A Simple Deception

XXXIV

He could never leave her. Perhaps staying with her would be one of the most selfish decisions he would ever make, but what else could be done? They belonged to one another. God, Himself, had tried to keep them apart and it could not be done.

"Will you sleep beside me?" Susanna uttered softly. "We are married, after all."

Alex felt his own cheeks flush, and he was suddenly so thankful for his own complexion masking it. "You are right, ma chère femme," he replied, chuckling.

***

It was noon the following day when Alex and Susanna finally made their way back onto the plantation. Oddly though, with Susanna's hand in his, Alex did not experience the same feeling of dread as he had when he had first returned. Perhaps it was because he knew it wasn't permanent. He knew he was leaving. He knew that he would never have to look upon these fields again and remember what was done to him.

Of course, Alex would never forget. How could he? But now he had the most compelling reason in the world to keep his eyes forward.

The minute they were sighter, the workers stopped, and of course, they stared. They stared as much as they had when the white men had ventured onto the land. Only they did not look upon Susanna as a threat as they had Adam and Captain Whitfield. That did not stop Alex from holding onto Susanna a little more tightly.

He did not know where Captain Whitfield and Adam would have hidden themselves.

A glance down at Susanna's face told him every thought that was running through her head. He knew what she was thinking, what she was imagining. She looked around the plantation, around the fields and at the people with an expression of sadness, of helplessness and guilt.

As they continued to move through the plantation, Alex felt the constant watch of the workers, until finally one called out.

"Connaissez-vous cette dame blanche?" cried out one of the men.

"Oui!" replied Alex. "C'est ma femme."

At his declaration, Susanna's hand tightened in his. "Where are we going?" she asked him quietly.

"I am taking you to Belle." Alex then realised that he hadn't yet told Susanna about Belle.

"The captain did mention you were travelling with a woman," recalled Susanna, though he did hear the question in her tone.

As they walked, as swiftly as they could, Alex explained to Susanna how he had come to meet and know Belle. From meeting her on the smuggler's ship, to Belle's brush with death aboard Captain Whitfield's ship, Susanna was shocked.

"She has never told me her age, but I don't believe her to be older than eighteen or nineteen. Perhaps she is younger. But her life is one that no woman should ever have had to suffer."

"Will you ask her to come back with us?"

Susanna wasn't asking Alex if he was planning to invite Belle. Susanna was the one inviting her. He smiled. He would never have left her behind, and he was quite confident that like himself, Belle wanted to leave the life that this place reminded her of long in the past.

***

Alex brought Susanna to an unplanted field. Susanna recalled seeing this occur on the farms that her brother tenanted at home. Fields were rotated, but for a reason she did not understand. This empty field was instead being used as a small, temporary village dotted with tents and snuffed fires and lines of drying laundry.

Susanna honestly didn't know what to say. She could scarcely believe where she was standing, and she could hardly fathom what had happened here. She thought back to the sight of Alex's marred back, and it troubled her greatly knowing that she was mere feet from where that had happened.