by ML BINELLI
He returned home only at night.
"What happened? Did you go to the mill? Why did you take so long?" asked Barbara.
James asked her to sit down and told her what happened to the captain, what he was asked to and his lack of funds. She once again shed tears for the death of someone who was near her. She remembered Vidal.
Marie entered the room and saw Barbara in tears.
"What happened, ma'am?"
James informed her of the death of captain Edward. Marie ran and knelt at Barbara’s feet, held her hands and sobbed.
"Calm yourself, Miss Barbara. I'm sure captain Edward and your husband are in a better place!" She then she realized her situation. "What about me? "What will happen to me without the captain, Mr. James!"
"That's what I'm thinking about right now, Marie. Leave us alone, please."
Marie retreated in tears. When Barbara had calmed down, James said.
"I've been thinking about a way out of this all day, but I have not found a solution. If I could at least stay with the house, the loss would be less.”
Barbara took James's hand asked him to sit next to her.
"Don't worry, my love. I have enough money with me to buy the house and the mill. Remember what the captain told you about the Diamonds. Although I gave him a diamond, which now must be at the bottom of the ocean, I still have a few more. We can stay with both, the house and the mill."
"You carry that much money? What about Mr. Vidal's possessions, do you have access to them?"
Barbara is saddened to hear the name of her husband murdered in a moment of madness.
"He had only himself and me. Nothing more. All the money we have is in my possession. I'll tell you the whole story."
She told him her life story, the torment she had to endure in the hands of her adoptive father, her relationship with the archbishop, and finally how she connected with Vidal. But she did not tell him how the archbishop died, or rather, how he was killed.
He looked at her and comforted her in his arms. Marie suddenly entered the room and the couple let go of each other in embarrassment. She asked if they wanted anything else and if she should continue serving the house.
"Don't worry, Marie, we know what to do. Everything will continue as before, except for the presence of the captain. We will miss him for the rest of our lives."
Barbara looked at her and noticed a dot on her ear lobe.
"Marie, your mark has made me curious. Is it a birthmark?"
Marie brought her hand up to her earlobe. "Here in the ear? No, it's a tattoo. My people tattoo all babies, it's a tradition of ours. I'm going to bed, if you need anything, just wake me up. Good night."
The couple bade her good night. They waited for her to leave and went up to Barbara's room. She sat on the bed and looked at him with a serious expression. "What are those tattoos, James? Can you explain them to me now?"
He closed the door and locked it. We went to her.
"Since you told me your story, I will continue mine. My grandparents, before being captured in a war with a neighboring tribe and being sold as slaves were kings of our people. They were able to buy their freedom in Haiti with donations from other slaves of our people. That was when they vowed to free everyone. This vow became my father's and now it is mine.
The farm we had was not only ours, it was of all my people. It is our custom to tattoo children with a dot on the earlobe and royals are tattooed on both ears. Whenever there were slave auctions, my father bought ours. They were then freed by us, working to help us make more money to free the rest. When the revolution came to our doorstep, we defended ourselves as best as we could. Before they arrived, my father ordered me to be locked in the cellar. He wanted to preserve the bloodline of the family if we were ever invaded, which is what happened." He stopped the story, his eyes were glazed, he looked at Barbara, but in fact he was looking through her. What was filling his mind was the image of his family's last moments.
Barbara was fascinated. She had no idea that African society was organized into kings and nobles.
"After you told us where you came from, Vidal suspected something was wrong. He found it strange that you managed to escape the invaders, because we thought the slaves had also rebelled. If so, it would be impossible for you not to be recognized.”
"Yes, there were no slaves on our property. When I managed to knock down the door to the kitchen, I found the bodies of five brothers who died defending me. They died so I could survive. All of them!" He raised his hands to his face and wept. Barbara hugged him.
"When I arrived here, I made sure the vow would not be broken. It was part of my agreement with the captain. We bought everyone who had marks on their ears and immediately freed them. Everyone who works with us is not a slave, Barbara, they are my brothers! I need you to agree to continue doing this, do you agree? I cannot allow my brothers to be tortured by madmen and I have to fulfill my promise!"
She did not answer, only kissed him and they both lay down to rest.
38. Illusion
Months went by and James and Barbara continued as before. He worked at the mill, she sometimes accompanied him, but preferred to stay in the city. Marie ended up becoming Barbara's waiting maid and Barbara treated her more as an escort than as a maid. Life went on. Her passion for him increased every day and every minute she was away from him was torture for her. Her joy of seeing him coming home, taking her in his arms and making love to her seemed only to grow.
This perfect existence was marred by only one nagging bit of mistrust. James' disappearances. One day she planned to surprise him and waited for him to leave. After a few hours, she went to the mill but he was not there. She waited for him all day. She grew tired of the wait and ended up returning home. She was not able to get any information about his whereabouts from Marie nor from the others who worked with him.
On the following day, James met her, saying that halfway to the mill he came across a camping party that wanted to sell sugar cane from a territory farther north. He spent the time negotiating with them and returned to the mill very late, after she had gone.
She made no objection to the story told by him, but a hint of mistrust began to grow inside her. She started watching him and realized that on certain days he would not make love to her, even though she was always willing. She did not give it much thought, it seemed normal for him to be tired sometimes and, after all, there was no rush, they had their whole lives ahead of them. She hadn't cared until then.
So she came up with a plan. After he left the house, she sent Marie out to buy something so she could follow him. He usually left the carriage in the town house and a cart on the edge of the city next to a shop that his mil supplied. He usually walked there, picked up the cart I went on to the mill from there.
The first time she followed him, he did not turn in the direction of the mill. Concealed by her cloak, she followed him unnoticed until he entered a house on Hospital Street. She waited for him to come out, but the hours dragged by and she decided to give up. It was getting late. Her wish was to knock on the door to see what he was doing inside, but she held herself back. When she turned to leave, the door opened and he walked out, looking both ways. She had time to hide behind a tree to avoid being seen.
After he was gone, she waited for a moment and knocked on the door of the house he had just left. The door was opened by a black woman in her twenties with a tattooed earlobe. Barbara apologized saying she had knocked on the wrong door but not before a child, a little boy about five years old, ran up behind his mother. He was also tattooed.
A few days later she decided to follow him again. This time she was determined to go in the house but he did not go to the same address. This time he went to Bourbon Street. When she knocked on the door, another girl, younger than the last one, opened the door, hugged him and kissed him passionately on the lips. Barbara's legs went weak, her breath caught in her throat. She collapsed onto the trunk of the nearest tree. She felt like the ground could swallow her wh
ole. She burst into tears, the hurt of the betrayal invaded her chest. A passing gentleman offered to help her but she refused and walked aimlessly until she came across a church. She went in and sat down. It was empty. She knelt and cried, feeling like hot iron was burning in her chest.
Suddenly she screamed and lost consciousness. She fell down dead. Her heart had stopped beating. The parish priest, who was in the sacristy, heard the cry and ran out to help her. Despite no longer breathing and with her eyes staring ahead, Barbara saw a hand surrounded by light. The hand entered her chest and removed a bright sphere from inside of her. The orb emitted rays from its brighter center, red rays. The hand that held the ball threw it far away. Her heart lurched and started to beat and she began breathing again. The priest approached her talking frantically, but she couldn’t make sense of his words. She was paralyzed, could not move. He ran off and came back with water. He wet his fingers and rubbed them over her wrists and forehead. He then poured a few drops on her lips. Slowly she began recovering. She motioned for him to help her sit down. Shortly afterwards he took her to the sacristy and left her under the care of an acolyte. He came back with a mug of wine. With trembling hands, she took the mug and brought it to her lips. The helper accompanied her home upon the insistence of the priest.
While the acolyte explained to Marie what had happened, Barbara went to her room and lay on the bed. Staring at the ceiling, she began thinking of James but after the day’s occurrence, she felt that something had changed inside of her. She still loved him, but the passion was gone. She remembered the vision she had. In her mind, something or someone had taken away the passion from her heart to prevent her from dying. She fell asleep and dreamt again of Vidal and Jonas.
She was sitting on a kind of throne and both were desperately talking to her but she couldn't understand what they were saying. She tried to stand up but couldn't. They suddenly stopped talking and looked at her with sadness. Two giant claws emerged and shattered them into dust. An immense, dark figure approached her. She felt the rotten breath from its nostrils as it snorted at her face, but she couldn’t move away. The right claw ripped her clothes from her waist up to her neck, leaving her breasts exposed. One of the claws began to caress her skin without harming her. She felt the edge, the icy touch, it felt like knives being dragged across her skin. The claws reached her jaw, and the forefinger and thumb of the thing lifted her chin so that she met the fiery eyes coming out of the darkness. She couldn't breathe. The figure then decreased in size and became Leonardo.
"You think you escaped?" he shouted. "You'll always be mine, you bitch!"
She woke up stifling a scream.
The door of the house opened and James came in. She was there waiting for him, her mind fully prepared, with a cup of tea in her right hand and a saucer in her left. She was sure of what she had to do. Her goal was a target, she was the arrow, and like an arrow released from its bow, there was nothing that could be done to stop its course. She was in mid-flight, flying, free and with enough power to pierce her destiny.
"How are you my darling? Will you not greet me with a hug? I've missed you all day! One day is enough for my world to turn into darkness away from you!" he said, with his arms outstretched and his bag on the floor beside his feet.
She took the cup to her lips, sipped some of the liquid, placed the cup back on the saucer. She stood up and walked over to him slowly, as if delighting in every step she took. Her heels touched firmly on the floor and the sole of her foot slowly descended until her toe tips touched the ground for an instant and then she repeated the movement as if taking part in a ballet. She moved gracefully, almost feline-like. Slowly, back straight, both feet perfectly aligned a few inches apart. It looked like they would bump into each other when they crossed, but they did not, they simply rustled the hem of her dress.
Her hips swung in a movement full of voluptuousness and the swinging of her arms accompanied the movement of her thighs, but in the opposite way, left leg, right arm. Her breasts were pushed forward, her shoulders thrown back, her spine in perfect alignment. At the top was her ivory neck graced by two small spots that were so perfect they looked like the fine details of a painting renaissance painting. Her jaw was motionless, along with the red lips that framed her mouth, the lower half drawn in a semicircle, and the top one puckered, in line with the perfect shape of her nose, not too small nor too big, the ideal size. He noticed, as he looked at her that her expression had changed. Her eyes seemed different, her look was different. She was warm, he could feel it on her skin, but the warmth was not coming from passion.
She hugged and kissed him. He didn't realize it, no man would, that the kiss was completely devoid of emotion or maybe not, perhaps it was comparable to the kiss Judas gave to Christ.
Marie suddenly entered the room. The sound of her coming in alerted them and made them move away from each other. She did not distrust them though for she knew they were together although they hadn’t told her. She smiled, she saw no reason for Barbara not to accept James as her lover. She was glad that the king had found such a graceful concubine.
"May I serve dinner? You were very late today, Mr. James! I prepared Gumbo and dared to add alligator meat to it!"
"My goodness, you seem to have guessed that I arrived hungry, Marie! What about you Barbara? Does dinner sound tantalizing?"
She turned to Marie without answering James.
"Serve dinner then, Marie. I am not that hungry but I'll keep James company. My afternoon meal has completely taken away my appetite, but I won't resist the alligator meat. Blessed is the God who created this murderous creature with such tasty flesh. Please take these bottles of aguardente to the kitchen."
"Have they already been diluted, Mr. James?"
"Not yet. When you can bring in some fresh water from the well."
Marie picked up the bag with the bottles and left. James then turned to Barbara.
"I hope not all your appetites have been satisfied!" he said, hugging her again.
"Maybe not all of them," she said with a look that scared him when he drew back to look at her. Lifeless eyes, without light. She looked either very, very tired... or very, very crazy, like a shark that has sensed fresh blood and has become a killing machine.
They sat at the table, enjoying the Gumbo stew made with clams, seafood and rice. The dish was prepared, or rather built up, by making a roux from wheat flour roasted in pork fat and then the "Holy Trinity" was added, a mix of onion, celery and bell peppers. The meats, seafood and sausages, added at the end, were very similar to the Portuguese sausages that reminded Barbara of home.
James ate his share heartily. The movements of his knife were like shadows swiftly cutting through the firmament. The Gumbo disappeared from his plate as if it were being transported to another dimension. After satisfying his immediate hunger, he noticed that Barbara was silent, chewing on a piece of sausage. He looked at her.
"What is wrong with you, Barbara? Is something bothering you?"
She realized that the moment was approaching. She lifted her glass and drank some wine, raising her eyes to meet his.
"What do you mean? Is anything in my behavior displeasing you tonight, my dear?" she said mockingly, twisting her fingers in front of her face.
"Yes, I find it strange that you have not told me anything about your day. Where you went and who you met on the streets. The purchases you made and the arrangement of the goods in the French store or how long your afternoon nap took," he said playfully.
"Then I was wrong! It seems like you do listen to me sometimes. That is surprising!"
While she spoke, he picked up a clam and brought it to his mouth. After swallowing it, he asked her again to tell him what was wrong or what was displeasing her. This time his tone was serious.
"What is displeasing me? I'll tell you, sir." The pitch of her voice rose. "What displeases me is that you lie with two sluts, maybe more. A man like you must lie with any bitch that crosses his path. After all, people of your color
and origin are nothing but animals, aren't they?"
James stiffened. He was not expecting an attack of this nature to come from her, much less with a barrage of offenses regarding his origin. He opened his mouth, but she shut it.
"Do not dare deny it, because I know the truth. I followed you, knocked on the door of one of the houses of the bitches and saw one of the sons. He looks very much like you, although he is still very young. But it is noticeable that he descends from the same pile of dung!"
"Do not say anything about my son. I will not allow it!" He stood up and walked towards her. He lowered his face to hers and laid his hands on the table.
"Those women are my concubines. I am a king! I must spread my seed for my people. It is our custom!"
"So you think your imperial prerogative frees you from the civilized world of marital relations, is that right?"
She plunged the knife into his right thigh, he howled with pain and moved back, but the handle of the knife was still in her hand as he drew back. She ripped the knife out of his thigh and looked into his eyes, which were filled with terror. She relived the memory of wanting to kill Leonardo and brought it to fruition on James.
"And what does your majesty think of this?"' She said as she plunged the knife into his heart. He let her go. Marie, after hearing a cry, rushed into the room in time to see her king covered in an expanding pool of blood, for he had removed the knife from his chest, sealing his fate. His body fell to the floor splattering his royal blood all around himself.
"What did you do, you bitch?" Marie went crazy with the scene and made a move towards Barbara.
"Get away, Marie, I do not want to hurt you!"
Marie knelt in tears beside James's already lifeless body. She sobbed, screamed and grabbed the knife that he was still holding in his hand. When she turned, Barbara was already on her with the knife James had been using at the table. She slit her throat. Marie fell back horrified seeing her own blood draining from her body. She tried to stave off the flow but Barbara had cut her carotid artery. She looked up at the ceiling, her eyes glassy, her body weakening until she dropped to the floor, dead.
