The Cost of Sugar(9)

“You knew that then, but you would explain everything, that’s what you said.”

“It simply cannot be, Sarith, really not. My father is heavily in debt. He could lose the plantation. There are another three children after me, and Leah is an only child and the heiress, and that plantation is so huge and, uh …”

“So it’s about the money. I should have known.” Sarith pulled her hands away. “But still you loved me. Have you forgotten what happened between us?”

“No, Sarith, no, I shall never forget that. I shall keep it in my heart as my most cherished memory.”

“That’s a lot of good to me, isn’t it,” said Sarith cynically.

“Oh Sarith, you just have to understand. A person doesn’t always marry the one he or she really loves.”

Nathan looked at her and wanted to stroke her cheek, but she knocked his hand aside and said, “What if I were pregnant now? What if I were to tell everyone here what has happened between us?”

“Oh no, Sarith, no, you mustn’t do that. Everyone would … everyone would think so badly of you.”

“Of me, eh? Of me?” Now Sarith was screaming. “Of me, not of you, eh? You coward. Oh you vile, vile coward. I hate you!”

“Sarith, calm down.”

Nathan wanted to take hold of her hand. He hesitated, however. This was a very different Sarith from the sweet, cooing young thing he had had in his bed. This petite ball of fire scared him. She knocked his hand aside and before he knew it she had slapped his face hard, screaming, “Don’t you dare touch me, you coward! I hate you! Leave me – go away, go to your Leah!”

She turned and ran off through the back door of her grandparents’ house. Nathan remained a while, pensively rubbing his cheek, before returning slowly to where the guests were at table.

The tears rolled over Sarith’s cheeks as she stormed upstairs and threw herself on a bed in one of the bedrooms, sobbing uncontrollably, her head pounding the pillow. But wait … she would have Nathan. She would let him see how all the men wanted her. She would show him, really show him. She called to one of her grandmother’s slaves, since she didn’t know where Mini-mini was, and ordered her to fetch a basin of cold water so that she could freshen up.

When Sarith went and sat at the long table a quarter of an hour later, there was no trace of what had just happened. She was exceptionally happy, joked and laughed with everyone and pouted and flirted with all the men, young and old. Every time her laugh rang out she saw Nathan looking her way, embarrassed or concerned, but she pretended not to notice him. Could he not see how charmed all the men were with her? During the afternoon all the ladies went to have a rest. Some men also rested, but many remained sitting in the shade of the large trees, or had slave-boys hang hammocks up, and then chatted, smoked and drank rum punch. Sarith did not go to rest with the other ladies, but remained in the company of the men and chatted nineteen to the dozen while she sat, now with the one, now with the other, briefly in a hammock and even taking a sip from some glass or other.

In the evening a ball was held. The estate was decorated with Chinese-style lanterns, all alight, and with the ladies in their wonderful evening gowns and the men in their evening suits the evening took on a most festive air. Elza danced and chatted mainly with Rutger. Dressing for the ball, Elza had told Sarith with a blush that the new assistant administrator was so pleasant and easy to talk with. Sarith had wondered for a moment whether she should extend her flirtations to this new young man, but had decided against it. It was Nathan she wanted to hurt, not Elza, and it was not every day that men showed some interest in Elza. And above all, she, Sarith, wasn’t at all interested in some poor office clerk, especially one who wasn’t all that handsome anyway.

Sarith passed laughing and cooing from the one pair of male hands to the other. She was merry, even provocative, and not seldom was an angry glance cast in her direction by a wife or fiancée. Elza was too preoccupied with keeping Rutger engaged to pay much attention to Sarith. She had seen Rutger now and then glance amusedly in Sarith’s direction and he had remarked, “What a pretty girl your stepsister is, and how jolly.”

Then Elza had noticed how Sarith was especially enjoying herself in the company of the widower Robles de Medina. The thirty-three-year-old Julius Robles de Medina had lost his wife and a child in a smallpox epidemic the previous year, and was left with two daughters of ten and eight years. This was the first time since the loss of his wife and child that he had travelled with his two daughters from his plantation on the Boven-Commewijne River to Joden-Savanna to attend the feast.