The Price of Freedom (9 page)

Sarah had just finished sweeping
out their hut and was collecting dirty clothes to wash when Deborah stormed
into the hut.

"Sorry I'm so late back to
help you clean. I was drying my hair out by the cliff when Master Richard saw
me and asked me to fix a meal for him. I don't know why he couldn't get it
himself, or find Hattie and ask her. She would have been glad to help
him!"

"You know they don't know how
to do anything for themselves," Sarah consoled her. "How he find you
out there though? Out there is lonely Deborah. Anything could happen and nobody
would hear you. He
ain
' trouble you,
nuh
?"

Deborah remembered how his eyes
had travelled over her body and shivered a little but she couldn’t honestly say
that he had troubled her, apart from the fact that she found his presence
somewhat unnerving.

"No, ma.
Don't forget that it is Hattie he is interested in. I don't know how he could
be planning to marry a woman in Carolina and still bed Hattie."

"Girl, those men don't see us
as their own kind, so they don't think they’re doing anything wrong. To them we
just like a favorite chair; something to sink into and give them pleasure at
the end of the day."

"Even
Master Thomas?"

"He is a good man but he
ain
' much different from the rest of them when it comes to
that. You think I could ever tell him that I don' feel like coming when he tell
me to come to his room?"

"Have you ever tried?"
Deborah challenged her.

"Girl you want me to get the
skin whipped off my back?"

"I don't think the Master
would ever have you whipped, ma. I'm not too sure about the mistress though."

"I know. Ever since Master
William
get
send to England she been looking for to
something to flog me and you for but she can’t find anything."

They filled up a tub with water
and began to wash their laundry with a bar of soap. Being a lot less than what
Sarah had to deal with on laundry day, the two pairs of hands made quick work
of the load.

"Ma.
You ever think about being free?" Deborah asked as they spread out their
clothes on nearby bushes to dry.

Sarah looked around cautiously
before answering.

"Yes,
child.
But I think more about you being free than me. I know that you
could do a lot with the learning you have. You could run a boarding house or
keep a shop in Town. I hear that sometimes when a master free a slave he gives
them money or property to make a start after they free."

"Have you ever asked the
master if we could buy our freedom from him? We don't have much money saved up
but maybe he would sell us cheap since he doesn’t need the money," she
laughed. Sarah joined her.

"I was going to ask him for
your freedom after William troubled you but since he sent him away I didn't
bother."

"I don't want to be here when
William comes back. Even if the master were to put in his will that we are to
be freed after he dies I don't trust William to do it. You need to talk to him
about that soon."

"Next time he calls for me I
will ask him. That will be the best time." She smiled the secret smile of
a woman who knew the power she had over a man.

Deborah felt a sliver of hope
penetrate the wall that guarded her heart.  Maybe her mother could
persuade the master to set them free.

The family returned from their day
out at church, followed by lunch at friends who lived on a large plantation in
St. Peter called St. Nicholas Abbey, late in the evening. Thomas went to sleep
right away and the girls retired to their rooms leaving Elizabeth in her
favorite spot on the patio to enjoy the sunset which transformed the sky into a
palette of pinks and oranges.

"How did you spend your day,
Richard?" asked his aunt as he joined her on the patio.

"Oh I had a wonderfully lazy
day. I explored the eastern part of the plantation and spent some time enjoying
the view.” A picture of Deborah with her hair draped over her shoulders flashed
into his mind. “It's very peaceful out there." Or would be if it was not
occupied by a disturbing slave girl, he thought.

"Yes, the view is lovely. I
don't go out there very often; I prefer to sit on the patio here in my favorite
chair. I hope the girls fed you."

“I got Deborah to prepare
something for me. I think she was less than pleased though since it was her day
off.”

"If she was insolent I’ll
deal with her!" His aunt said sharply. Too late, he realized that he may
have gotten Deborah in trouble with his comment.

"Not at all.
She fixed me a very nice meal."

"That girl is constantly
rude. She does not know her place. Of course it's Thomas' fault. He lets her do
as she pleases.
She and her mother.
You must let me
know if she is rude to you."

Richard realized that Sarah and Deborah
were a source of shame and jealousy to his aunt and she would look for any
excuse to punish them. He couldn’t really blame her.

"I don't know what William
saw in her but he was obsessed with her. That's what got him sent away."
It was as if his aunt had kept this inside her since William left and was glad
to have someone to unburden to.

"Imagine that Thomas sided
with those slaves against his own son!" she continued.

Richard waited for her to explain
further but having vented her frustration, she now seemed reluctant to say more
and he did not want to appear overly interested, although he was now curious to
know what had transpired, so he said nothing.

"So tell me about your
fiancée," said his aunt changing the subject. "Have you written to
her to let her know that you arrived safely?"

"I must admit that I have
not. Letter writing is something that I avoid like the plague. It took me
months before I wrote Uncle Thomas to let him know that I was coming."

"You don't sound as if you're
smitten with this young lady, if you will forgive my boldness. Otherwise you
would have written her as soon as you landed."

"I've known her for a long
time but I must admit that it was our fathers who pointed out the benefits that
such a marriage would bring."

His aunt nodded understandingly.

"My marriage was one such as
that, but I loved Thomas passionately so I was eager to come with him to
Barbados even though I knew the early days would be hard. I never imagined it
would turn out like this."

Richard didn't know if she was referring
to their marriage, life on the plantation or both. It dawned on him that Ann
would be in exactly the same position as his aunt, except for the hardship.

Would it be fair to subject her to
such a marriage? He even had his own version of Sarah in Anise although she, at
least, was not under the same roof. Funny, he realized that he had hardly
thought about her since the first night when he compared Deborah to her and Ann
had crossed his mind even less.

He knew his aunt was right though.
He really should send letters to his parents and Ann to let them know he had
reached Barbados safely although
Bostick
would assure
them of that on his return. He was just about to excuse himself to go and start
the arduous task when he a sudden pain gripped his abdomen.

He rubbed it surreptitiously and
waited for it to pass. Instead the pain intensified and spread. He wondered if
it was something he ate and them he remembered that Deborah had unwillingly
prepared his meal.  Did she put something in his food?

"Aunt Elizabeth, I must ask
you to excuse me but I have an excruciating pain in my abdomen. I think I had
better lie down.”

"Oh, my
dear boy!
I wonder if the water has affected you. Sometimes the water
makes visitors to the island ill since they are not accustomed to it. I will
get Deborah to fix you one of her potions. That's the only thing the girl is
good for," she could not resist saying.

I hope that it wasn’t one of her
potions that
has
me in this condition, he thought to
himself.

He gingerly rose from the rocking
chair and was ashamed when his aunt came to his assistance as another cramp
almost doubled him over. He was amazed at how quickly the illness came on. By
the time they reached his room he was covered in sweat.

"I'll get Jethro to come and
help you undress and use the chamber pot if you have to and I’ll get Deborah to
bring you some tea to make you feel better."

She helped him into his bed and
hurried out, calling one of the girls to go to Deborah's hut and tell her to
find Jethro and come to the house quickly.

Richard was too weak to do
anything except pray that Deborah would hurry up with the tea and that it would
work fast, provided that she hadn’t poisoned him in the first place. While the
thought of having Jethro help him use the chamber pot was beyond humiliating,
he hoped that he would appear before he had an embarrassing accident.

As another series of cramps
ravaged his body, he could not bite back the moan that escaped his lips. He had
never felt so ill in his life. Did he come to Barbados only to die?

“Deborah, Deborah!”  Rachel
called outside her hut.  Deborah took just a second to appear in the
doorway as it was such a rare occurrence for the girls to come to her hut.

“Mother told you to find Jethro
and come to the house quickly,” she continued breathlessly. “Cousin Richard is
sick.”

Deborah’s heart skipped a
beat.  She paused only to turn back to her mother who was on her heels to
ask her to find Jethro while she rushed to the house.  She had plaited her
hair but did not even stop to pile it under a handkerchief.

“Do you know what kind of sickness
he has?”

“I think it’s his stomach. 
Mother said something about the water affecting him or it may have been
something he ate.”

Deborah began to feel a little
anxious. She thought of the food that she had prepared for him earlier that
day.  It was lamb stew that had been left back from the night before and
bread.

Did she heat it up enough? Was she
responsible for his illness or was it the water?

She reached the kitchen and lit
the fire in the hearth. Quickly filling up the kettle from the bucket of water
on the counter, she suspended the handle over the crane and swung it into the
hearth.

Looking through her herbs in their
clay jars she took out two small cloth bags containing chamomile and peppermint
leaves.  She poured some of each into a tea pot and paced the floor
waiting for the kettle to boil.

Her mother always said that a
watched pot took longer to boil and she felt sure that this was true. She could
hear the mistress heading to the kitchen, probably to find out what was taking
so long.

“Deborah, how much longer will you
be?  Poor Richard is in agony.  Jethro is with him now but I know
your tea will soothe his stomach and replace much needed fluids. I don’t know
what has brought this on, but I feel terrible!”

“I’m coming now mistress. 
I’m waiting for the kettle to boil.” Deborah felt terrible too.
Terribly guilty.

“I’m going up to my room to change
out of these clothes. I will check on him in a few minutes.

“Yes, ma’am.”