68 The Magic of Love by Barbara Cartland

Author:Barbara Cartland
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: M-Y Books
Published: 2013-07-21T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Five

Eugénie woke Melita up by coming into her room and saying urgently,

“M’mselle! M’mselle!”

She started and realised that she had dropped off to sleep again.

It was not until long after dawn that she had fallen into a fitful slumber as she found herself dreaming of Léonore and the drum.

Now, heavy-eyed, she stared at Eugénie and asked in a drowsy voice,

“What is the – time?”

Before Eugénie could answer, she sat up quickly, saying,

“I have overslept! Oh, I am sorry! I must get up at once!”

“Trouble, m’mselle. Bad trouble!” Eugénie said.

“What has happened?” Melita asked.

Eugénie burst into a flood of explanation in her broken French which was difficult to understand, until finally in horror Melita realised what had occurred.

Rose-Marie had awakened very early to go into the schoolroom in her nightgown in search of her doll.

Eugénie had found her. Because she would not go back to bed, Eugénie had dressed her and given her some breakfast.

Then, because she had the household to supervise, she had told Rose-Marie to play quietly with her toys and had left her alone.

She had no sooner gone downstairs than she found a tremendous commotion taking place.

An Overseer had insisted on seeing Madame Boisset to report that one of the gamecocks was missing.

Melita interrupted Eugénie at this point to ask,

“What are gamecocks?”

“They are the birds Madame keeps especially for cockfighting,” Eugénie explained.

“Madame keeps fighting cocks?” Melita asked incredulously.

She was well aware that cockfighting was the national sport of Martinique.

She had learnt that fights were held from November to June throughout the countryside in specially prepared ‘pits’.

They created great excitement and involved high betting.

The ship’s Officer who had told her about it on the voyage from England had said,

“The fighting cocks are coddled by their owners, carefully fed and it is always believed that they are given drugs which are kept a secret.”

He smiled as he added,

“No one can prove this, but certainly their spurs are sharpened and their feathers trimmed and they look very ferocious before the start of a fight.”

Melita had made up her mind there and then that one thing she had no wish to see or hear about in Martinique was cockfighting! She could not understand a cultured Frenchwoman like Madame Boisset wishing to take part in a sport so abominably cruel.

She knew, of course, at once what had happened to Madame’s precious cock, but said nothing.

The Overseer, according to Eugénie, had also said that during the night he had heard the Voodoo drum, but had been too frightened to investigate, but, now that the cock was missing, he was certain that a Voodoo ceremony had taken place in the forest.

It was then, Melita learnt, that Madame Boisset had flown into a temper.

She ordered that Léonore, who was the known Mambo of the slaves, be whipped.

Melita gasped when she heard this, for her father had explained to her how cruel and barbaric the whipping of slaves was.

It had a ritual all its own. The slave, stripped naked, was spread-eagled and tied at the wrists and ankles by leather thongs to a heavy wooden platform.

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