Chapter 33
Farewell, Captain Rutgers
“You’re going to be all right,” Rutgers said to Ibo.
“Am I, Captain?” she said, staring unflinchingly in his eyes.
“I’m a man of my word,” Rutgers said. “He paid an enormous sum for you and promised me he would treat you well.”
“So long as I cooperate, right, Captain?” she said, firing lightning bolts with her eyes.
“I don’t think you’ll have to worry about that,” Rutgers said, smiling.
“Oh, really? And here I was thinking that that was why you kept me unspotted,” she said. ‘Just when I thought being unblemished brought you a greater price, you were actually worried about me.”
“It did. As I said, he paid a lot of money for you . . . nearly ten times your worth. You can thank the feud between Tresvant and the man who bought you for the drastic price increase.”
“Feud? Between a black man and a white man? Hmmm. Then it is as you have said here. Free blacks with money are treated almost like whites.”
“In Walker Tresvant’s case, exactly the same. I’ve done good by you. You’ll see that later.”
Having paid the auctioneer the agreed upon price, Beaumont Bouvier walked over to where his friend and his property stood. He raised his handkerchief, signaling the driver of his horse drawn carriage.
“I guess this is good-bye,” Rutgers said and took her hand in his, kissing it gently.
“Good-bye, Captain,” she said.
The carriage stopped about fifteen feet from where they were standing. Beaumont told his driver to put her trunk on the carriage. Then he politely escorted his newly purchased bed wench to his carriage. He helped her climb in and then got into it himself.
Rutgers looked at her one last time and said, “Remember our discussions and you’ll be just fine.” He was referring to Shakespeare’s plays and the lessons she learned from them. They were supposed to help her gain her freedom in the years to come. “Do you understand?”
“I have always understood you, Captain,” she said without looking at him. “I am not sure if you ever understood me.”
“Farewell, my friend,” Rutgers said to Beaumont.
“May you experience calm seas on your journeys,” Beaumont said.
Rutgers tapped the carriage twice, signaling to the driver that it was okay to pull off. He stood there in the auction market and watched the carriage until it disappeared. Then he went back to the auction block and watched the bidding for his other slaves, carefully keeping records of what each slave sold for. While he stood there watching and listening, from time to time he thought about Ibo Atikah Mustafa and hoped that she would one day be free.