Treasure of the sea |Lesbian story|

CHAPTER XLI

It was a family who offered to take me in. They had a house right in the centre of town, with white-plastered walls and a purple roof. There was a large garden in front of the house and a pergola where there were rocking chairs and apparently very comfortable couches. As soon as I arrived, I saw a slave removing weeds from the well-kept flower beds.

Their name was William and Abigail Taylor and they had two children. A three-year-old girl, Phoebe, and a seven-year-old boy, Archibald.

"Are you really Eveline Adler?" asked Archibald, as soon as he saw me.

"Yes."

"Crazy! What are pirates like? Are they really as scary as they say?"

"Archie!" his mother admonished him. "Forgive him. He is a very lively child. He does not realize what he is saying."

"It's okay."

"Hello, I'm Abigail. I bet you're exhausted. Come on, I'll show you to your room."

They were all very kind to me, almost too kind. It felt like they were talking to someone who had just been through a trauma. Maybe it was true, but I didn't realize it; I felt good. They all wanted to talk to me, asking question after question, asking me what Arenis looked like, asking me what she had forced me to do, asking me what it was like to live among pirates. In the blink of an eye, the whole of Maryland knew that Eveline Adler had survived. When I went to give my written statement, the questions the inspector asked disturbed me enormously. He didn't believe Arenis had treated me so well. He suspected there was something I did not want to reveal.

"She never touched you?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean... intimately. Has she never stretched her hands over your body? Never forced you to do anything filthy? You can speak, Miss Adler, I am not here to judge you."

"She never did, no. She's not that kind of person."

"And what kind of person is she, shall we hear?"

"She is... just. She respects her crew."

The inspector grinned. "Just?"

"Yes."

"Miss Adler, you are no longer under her influence. You are free. Realize that. There is no need to defend her. She can no longer harm you."

"I'm not telling lies."

"You mean to tell me that woman is a righteous person?"

"She is. She kind of is."

"Miss Adler," the inspector said, bringing a hand to his forehead, exasperated. "Tell me where you have been these past months."

And so, I began to tell. I told how Arenis had captured Galatea, how I had been hiding for a long time in that dark, smelly closet, how Arenis had found me and hoped to make even more money by kidnapping me. Then, of the day I found out that my family had fallen into misery, of Nassau, of the Black Star, of the numerous raids, of the plunder, I described every member of Arenis's crew, and finally the inspector asked me again about the attack by Thorpe.

"It was awful. We were like rats locked in a cage. I honestly believed I was going to die. The Captain trusted that man. Everyone trusted Thorpe's crew. Those men were their friends. And they sold them."

"What happened?"

"They locked us in a room. Most of us were unarmed. They killed nineteen of our people, one of them was Quinn, the young boy I told you about earlier. He was only fifteen years old. I had just taught him how to read and write."

"But tell me more about Arenis."

The inspector was extremely convinced that I was hiding something about Arenis and I did nothing but tell him that she had never done anything to me, that she had not forced me into her bed or tortured me or anything else. I repeated this so many times that I became terribly impatient. At a certain point I fell silent, my expression grim.

"You may speak, Miss Adler. You can trust me."

"How many times do I have to tell you that Arenis has done nothing to me that you believe?"

"Miss Adler, there's nothing to be ashamed of..."

"Stop it! Stop it!"

"I understand that it can be very difficult to talk about it, I really do. I can't even imagine what you're feeling, what you've been through, but it's important, you know? We need to know the truth."

"That's the truth. I've told you everything."

He forced a friendly smile. "I think you need to clear your head a bit, Miss Adler. We've been here for so many hours. You'll be back tomorrow, all right?"

"There's nothing more to say, Inspector Bright."

"You will return tomorrow," he sentenced, and took his leave.

That same afternoon a reporter rang at the Taylor's door. Mrs. Taylor welcomed him into the house and had tea made for him. He was a middle-aged man, so short that he came up to my shoulders. He followed me with his eyes the whole time, staring at me as if I were something extremely charming. Like the inspector, he began to ask me about my life on the pirate ship. I was exhausted from repeating the same things over and over again, but I did it once more. But the reporter got angry too. He asked about Arenis and I denied everything. Two days later, the article appeared in the newspaper, where the journalist wrote that I had refused to tell him what had really happened to me on that ship and that I had suffered such a strong trauma that my mind had probably even repressed it.

"Damn it," I grunted, tossing the paper into the burning fireplace.

The trial began a week later. I refused to testify in court, although Inspector Bright had begged me over and over to do so.

"What would be the point of that? You're all trying to put words in my mouth."

"It's not like that..."

"In any case, I will not testify."