Page 12 of Echoes of Twilight (Dawn of Alaska #4)

12

Sitka, Alaska; That Day

“S o as you can see...” Governor Caldwell gestured to the trio of shipping contracts lying atop his desk, then pinned his eyes to Alexei. “Due to the suspicions surrounding the Sitka Trading Company, I’m left with no other choice than to cancel these contracts.”

Alexei crossed his arms over his chest, every muscle of his body tense. He didn’t care that he was standing inside Governor Caldwell’s immaculate office. He didn’t even care that the tic on the side of his jaw was likely giving away his anger. He had every right to be angry. “The only person with suspicions regarding my family’s company is you.”

“That’s not an accurate statement,” Preston Caldwell said from where he sat in the chair opposite the governor’s sprawling, polished desk. “I have the same suspicions as my brother.”

“Of course you do.” He didn’t know why Preston was there. He had no authority to cancel or enter into contracts on Alaska’s behalf. But the governor’s brother had been present since the moment he’d walked into the room for their scheduled meeting.

Never mind that the meeting shouldn’t have been scheduled in the first place. He’d renewed his government contracts that spring under Governor Trent—not that it was doing him any good.

“I will fight this.” Alexei picked up one of the contracts and waved it in the air. “I will write to Washington, DC. I will write to Secretary Gray, and I will tell them you terminated these contracts without cause. And don’t forget, the contracts state that you owe me a two-thousand-dollar fee for canceling early. That’s two thousand dollars for each contract.”

Governor Caldwell leaned farther back in his chair and stroked his light brown mustache, as though bored with the conversation. “On the contrary. We’re terminating the contracts because you were unable to uphold your commitments. If anyone owes a fee, it’s you. Your last delivery was a day late.”

“Because you held the Aurora in port for a five-day-long search that was completely unwarranted.” Alexei shoved a hand through his hair.

“I’m afraid the contracts don’t allow any leeway in that regard.” The governor’s lips curled into a thin smile beneath his mustache.

Compared to his brother, Preston, Governor Simon Caldwell didn’t look nearly as ruthless. His light brown hair was a bit unruly, not slicked back and perfectly pomaded. When compared to the high cheekbones and thin nose of his brother, the new governor certainly appeared softer, maybe even fatherly.

But that wasn’t stopping the man from using his power to get whatever he wanted.

“All the contracts say is that the government can void them after failure to deliver goods in a timely manner.” The governor flipped the top page of one of the contracts and pointed to a clause halfway down the second page.

Had the man gone daft? “This is the shipping industry.” Alexei seethed through clenched teeth. “A delay of one day is still considered timely. A bad storm can delay ships for up to three days alone, which you know, since the Alaska Commercial Company owns ships aplenty.”

“My decision remains.” The governor leaned forward and snatched the contract out of Alexei’s hand, then set it back on his desk beside the other two. “I’m terminating your contracts, effective immediately.”

“Does this mean you’re going to stop having my ships searched?”

The governor’s lips twisted into a scowl beneath his mustache. “The RCS has the right to search any ship that comes into port.”

“You’re right, it does. But it’s not just searching any ship, and it’s not searching every ship either. It’s only searching mine.”

“That’s because the RCS suspects you of carrying illicit materials.” Preston spoke again from where he sat studying his nails in his chair.

Alexei whirled on him. “And just what are you basing your suspicions on? The fact you don’t like me?”

Preston offered him a sharp smile. “Does it matter?”

It didn’t. Not really. That’s what was so frustrating. Everything about the situation felt wrong. There was no question his company was being singled out, but how could he stop it when his enemies controlled both the governor’s office and the largest company in Alaska? “As I said, Secretary Gray will be hearing from me.”

The governor only smiled. It wasn’t cruel, not the way his brother’s smiles were, but there was still something sly about it. “Go ahead and write him, Amos. See how far it gets you.”

Alexei didn’t bother to respond. Anything he said would be lost on the two snakes anyway. Instead, he turned and strode out of the office without so much as a good-bye tossed over his shoulder.

He stormed through the governor’s outer office, where two clerks and a typist sat behind desks, then into the ornate hallway. At one time, the administrative building had been the Russian governor’s mansion, but even twenty years after the transition of power, it still bore homage to its Russian heritage.

The walls were paneled in dark, polished wood, intricately carved with floral and geometric patterns that brought to mind tales of the Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Wide gilded moldings framed the high ceilings too, but the Americans had replaced what had once been a series of bronze chandeliers with more serviceable lighting, just as they’d substituted flimsy brown curtains for the heavy, jewel-toned drapes that had once adorned the windows.

He clomped down the curved staircase that led into the lobby, then stepped outside, where a fierce wind off the ocean greeted him. It was snowing too. Not hard, but enough to cause his jaw to clench all over again.

He didn’t feel like freezing on his walk home.

“Alexei! Alexei!”

He sucked in a breath. He didn’t feel like having company on his walk home either.

“Alexei, can I have a moment of your time?” The nasally voice gave away who was calling for him before Alexei even turned around.

Unfortunately, there was nowhere for him to hide, nor was there anyone nearby with whom he could suddenly strike up a conversation and thus avoid the person calling his name.

“Alexei.” Rev. Sheldon Jackson scampered to a stop beside him, his chest rising and falling in quick breaths.

“Reverend Jackson.” He offered the short, slender man a tight smile. “How lovely to see you.”

Alexei didn’t know if the Presbyterian minister heard the sarcasm in his voice and chose to ignore it, or if he was too oblivious to register it in the first place.

Either way, he reached out and gripped Alexei’s sleeve. “I need one of your ships. Immediately.”

“One of my ships?” And here he’d been expecting the man to hound him over some sort of donation.

“Yes.” The man pressed a hand to his chest and blinked from behind his thick spectacles. “It’s most urgent, I assure you.”

“And just why do you need one of my ships?”

He blinked again, as though Alexei was the one with the odd question. “For the reindeer, of course.”

“Reindeer.” Alexei started walking. He didn’t have the patience for Rev. Jackson today.

But the short man trotted alongside Alexei, his legs pumping ridiculously fast to keep up. “Yes, reindeer! I’ve just received word that a herd is available for transport from Siberia, and we must act before the opportunity is lost.”

“Right.” Alexei glanced sideways at the minister. “And just why are we moving reindeer from Siberia to Alaska?”

The reverend’s eyes grew round. “Because of the food shortage in Unalaska. I was just there on a voyage intended to procure artifacts for my museum, and I saw the need of the natives myself.”

Alexei’s jaw tightened at the thought of Rev. Jackson’s museum. Sheldon Jackson might have originally been sent to Alaska as a Presbyterian missionary, but the man had somehow worked his way into becoming the minister of education for the entirety of Alaska. That included educating not just the American children but the Indian children from Alaska’s various tribes.

Unfortunately Rev. Jackson was under the impression that the best way to educate the children was to force them to leave the homes where they’d grown up and move into boarding schools, where they weren’t allowed to speak so much as a word of their native language. He thought that by teaching sewing and cooking to girls and blacksmithing to boys, he was training them to be a part of the new, changing world around them.

But Rev. Jackson was very concerned about the children losing their culture, so he’d taken it upon himself to collect different artifacts from across Alaska. A whaling suit from the Inupiat, an oil-blubber lamp from the Aleuts, baskets from the Tlingit, and on the list went.

Alexei could only imagine what kinds of artifacts he’d collected on his most recent trip.

“I spent some time talking with Kuluk.” The reverend stopped to reposition his hat, which was blowing off his head, then raced to keep up once again. “He’s the chief of the tribe in Unalaska.”

“That’s Inessa and Ilya’s grandfather,” Alexei muttered. “I know who he is.”

“Yes, well, he was telling me the seals are nearly gone from the waters around the island. That it’s getting harder and harder to find food, and the tribe there is increasingly relying on deliveries from your ships and the Revenue Cutter Service to meet even their most basic needs.”

“None of this is new, Reverend.” Alexei wiped a smattering of snow from his cheek, then ducked his head against the wind. “The seal population has been declining for over a decade. But if you’re suddenly concerned, perhaps you should write a letter to the secretary of the interior, asking that the quota on seal hunting be lowered.”

“Why would I do that when we can transport reindeer to the island?”

Alexei shook his head. “I don’t understand.”

“The people of Siberia and Finland have been herding reindeer for centuries. It provides them with a constant source of food and pelts.”

Alexei stopped walking and turned to face Rev. Jackson. He wasn’t a large or important looking man, but he had connections, and he was certainly passionate about helping Alaskan Natives, even though the two of them often disagreed on how best to help them. “So you want the Aleut, who have spent centuries hunting seals, to suddenly start raising reindeer? Do they even know what to feed a reindeer?”

The reverend blinked, as though the thought had never once occurred to him.

“Do you know what to feed a reindeer?” Alexei asked.

“No, but I can bring herders over from Siberia to teach the Aleut, and then they’ll have a new and more reliable source of food and clothing.”

“It seems easier to stop their current source of food and clothing from being hunted into extinction. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to get home for dinner.”

“But...” Rev. Jackson stood blinking at him. “You really won’t lend me a ship?”

Alexei rubbed his brow. “I don’t have a ship to spare. I’ve had three of them hung up for days on end while the RCS searched them.”

Reverend Jackson winced. “Ah yes. I heard about that.”

Heard about it but did nothing. Not that Alexei could blame the minister. If he were in Rev. Jackson’s position, he’d do whatever possible to avoid getting on the Caldwells’ bad side too. “Did you ask Kuluk whether he wanted reindeer brought to his island? If he’s willing to learn how to herd them?”

Again, the man blinked. “No, but I’m sure if we show up with?—”

“And you want to move the reindeer now, on the cusp of winter? Surely the time to move them, if ever, is during the spring or summer.”

The small man’s shoulders deflated. “So you’re telling me no?”

“I’m telling you the Aleuts should have a say in this, and if they want to pursue it, we need to wait until spring.”

“But you think the idea has merit?”

“It’s a different idea, but I can’t say that it’s a terrible one.” It had sounded ridiculous at first, but honestly, even though Washington, DC, was aware of the seal problem, they weren’t in a hurry to fix it. So if reindeer could provide a stable food source that wasn’t in danger of being overhunted, then who was he to say no? “Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to get home.”

Disappointment was written across the man’s face, but he didn’t argue. Instead, he thanked Alexei for his time, then hastened off in the direction of the boarding school.

By the time Alexei walked the final two blocks to his house on the water, the office above the warehouse was dark, and lights were glowing from the kitchen windows at the main house. He let himself in through the back door and was greeted with the scent of salmon stew and freshly baked sourdough bread.

“Alexei, you’re here.” Maggie, Sacha’s wife, smiled at him, her thick golden braid swinging at her back. “Dinner’s ready. We were just waiting on you to eat.”

“Let me wash up, and then I’ll call everyone.” He headed to the stand in the corner, where he poured water over his hands and lathered them.

He was drying his hands when Sacha stepped into the kitchen, his broad shoulders filling the doorway.

“How did the meeting go?” Sacha asked him, then headed straight to his wife and wrapped her in a hug.

Yuri entered the kitchen behind Sacha and rolled his eyes. “If you two are always going to be canoodling, maybe you should get your own house.”

Sacha frowned. “That’s a terrible idea. You’d have no one to cook for you.”

“Oh, that’s easily solved.” Yuri winked at Maggie. “We’d come for dinner at your house every night.”

“Where you’d still see them canoodling? I fail to see how that would solve the problem.” Alexei hung the towel back on the rack, then turned to face his brothers. “The meeting went exactly how you predicted, Sacha.”

“The governor is canceling our shipping contracts?” Sacha dropped his arms from around Maggie and headed around the table to the samovar.

“Yes. All three of them, effective immediately.”

Yuri beat Sacha to the samovar, where he poured himself a cup of tea first. “Did you tell the governor he owes us two thousand dollars per contract for canceling early?”

“I tried, but he claimed that we failed to uphold our end of the contracts, allowing him to cancel without penalty.”

Sacha had been about to pour himself a cup of tea, but he stopped abruptly, a bit of liquid sloshing out of the teapot and onto the hutch. “He said what?”

“We didn’t violate so much as a word of those contracts.” Yuri shoved a finger in Alexei’s direction.

“I know that, and you know that, but if we want our money, we’ll need to prove it in court.”

“Then take Caldwell and the RCS to court,” Yuri snapped. “And not just so you get your six thousand dollars, but I would take them to court for... well, I’m not sure what I’d take them to court for exactly, but singling out our ships like this has to be illegal. We should ask Evelina what she thinks. She’d be able to figure out what charges to file.”

He blinked. “You’re not serious.”

“I’m deadly serious.” Yuri took a sip of tea. “We have to do something, Alexei. Have to find some way to fight back. Otherwise they’ll just walk all over us.”

“I agree.” Sacha handed Alexei a cup of tea, never mind that he hadn’t asked for one. “We need to take some kind of stand, or things will only get worse.”

Alexei headed to the table and sat down, then took a small sip of the warm liquid, letting it coat his throat and ward off the chill from his walk. “I was more of a mind to send you down to Ketchikan to meet with the clan there rather than to sue the governor.”

He expected Sacha to agree. After all, the request wasn’t anything unusual. Sacha had been to Juneau hundreds of times when he’d been captain of the Aurora .

But Sacha rubbed a hand over the stubble covering his chin, then glanced at Maggie. “I... ah... I think you should be the one to go, Alexei.”

He straightened in his chair. “Me? We still need to move more goods from the warehouse to Juneau, and I’d prefer to be here to oversee that. And there’s always the possibility that one of our ships will return to Sitka and end up getting searched and held up.”

“Under normal circumstances I’d be willing to go, but, ah...” Sacha scratched the side of his beard, then opened his arm and dragged Maggie against his side. “We weren’t going to say anything just yet, but Maggie here is expecting a little one, and I don’t want to be away from her.”

He stared at his gruff, burly brother, his form so large he towered over the rest of them. But he looked neither gruff nor burly given the way he tucked his wife into his side and smiled from ear to ear.

He could already picture Sacha with a little one toddling around behind him. He’d teach his child to handle tools in the shipyard and let him take the helm of a ship from time to time. And Maggie already made a near-perfect mother to her two half siblings. She’d be phenomenal with her own child.

“Congratulations,” he managed, his throat gritty.

“This is the best news I’ve had all year! And I’ll make the best uncle you’ve ever seen. I swear I will.” Yuri scampered around the table, then wrapped both Sacha and Maggie in a giant hug. “And I’ll start by going to Ketchikan so that neither of you have to leave Sitka.”

“Thank you, but no,” Alexei snapped.

“Absolutely not,” Sacha barked at the same time.

Yuri pulled away from the hug, his brow furrowed. “Why not? I can speak Tlingit.”

Alexei shook his head. “Because I need someone who can get information from the clan elders, not someone who will accidently make the elders’ daughters fall in love with him.”

“I can get information without making a woman fall in love with me.” Yuri crossed his arms over his chest.

He probably thought the gesture made him seem stern, but it only reminded Alexei of a petulant child.

“No. I’ll go to Ketchikan, and it’s not up for further discussion. You and Sacha can handle things here. Now wash up. It’s time for dinner.” Alexei pushed himself up from the table and headed into the parlor to get Maggie’s younger siblings.

But he couldn’t stop replaying the conversation from the governor’s office in his mind.

He didn’t enjoy having the Caldwells put a target on his back, but up to this point, it had seemed necessary. As Yuri had said, someone needed to stand up to the powerful family.

But now a baby was on the way. The Sitka Trading Company and the Amos Family Shipbuilders had been in his family for four generations. Whatever he did next, he needed to make sure it didn’t jeopardize the future Sacha would want to give to his children.