps, enveloped her in a bear hug, felt her arms just as tight on his back, and looked past her at the tall, slim, elegant and undoubtedly handsome young man who had just emerged from the house. ‘Who’re you?’ he enquired.

  ‘Oh, Joe.’ Toni stepped away from him, although still holding his hand. ‘This is Rafael Antonio Diaz Vasquez de Obrigar. Did I say it right?’ she asked anxiously.

  Rafael smiled at her, possessively. ‘Exactly right, my dear.’

  Joe McGann raised his eyebrows as he looked at his sister.

  ‘It’s all right,’ she explained. ‘Rafael and I are engaged to be married. Well, unofficially, anyway.’

  *

  Jerry McGann pushed the box of cigars across his desk. ‘Havanas,’ he said. ‘Rafael brought them as a present. But you have to admit they’re damned good.’

  His son sniffed one of the rolled leaves, then bit t
he end. ‘I’m glad you said, “But”.’

  ‘Ah, well … ’ Jerry struck a match, watched the end of his cigar begin to glow. It had been a convivial evening, perhaps a shade too convivial, as Toni and Rafael had set out to impress Toni’s big brother with their mutual happiness. But it had been plain to see that Joe had not been happy himself, which was why, as soon as supper was over, Jerry had brought him into the study. ‘I’ll admit it was sudden. Seems like they fell in love with each other at first sight.’

  ‘There is no such thing as love at first sight,’ Joe said bluntly. ‘Who is this character, anyway?’

  Jerry explained, and poured them each a glass of brandy.

  ‘Well, that has got to be the most crazy setup I have ever heard of,’ Joe remarked when his father had finished. ‘Cuba? You’re allowing Toni to be carried off to Cuba, by some … some dago? ’'

  ‘I think maybe you’re being just a little prejudiced,’ Jerry said mildly. He knew how much Joe worshipped his sister. ‘The Diazes of Obrigar have always been very good friends of mine. This dago, as you call Rafael, comes from the best backgrounds in Cuba, on both sides. Hell, his pedigree goes back about five times as far as ours. There was a Diaz alongside King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella when they accepted the surrender of the Alhambra, and that was before Columbus ever set sail. And maybe there was a Vasquez there beside him, too. And Rafael is a damned nice boy. A bit hot headed, and radical, well hell, weren’t we all, at twenty-one?’

  ‘Twenty one,’ Joe said in disgust. ‘That’s another thing. Who ever heard of getting married at twenty-one?’

  ‘People do,’ Jerry pointed out. ‘And it seems that his parents are very happy with the idea. We’ve had an exchange of telegrams, well, several exchanges, and Arnaldo and Carlotta are over the moon.’

  ‘Arnaldo and Carlotta.’ Joe repeated the names with distaste. ‘But what about Toni?’

  ‘What about her?’

  ‘You mean, she actually wants to marry this guy?’

  ‘If she hadn’t made that very clear, do you think I’d have gone along with the idea for one minute?’

  ‘But … what the devil can she see in him?’

  ‘Well, hell, Joe, he’s a good-looking boy. He has impeccable manners. He’s going to be as rich as Croesus when his father dies. I mean, the Diazes count acres like we count milk chums.’

  ‘But does she love him?’

  ‘She says she does. And she sure acts like she does.’

  Joe sighed, and tried another approach. ‘But Cuba! Wasn’t old Antonio Diaz mixed up with the revolution there? That means his son must have the same sympathies. Arnaldo Diaz may be an old chum of yours, Dad, but I can tell you somebody is smuggling arms into the island as if they meant to start shooting again tomorrow. You’ve just said this boy is a radical. That means he’s sure to be involved. And you’re letting Toni go and live with them?’

  ‘I don’t know Arnaldo is mixed up in the revolutionary movement. I know his father was, as you say, and was pardoned when things settled down. I suspect Arnaldo has more sense than to get involved. And if he and Carlotta felt Rafael was better off out of the way for a month or so because he’s upset some policeman, well, that’s no guarantee it was political; young boys do that sort of thing. Anyway, we’re not going into this blind, you know. When Toni goes across, we’re all going with her.’

  ‘All?’

  ‘You too, I hope. Can you get another furlough? We’re invited for November, as soon as the hurricane season is over.’

  Joe frowned. ‘I suppose I could get another brief furlough.’

  ‘Great. Then we can see for ourselves what the set-up is. If we don’t like it, we can always call it off.’

  ‘You reckon?’

  ‘Sure I do. Now tell me how’re things with you? We read all kind of rumours in the papers, but no one knows how true they are.’

  ‘Things are happening,’ Joe told him. ‘Come four years and we’ll have a battle fleet.’

  ‘Well, that’s great news. What’s in it for you?’

  ‘There’s a rumour I might get executive on the Maine. ’

  ‘Say, now, that’s moving in the right direction. Tell me about her.’

  ‘Well, they’re building to two specifications. The Maine and the Texas are going to be light ships, only just over six thousand displacement.’

  ‘Sounds like a sizeable ship to me,’ Jerry commented.

  ‘They’re building four others over ten thousand tons each,’ Joe pointed out.

  ‘Holy Jesus. Ten thousand?’

  ‘That’s the sort of ship everyone else has in their battle fleet, nowadays. Still, the Maine will have a purpose. She’s designed to make twenty knots and more.’

  ‘Twenty knots? God Almighty! You guys are growing way beyond my imagination. You know the best speed any of our ships made in the war? Ten knots.’

  Joe grinned. ‘Well, they do say the whole world is getting faster.’

  ‘What kind of guns will she mount?’ ‘Four ten-inch, in two turrets, one forward and one aft. Plus a whole lot of quick-firers, of course.’

  ‘And she’s going to shift at twenty knots. Sounds quite a ship.’

  ‘Well, actually, she, like Texas, is a bit of a compromise. To save the weight necessary to give her that speed, she’s short on armour. The heavier ships are going to be far better protected. Seems you can have either speed or armour, but not both. The Texas and the Maine are going to be classified as second-class battleships, the big guys as first-class. What they actually will be are very heavy cruisers, in my opinion. I mean, only a few of our eight-inch cruisers can make twenty knots.’

  ‘Give me speed, any day,’ Jerry declared. ‘Especially when it’s combined with that kind of hitting power. I mean, you only need armour if you’re travelling slowly — and if the other guy is shooting straight.’

  ‘Could be,’ Jerry said, doubtfully.

  *

  He was in a sceptical mood, not least with regard to his sister’s proposed marriage. Owing to the calls of his profession he had never contemplated marriage himself, nor had he considered it for Toni, or if he had, vaguely, it had been in the context of some fellow naval officer, someone he would know very well and heartily approve of, someone he would both like and respect — not that she had ever shown the slightest interest in any of the colleagues he had brought home with him.

  The idea that she should actually want to marry a Cuban hardly older than herself was incredible. Of course he knew he had been unnecessarily crude in describing Rafael Diaz as a dago. Of course the fellow came from a better and more prosperous background than himself, could offer Toni much more than any naval officer ever could, or than he could offer a prospective bride. If the McGanns had achieved a solid respectability, with New York expanding every year and prices increasing in consequence — it was possible to foresee a time, in the not too distant future, when the city might start encroaching even on the farm — they were not actually wealthy people. He would always have the security of the farm at his back, but for the moment he was expected to live off his navy pay.

  Perhaps he was jealous of the style to which his sister would be moving, he realised. Certainly he was jealous of the idea that she would be giving herself to another man. But in addition, the Cuban concept of life, so far as he understood it, was disconcerting. He knew just how unhappy a society it was at the moment. Like his father, he had been on patrol in the Caribbean, as a very young ensign, during the revolution. That had been put down by overwhelming force and ruthless brutality on the part of the Spanish authorities, and the country was officially now totally pacified and subservient to the rule of Madrid. But he, like every other American officer who had ever served in the Caribbean, knew that arms and ammunition were still being smuggled into the country, and that obviously there were still those who dreamed of raising the flag of rebellion once again, with all the unimaginable horror that would bring in its wake. The thought that Toni was contemplating marriage to
one such irresponsible hot head was sickening.

  He knew he had to put this point of view to her, the moment he could persuade her to come for a ride with him by herself. She was reluctant to do this, as she knew she was in for a lecture, but at last she agreed.

  ‘Kind of sudden, this engagement thing?’ he ventured, as they walked their horses through the woods.

  ‘I guess these things always are,’ she agreed.

  ‘But you’re quite sure about it all.’

  ‘Sure I’m sure.’

  ‘It’s a totally different way of life, over there, you know.’

  ‘I’m looking forward to that. Ma says it’ll be very like the life she lived as a girl in Louisiana. Gee, I’ve always so envied her girlhood, what she’s told me about it. It was so … so elegant, I guess.’

  ‘You marrying Rafael, or his life style?’

  ‘That’s not fair,’ she protested. ‘A man is what he is because of his life style, surely. His whole … what’s the word I should use? You’re Joe McGann. But you didn’t spring up out of the ground, fully fledged. You’re what you are because of Dad, and Grandpa, and all the other McGanns going back to Great Harry. And because of the farm. And because of the navy, and because of Ma. It took all of those things to make you what you are. So when some girl falls in love with you, she’s going to be falling in love with all of those things as well.’

  It occurred to Joe that his little sister was no longer so little, after all. ‘And if there’s trouble? There could be, you know.’

  She nodded, seriously. ‘Maybe that has something to do with it, too. Maybe I’m tired of living in this cocoon. And if there is trouble, at least I know I’ll be on the right side. I mean, the side which has the right. Oh, don’t worry,’ she added as she saw the expression on his face, and reached across to squeeze his hand. ‘If there’s anything I can’t handle, I’ll be on my way home in five minutes. Or send for you.’

  ‘Promise?’

  ‘Promise,’ she said.

  *

  Joe’s reaction was disconcerting, and for the first time made Toni wonder herself if she knew just what she was doing. Because there had been too much truth in her last remark; Rafael had swept her off her feet at least as much because of the excitement he, and his background, generated as for any other reason. Her life had been one of untroubled ease, Toni knew. This had been at least partly a conscious determination of her mother’s — Marguerite Grahame’s turbulent early years had left her anxious to make sure that no daughter of hers should have to experience such vicissitudes, such heartbreaks, and in addition, Ma had been in her middle thirties when Toni had been born, past the age when she had ever expected to have another child. Toni had thus always been in every way the darling baby in the family.