A Simple Deception

XXIII

"Wait here," Alex told Belle, who had still not spoken a word. "I'll make my way to the cliff face, to see if I can spot a ship flying under neutral colours." It would be a death wish to approach a British ship. "At nightfall, we will make our way down the mountain."

Belle nodded silently as her chin dropped, her dark curls falling into her face to shield herself.

Alex hesitated, deciding that he couldn't leave her alone and vulnerable in that moment. He couldn't know the fear that she had experienced not even an hour ago. Lord, she had cried out to God to kill her! She had wished for death. She would rather die than experience that again. It was a harrowing truth to assume.

Food, Alex decided. He needed to find food. A breath of wind would knock Belle off of her feet, she was so tiny. Alex searched the surrounding trees, recognising the tropical plants as similar to those that grew on Haiti. Way up in the palms he could see coconuts, but they would be much too difficult to reach. Hanging lower from smaller trees, Alex could see papaya fruit. He would still be required to climb, but it was a more achievable height.

"I will be right back," he promised her, as he jumped down from the buggy and started toward the papaya tree. He placed his hands on the rough bark before encircling his arms around the thin trunk. He used what strength he had left to hoist himself up, using his thighs to grip below him. Slowly but surely, Alex made his way up the trunk of the tree, before finally reaching the fruit after a few minutes. The sweat on his brow trickled into his eyes as he pulled the fruit and threw it down to the ground one by one. When he had exhausted that tree's supply, Alex carefully slid back down the trunk and back onto the ground.

Picking up one of the riper fruits, Alex smashed it against the trunk of the tree, breaking it open slightly. He did the same to another piece before gathering his spoils and carrying them back towards Belle and the buggy.

Belle's eyes widened with hunger when she saw Alex approach, and he was quick to hand her the ripest piece of fruit. Her bony fingers pulled at the crack, but she couldn't quite get it apart. Alex dumped the fruits on the floor on the buggy as he climbed back up beside her. He took the papaya from Belle and pulled it apart, exposing the orange insides and handed it back to her.

Belle ate hungrily, and Alex was quickly to follow, his stomach actually paining him as it received food for the first time in a while. The papaya was quite possibly the best food he had ever tasted.

"Why do you not ask anything of me?" Belle suddenly queried, her sudden question almost startling him.

"I beg your pardon?"

Alex turned to look at Belle, and she was staring at him with a sort of confusion. Her eyes were wide and hypnotising, and in that moment he understood why so many thought her a witch.

"I've been waiting for you to ask," she continued. "To take," she corrected. "Yet you give. You give, and you give, and you give to me. Why don't you take? Take without asking. It is what men do. Why don't you do it?"

Alex nearly choked on his papaya. She had been waiting for him to take from her. He felt the bile rise in his throat at the very idea of doing what she was insinuating.

It is what men do.

Belle believed this was a fact. She believed that men took from women without their consent. She was used to this. Accustomed. So much so that she found it strange that Alex did not take from her.

Alex wished death on the men that she had known.

And he wished that Belle would never beg for death again.