Island Beneath the Sea by Isabel Allende Read Free Book Online Page A

say they were queens back in Africa,” thewidow mocked. “She arrived pregnant, it’s always that way, they’re like bitches in heat.”
    â€œThe pariade . The sailors rape them on the ships, as you know. No one escapes that,” Violette replied with a shudder, thinking of her own grandmother, who had survived crossing the ocean.
    â€œThat woman was at the point of killing her daughter. Imagine! They had to rip the baby from her hands. Monsieur Pascal, my husband—may God hold him in His holy bosom—brought the little thing to me as a gift.”
    â€œHow old was she then?”
    â€œA couple of months? I don’t remember. Honoré, my other slave, gave her that strange name, Zarité, and he gave her jenny’s milk; that’s why she’s so strong and hardworking, though stubborn, too. I’ve taught her to do all the household chores. She is worth more than what I’m asking for her, Mademoiselle Boisier. I’m selling her to you only because I’m planning to return soon to Marseille; I can still start my life over, don’t you think?”
    â€œOf course, madame,” Violette replied, examining the woman’s powdered face.
    She took Tété with her that same day, with nothing more than the rags she was wearing and a crude wooden doll like the ones the slaves used in their voodoo ceremonies. “I don’t know where she got that filthy thing,” Madame Delphine commented, making a move to take it from her, but the girl clung to her only treasure with such desperation that Violette intervened. Honoré wept as he told Tété good-bye, and promised he would come visit her if he was allowed.
    Toulouse Valmorain could not prevent an exclamation of displeasure when Violette showed him whom she had chosen to be his wife’s maid. He was expecting someone older, with better appearance and experience, not that frizzy-haired creature covered with bruises, who shrank into herself like a snail when he asked her name, but Violette assured him that his wife was going to be very pleased once she trained her.
    â€œAnd what is this going to cost me?”
    â€œWhat we agreed on, once Tété is ready.”
    Three days later Tété spoke for the first time. She asked if that man was going to be her master; she thought that Violette had bought her for herself. “Do not ask questions and do not think of the future,” Loula warned her, “for slaves count only the present day.”
    The admiration Tété felt for Violette erased her resistance, and soon she willingly fell into the rhythm of the house. She ate with the voracity of someone who has lived with hunger and after a few weeks showed a little meat on her bones. She was avid to learn. She followed Violette like a dog, devouring her with her eyes as she nourished in the secret depths of her heart the impossible desire to be like her, as beautiful and elegant as she, but more than anything, free. Violette taught her to comb the elaborate coiffeurs of the day, to give massages, to starch and iron fine clothing, and all the other things her future mistress could ask of her. According to Loula, it would not be necessary to work too hard because the Spaniards lacked French refinement, they were very coarse. Loula herself cropped Tété’s filthy hair and forced her to bathe often, something unknown to the girl because according to Madame Delphine water weakened the system: all she did was pass a wet cloth across her hidden parts and then splash herself with perfume. Loula felt invaded by the little girl; the two of them barely fit in the tiny room they shared at night. She exhausted the child with orders and insults, more from habit than meanness, and she often knocked her about when Violette wasn’t there, but she did not skimp on her food. “The sooner you get some flesh, the sooner you’ll go,” she told her. In contrast, she showered affability on