Word had come of the trouble with the
manager here, and one of the provost-marshal's deputies had written
accounts of the flogging and ill-treatment of slaves, and that's why
she come--to put things right at Salem!"
"To put things wrong in Jamaica, Michael, that's why she's come. To
loose the ball of confusion and free the flood of tragedy--that's why
she's come! Man, Michael, you know her history--who she was and what
happened to her father. Well, do you think there's no tragedy in her
coming here? I killed her father, they say, Michael. I was punished for
it. I came here to be free of all those things--lifted out and away from
them all. I longed to forget the past, which is only shame and torture;
and here it is all spread out at my door again like a mat, which I must
see as I go in and out. Essex Valley--why, it's less than a day's ride
from here, far less than a day's ride! It can be ridden in four or five
hours at a trot. Michael, it's all a damnable business. And here she is
in Jamaica with her Darius Boland! There was no talk on Boland's part of
their coming here, was there Michael?"
"None at all, sir, but there was that in the man's eye, and that in his
tone, which made me sure he thought Miss Llyn and you would meet.
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