Silhouetted by the Sea

Disclaimer: I don't own the names. Just the plot.

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lhoulhouetted by the Sea
by Kristen Elizabeth

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Sally was waiting on *The Rose Queen* when Relena was brought over from the island in a state of complete shock. The older woman was wrapped up in a quilt; her eyes brimmed over with her own tears. After Relena was helped up the side of the boat, Sally threw off the quilt and ran to her, enfolding the younger girl into an embrace.

Relena had barely any reaction. "How did this happen?" she asked softly.

"There wasn't anything they could do! Wufei and Trowa were outnumbered..." She stopped when she noticed Quatre watching them. "Come on. We'll continue this below." As she guided Relena away, she addressed Quatre. "Could you arrange for a bath and fresh clothes for myself and the Baron's sister?"

The blond man nodded. "Of course, Baroness." The two women disappeared below deck.

Once they were out of sight, Sally grasped Relena's hands. "Did they take Heero, too?

Relena nodded listlessly. "It would have been useless...for him to fight back. I'm glad he didn't or he might have been...hurt." She closed her eyes.

They entered a cabin and Sally urged Relena to sit on one berth. Sitting next to her, she pulled the girl into an embrace. "Were you with him last night?" Relena nodded. "Did you give yourself to him?"

"Gladly," Relena whispered. She buried her face in Sally's shoulder. "Oh, Sally...I don't care if it was wrong or evil. I love him. I love him so much." Her head lifted. "They can't put them in jail! They saved our lives!! Doesn't that count for anything?"

"Apparently not when weighed against piracy." Sally voice wobbled as she remember Wufei's last words to her before it became inevitable that he would be captured. *You'll be fine,* he had said into her ear. *You are the strongest woman I know.* Sally blinked rapidly.

Relena wiped away her own tears. "What will happen to them...and to us?"

"I suppose Kushrenada will have them prosecuted. Perhaps he'll even have them sent back to America to face charges." The words left a horrible taste in Sally's mouth. "As for us...I'll return to England. And you..."

"I'll still have to marry him." Relena stood up and walked across the cabin to the holehole. "Heero told me last night...he said he wouldn't ever leave me." She spun back around. "I won't let anyone make him break that promise, Sally."

Sally lowered her eyes. "I don't see that there's much we can do, Relena."

"We'll think of something," Relena said firmly. "I've spent my entire life looking for Heero. I just never knew it until I saw him. And I am *not* going to lose him now."

There was a knock on the door and a crew man entered with a basin full of warmed water. He left a moment later. Sally stood and approached the younger girl. "First, let's clean up. And then we'll see what we can do." She cupped Relena's cheek. "I have someone in the brig to protect, too."

Relena nodded. "I was hoping you'd say that."

****

Duo entered the brig of *The Rose Queen* the morning they reached Barbados with a heart of pure lead. In the two days since the rescue of the Baroness and Miss Peacecraft, and the subsequent arrest and incarceration of Hilde and her pirate friends, Duo had been unable to work up the courage to descend into the bowels of the ship where the prisoners were being held. He was not proud of himself, but the minute Barbados had been spotted, Duo forced himself down into the brig.

The two women had even tried to get in to see the prisoners. According to Quatre, they had both gone down below at least four times, but at every instance, the guard on duty had turned them away, reminding them that the brig was no place for a lady. Duo had bristled upon hearing that; there was a lady in chains at the bottom of *The Rose Queen*. And he had put her there.

So, after the tiny strip of Barbados was sighted by the morning watch, Duo found himself climbing down to the brig with more than just mixed emotions on his mind. He needed to see her, to verify for himself that she was all right....or as all right as any prisoner could be. He took with him a plate of biscuits. Another report he had received was that she wasn't eating.

The air at the bottom of the ship was stale. The only light came from the lantern he held in his hand and the one next to the guard. He waved away the native man and started for the end of the cramped room and the clump of pirates in chains.

She saw him coming long before he reached her and took the opportunity to scoot as close to Heero as her chains would let her get. When he stopped a few feet away from them, Hilde turned her face into her leader's shoulder, refusing to look at him.

Duo bit his lip. "I've brought you all something to eat."

The Chinese man who had identified himself as Chang Wufei when he was arrested, narrowed his eyes. "We'd rather starve."

Heero glanced at him, Hilde's head heavy on his shoulder. "Leave it and go."

Duo set down the plate. He couldn't see her face; perhaps it was just as well. If he couldn't see her eyes, he couldn't see the hate that had to be in them. "Hilde..." he began.

Trowa rested his head against the damp wood wall. "Do you honestly believe we'd let her talk to you even if she wanted to?"

"I wouldn't presume to speak for her," Duo snapped. "You shouldn't either."

Hilde lifted her head at his words. She would have to face him sometime. Clearing her throat, she addressed her friend. "I can handle myself, Trowa." Her eyes lifted to meet Duo's violet gaze; her heart thudded in her chest. "You've done what you came to do?"

"No. I want to see you eat before I go." Duo squatted down and picked up the plate.

"Why should I do anything you ask of me, sir?" Hilde lifted her chained wrists. "You're the reason we're all down here."

Duo squeezed his eyes shut for a moment. "I didn't have a choice. I still don't...in some ways, I'm no more free than you are."

"Bullshit," she hissed.

"You think I like seeing you like this? I hate it, Hilde. I never wanted this to happen!" Duo's forehead crinkled. "I swear to god....I didn't."

Heero turned a cool, suspicious eye onto the braided man. "Just exactly what is going on here?"

Hilde licked her dry lips. She didn't seem to hear Heero, so intent was she on Duo. "If yanteanted to fuck me over, sir, you should have just finished what you started that night."

Rage flickered across the pirate leader's face. "Did you touch her?" He sat up as straight as he could, his muscles rigid. "Hilde...did he hurt you? Did he try to..."

She cut him off. "It's fine, Heero. Nothing happened that I didn't want."

"He did." Heero leveled Duo with a murderous stare. "You fucking bastard." Like a snake, he struck out, reaching to grab Duo's throat. But the chains connecting him to the wall held him at bay, his arms out in front of him...mere inches from his target.

Duo barely flinched. Instead, he swallowed and stood up. "I never meant to hurt you, Hilde. Please believe that."

"I don't," she told him flatly. "If you really meant it...you would do something to help us."

"I can't."

Hilde turned her head away. "Then...just leave. I don't ever want to speak to you again."

Heero continuo sto struggle against his chains. "If I ever get my hands on you..." He didn't need to finish his threat.

Trowa stared up at the braided man, his usually empty green eyes full of hate, and finished the threat for his leader. "The braid won't be the only thing getting cut off."

"I am sorry," Duo told her, backing away. When he received no answer, he turned and left.

Once he was gone, having taken the light from his lantern with him, Heero turned to look in Hilde's general direction. He could hear muffled sobs in the dark. "Hilde," he began. "Tell me he didn't hurt you."

"He didn't," she whispered. "Not my body, anyway."

Heero sighed and reached out to touch her hair. He missed and grasped her shoulder instead. "I would kill him if he had. I'd find a way."

Wufei snorted softly. "You're hardly one to judge, Heero. Or did you spend the entire last day on the island simply talking to your little duchess?"

Because Wufei was a friend and just as hungry, angry, uncomfortable and chained as he was, Heero let the comment pass with only a simple warning. "Watch what you say."

Hisnifsniffed. "Do you like the Baron's sister, Heero?" He said nothing. "She has beautiful dresses," she offered.

He smiled in the dark, where no one could see. The smile faded almost as quickly as it had appeared. "What I feel or don't feel is irrelevant now. Maybe it always was." He shook his head. "I shouldn't love her. Let's just leave it at that."

A warm body curled up against him again; the weight of the chains around her slender wrists rested on his stomach. "I'm sorry, Heero. I feel like this is all my fault."

"You did exactly what I told you to do," he assured her. "There is no blame to be placed. Just circumstances beyond anyone's control."

The guilt still pressed at her chest. Hilde closed her eyes. "What's going to happen to us in Barbados?"

"I don't know," Heero replied. "I really don't know."

****

"This is it." Relena raised her parasol to shield the mid-morning sun. "This is Barbados."

Beside her, Sally nodded. "I didn't actually think we'd make it."

"I just hoped we wouldn't." The younger girl turned away from the railing. "At least maybe I can see Heero when we disembark."

"Don't get your hopes up, Relena." Sally lifted the girl's chin with one gloved finger. "We'll be well on our way before they bring them up from the brig."

A tear slipped down Relena's flawless cheek. "I want to see him, Sally. I miss him so much."

"I know." Sally eyes were compassionate. "But perhaps..." She stopped.

"Perhaps what?"

"Perhaps it's better that you won't," Sally continued after a moment. "It will make things easier...when you marry Kushrenada."

Relena shook her head. "I have no intention of marrying Lord Kushrenada."

"I don't believe you'll have a choice." She bit the tip of her tongue. "I'm sorry, Relena."

The younger girl pressed her hand against the eschelles on her stomacher, crushing the pink bows. "When I think about him even touching me on the arm...it makes me ill." Her hand moved to her mouth. "Why don't I get to choose, Sally? Something so important in my life...and I don't have a say in it? How is this fair?"

"It's not." Sally lifted her shoulders. "But what are you going to do about..." She was cut off by Quatre's entrance from below the deck.

"Ladies," he greeted them. His expression was a mixture of warmth and sympathy. "I trust you're both well."

Relena lowered her hand. "As well as can be expected, Mr. Winner."

He nodded and looked out at the approaching land. "Barbados always looks inviting from the water."

"Unless one is also sailing to an arranged marriage or imprisonment."

Quatre lowered his eyes at Relena's bitter words. "I am truly sorry you feel that way, Miss Peacecraft. However I can assure you, my friend Treize is a very good man who keeps his word. He shall do everything in his power to take care of you, just as he promised your brother he would."

"Mr. Winner." Sally regarded the blond man cooly. "If you have no qualms about arranged marriages...why does the Countess of Catalonia still reside in Italy, unmarried?"

He blinked several times. "I wasn't aware that my personal life had become society gossip."

"It needn't be discussed any further," Relena said gently. "Just please don't extol the virtues of forced wedded bliss if you can't abide it for yourself."

Quatre glanced away. "Very well." When he looked back, he gave her another sad smile. "Please accept my apologies." After another moment, he left them at the rail.

Relena sighed. "He seems genuinely sorry. Perhaps he would let us see Heero and..."

"I think we shouldn't count on him for too much, Relena. He is admittedly Kushrenada's friend."

"I suppose." She gazed across the flat water to the port of Barbados. An entire lifetime had passed since the last time she had walked on civilized ground in Savannah. She was no longer a naive girl, overly concerned with fashion and propriety. She had faced death and embraced love. A woman would walk onto Kushrenada's plantation, reluctantly, yes, but with her head held high.

Although she couldn't see him, she knew in her heart that Heero was there. The very thought was enough to keep her going. Even as she was helped out of the rowboat and set foot onto Barbados, she felt nothing but strength stemming from the fact that he was nearby, out of sight, but most assuredly not out of mind.

His absence was unwelcome. Lord Kushrenada's was not. When the plantation owner failed to appear on the dock to greet them, Relena was hardly upset. She looked at Sally. "I suppose he has more important matters to attend to than meeting his bride." Folding up her parasol, she stepped into the waiting carriage. "And that's perfectly all right with me."

The entire ride through her betrothed's extensive sugar cane fields passed in silence. Relena stared out at the rows of plants lining the simple dirt path, watching the slave men cutting and hacking away at the tough shoots, most a good two or three feet higher than the tallest worker. The air in the carriage was warm; she felt a trickle of perspiration run between her modestly displayed cleavage. Sally handed her a handkerchief; she delicately blotted away all traces of the heat just as the carriage stopped in front of the main house.

Quatre stepped out of the carriage that had followed them, but Duo was nowhere to be found. He was with the pirates, Relena supposed. With Heero... Blinking back tears, she accepted a slave's help out of her carriage. The blond man held out his elbow for her to take. "I apologize for Treize's absence. He has probably not been informed of our arrival."

"Of course," Relena replied smoothly. She refused Quatre elbow, taking Sally's hand instead. "I wouldn't want to disturb his work, anyway. It must take an awful lot of time and energy to enslave...how many people? Fifty? Sixty?"

Quatre voice was quietly ashamed. "Two hundred."

Relena's mouth fell open. Sally quickly spoke before the girl could speak her mind any further. It was going to get her into trouble if she didn't learn to control her tongue. "Mr. Winner, could we please get inside out of the heat? I'm afraid it's having adverse affects on Relena."

"Indeed." Quatre walked up the wide brick steps of the sprawling plantation house. "After you, ladies." Unseen to the women as they followed him, a lone figure watching from the windows above let the curtains fall back into place as they vanished from his sight.

****

The next morning, Treize was waiting for Quatre a long time before he finally knocked on his study door. "Enter," he called out. His lifelong friend did so cautiously. Treize nodded to him. "Welcome back."

"It was a most interesting journey," Quatre said, closing the door behind himself. "If I were to write a book, it would certainly sell many copies. The high seas...shipwrecks...desert islands. And poor Miss Peacecraft in the hands of blood-thirsty pirates."

"Is that so?" Treize reached for his brandy glass. "Well, at any rate, I do thank you for returning the *Lady Anne*. Seeing her come into port last week..." He took a soothing sip of liquor. "Needless to say, I am in ydebtdebt."

Quatre shook his head. "No debt between friends." He paused. "Are you not going to inquire after your bride?"

"There's no need." The older man set down his glass. "I've already seen her as you came in."

"And?" Quatre prompted. "What do you think of her?"

Treize stood up and walked back to his window. "I had hoped her hair would be darker."

"Such a minor detail, Treize. She's lovely, truly. A bit high-spirited, but you've always admired a woman with passion." Quatre sat down in a high-backed chair. The things he wasn't saying about Relena pressed on his chest. Was it still lying to not tell Treize that his bride despised the idea of marrying him? When Treize continued to stare out the window, he took a great chance. "You knew she wouldn't be Anne."

Finally, the older man turned around. "Bring her to me."

Quatre frowned. "She's not a slave, Treize. I could tell her you're waiting to meet her, but I won't give her an order like she was..."

"Then I'll go see her." Treize stalked for the door. He stopped with his hand on the glass knob. "At least tell me that her eyes are brown."

"Blue," Quatre replied. "Like the sky." Treize opened the door and left. The blond man sighed. "She's not Anne, Treize. And she never will be."

****

He wasn't supposed to leave the ship. It was in the contract he had signed with Kushrenada. He was to simply stay on board *The Rose Queen* and be deposited on a neighboring island. His feet were never to touch Barbados soil again.

But Duo Maxwell was not known for following the rules.

This was especially true when just the day before, the woman he loved had been carted like livestock across the dock, towards the very jail in which twors ors of his own life had been wasted. Rather than retreat to his cabin until the ship set sail the next morning, Duo quietly gathered his few belongings, tucked his braid into his shirt,ffedffed a tricorne hat low over his eyes and joined the crew as they rowed ashore.

At the dock, he parted with the other men before they reached their destination, the nearest tavern. The road to the jail winded through the busy port and continued on several miles into the tropical forest. Duo walked quickly; the less time Hilde had to spend in the hell of the Barbados jail, the better.

The plan to free Hilde and her pirate friends wasn't completely formed, but it was the only thing he had been able to think about since their meeting in the brig. It was something he had to do and consequences be damned. He would risk anything to get her out of those chains.

Even the chance that he might be put back in them himself.

With the new prisoners, the tiny jail he loathed so much had to be almost full by now. Duo figured this accounted for the three extra guards Treize had placed around the foul building. He bided his time, waiting until one of the native men moved off to the edge of the clearing to relieve himself in the bushes. When the guard's back was turned, Duo slipped into the jail.

The first guard inside never saw him coming. Duo felled him with a single punch and he slumped to the floor. After taking the unconscious man's keys, Duo started down the familiar corridor of horse stalls turned jail cells.

He found Hilde within seconds when she loudly cried out, "What the hell are you doing here??"

"Shh!!" Duo grabbed the bars on her tiny cell. "I'm getting you..." He glanced around at the others. "...all of you out of here!"

Across the corridor, Heero stood up from his dirty cot. "Are you a half-wit or do you simply lack any common sense?" he asked the braided man. "You're the one who arrested us! And now you want to help us escape?"

Hilde narrowed her eyes. "Why do you care, Duo?"

"I care because..." He licked his lips. "I mean to say....I care because I..." Before the entire admission of love could materialize, Duo felt the cold metal of the end of a musket press against his ear.

"Don't move, Maxwell," one of his old guards ordered. Duo put his hands up on instinct. "What are you doing back here?"

Duo lifted his shoulders. "Would you believe me if I said I missed the place?"

"No," the Spanish man replied. "And I know for a fact that you aren't ever supposed to be seen on this island again. So, on second thought...you must miss this place. Because you just guaranteed yourself a good long stay here. Again."

Hilde's heart lept into her throat. "Duo...why have you done this?" She wrapped her hands around her cell door's bars, where his hands had been only minutes before, and watched as Duo was led to a stall catty-corner trs. rs. "No! Let him go...he hasn't done anything wrong!"

The guard slammed the door shut on Duo and locked it with much glee. "Take a nice break, all of you. Master Treize will be wanting to see you in the next few days."

"Why the delay?" Trowa muttered. "I'd rather get it over with."

"Soon as the wedding's over, he won't make you wait," the Spanish man promised.

Heero's head banged against the metal bars. Relena getting married....someone else touching her...making love to her... He lifted his head for another clash with the cell door.

"Go ahead and bash your brains out." The guard twirled his ring of keys around his finger. "It'll be one less rope to string on the hanging beam." Laughing, he left them.

Hilde's concerned eyes swung between Heero's cell and Duo's. "I can't believe this," she ended up sputtering. "How could you have been so stupid, Duo!"

"Stupid!" He pressed his face against the metal bars to see her better. "I was trying to save you!!"

"You had plenty of opportunities for days to prevent this," Hilde countered. "Why did you decide to wait until now?? You knew that you'd be put in jail, too!! Maybe you are a half-wit!!"

Duo's eyes blazed violet. "Fine! I'm a half-wit. But I'm a half-wit who is completely in love with you!!!"

Silence flooded the jail. Even Heero took a break from pounding his head against his cell door. Hilde stared at her braided lover. "You...you can't possibly....I mean, you said you couldn't...and I'm..." She looked down at her breeches. "I'm not....you could only want someone who's prettier than....no...no, you don't mean that."

"I do. I mean it so much." Duo spread his hands. "Do you think I'd come back here just to rescue him?" He gestured to Heero's cell.

Hilde lowered her eyes. "Don't...don't do this to me." She sniffed and let her tears fall behind the curtain of her messy black bangs. "Not now...when we can't do anything about it...when we're locked up like this..." Her head lifted. "I'd rather just remember you holding me."

Heero's eyes were dead to the world and his mind was dead to the continuing conversation. Relena. Would she go through with the marriage even after what they had shared at the lagoon? He had the very vague, very crazy thought that perhaps their night of passion had created more than just new emotions in his heart. What if it had also created a child in her body? The very idea of a slave-owning, British aristocrat raising a child born from his connection to Relena made his blood curdle.

He rejoined the world after his brief retreat in his thoughts only to hear Hilde's final word on the subject at hand. "Well...if I did tell you that I loved you....it was only because what you did to me felt so damn good."

All male eyes swung to the tiny girl in the wake of her very bold statement. Heero ignored the throbbing in his head as he spoke. "You told me he didn't touch you."

"I said that his touch wasn't forced," she reminded her childhood protector.

Duo could actually feel his heart crumpling at her admission. "So...you don't love me?"

"No," Hilde lied. "Sorry."

"Well then." Duo stepped away from his cell door and out of her sight. "That's that."

Hilde chin wobbled. "Aye. It is."

Heero flopped back onto the stained straw mattress of his cell's cot. Hilde's newfound sexuality...his imprisonment...Relena's loomiarriarriage. It was too much for him to take. After two days of sitting upright, chained in the brig without a moment of rest, Heero closed his eyes and let himself drift into the bliss of unconscious sleep.

****

Relena had barely finished pinning her stomacher to her dress when there was a knock on the door of the suite in the Kushrenada plantation to which Quatre had lead her upon their arrival. She watched the door through a second knock, wary of answering it. She wasn't quite sure she was ready to meet the man to whom she had been promised.

A third knock never came. The door simply opened and a tall man with ginger-colored curls stepped into her rooms. Relena put a hand to her powdered throat. "Lord Kushrenada, I presume?"

The man nodded. "You would presume correctly, my lady. Welcome to my plantation. I trust your room was comfortable last night."

"Yes. Thank you."

There was a long minute of silence. "How is your brother?" Treize finally asked.

"He is fine, sir, to my knowledge. A child was on the way when I departed England."

Treize smiled. "Good. Very good."

The conversation died a second death. Relena could find absolutely nothing to say to this man. Was this how the rest of her life was going to be? Her heart cried out for Heero. She would always have something to say to Heero; a life with him could never be boring.

Her fiancee cleared his throat. "I'm very glad that you're safe now. It must have been quite an ordeal for you."

"At first, yes it was." Relena lowered her hand to her side. "But in the end...it was a surprisingly pleasurable experience."

Treize cocked an eyebrow. "Is that so?"

"Well..." Relena smiled, coquettishly. "Many women can only dream about pirate ships and desert islands. And I lived the adventure...to the fullest."

Any trace of smile fell from his face. Relena bit the inside of her cheek. Had she gone too far? Was her innuendo less than veiled? She couldn't help it. The man looked so smug in his banyan robe, lording over his manor to the point where he could enter a room without being invited. He looked her over as if she were property he was disappointed to own and she loathed him already.

"Did you?" He stared her down; Relena had the vague sense that he could see through her clothes. She felt more exposed than she had on the island. "The pirates treated you well, then?"

"Very," she whispered.

He gave her an icy smile. "I'll have to remember that when it comes to their sentencing. But before that..." He took her hand and jerked it up to his lips. "We wed."

"We do?"

"Yes." His eyes narrowed.

Relena gracefully pulled her hand away from him. "Forgive me, sir. But a few days to acclimate myself to this heavy heat would be most appreciated."

"You didn't get used to it on that island? With your pirates?"

"One doesn't consider the weather when one is fighting to stay alive."

Treize searched her eyes for any signs of the innocence he had been promised. In the blue depths, identical to his friend Millardo's, he only found confidence, passion, determination...and a love that was not and could never be meant for him. A well-loved woman's eyes stared back at him, challenging him.

And in that instant, he knew.

"When your brother and I served together in His Majesty's army, he would often tell me all about you...his sainted little sister." Treize grabbed her again, this time by the wrist. It gave him a strange feeling of satisfaction to see pain flicker across her pretty face. "How good you were. How sweet. Docile...obedient."

Relena bit her lip as his fingers dug into her delicate flesh. "Well, my brother and I don't know each other very well at all, sir."

The remark incensed him even further. "And your virtue, my lady. Your virtue was unquestionable." He pulled her closer to him until she could feel his angry breath against her cheek. "When I agreed to this marriage, I was promised a chaste woman. I kept up my end of the arrangement with your brother. Have you kept up his?"

She struggled against him, but he was far too strong. "I won't even dignify that with a reply, sir."

"You don't need to." Treize backed her up against the wall and seized her other wrist. With one hand, he pinned her arms above her head. "I can find out on my own."

Relena tried to kick him, but his powerful thighs held her legs in place. "Stop!" she ordered him. He ignored her and reached down with his free hand to lift up the hem of her skirt. "Please...stop!"

His determined fingers slid up the length of her leg. Why hadn't she put on more petticoats? Sweltering to death certainly would have been better than being raped. Treize's eyes were glassed over as if he weren't even really there. Finally, his hand found its goal, the warmth nestled between her thighs.

"Don't," she pleaded with him. His touch was nothing like Heero's; Heero touched her to bring pleasure. Treize was seeking to hurt her in order to prove something to himself. She squeezed her eyes closed just before he jammed two fingers into her body. Completely unprepared for him, Relena cried out in pain.

Treize blinked. His fingers met no virginal resistence. Tears began to stream down her cheeks as he pressed further into her.

"Heero..." she whimpered. "Help me..."

With the same carelessness with which he had invaded her, Treize pulled his fingers out of her body. "Is that his name? Heero? The one who got here before me?"

Her skirts fell back around her feet, but she still felt naked and exposed. He released her hands and pushed away from her violated body. Relena's arms hugged her upper torso and she slid to the floor, sobbing.

"Not quite so high and mighty anymore, are you?" Treize looked down on her like he would one of his field hands. She didn't respond except to glance up at him with wet eyes, full of hate. "Stay there. I have something to take care of."

He pulled open the door to Relena's room and stalked away, taking no note of Quatre approaching from the opposite direction. Treize thundered down the stairs and burst onto the front porch of his mansion. "Get my horse, boy," he ordered a stable hand who was lounging on the steps. The black child jumped to his feet and ran to do his master's bidding, returning a few long minutes later with Treize's saddled stallion. He mounted the horse and kicked with his heels, taking off in a gallop towards the Barbados jail.

****

To be Continued