A Simple Deception

IV

"People who insist on dividing the world into 'Us' and 'Them' never contemplate that they may be someone else's 'Them'." Ray A. Davis

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IV.

"Certainly, the shoulder injury was a little much, don't you think?" worried Alex under his breath as he and Len walked through the iron gates of Ashwood Place.

It was undoubtedly the finest house in Mayfair, situated in the perfect position to be central to every fine family and caller in town. It was large and screamed of the riches of the Beresford family.

Alex felt himself growing nervous, a doomed feeling settling itself in his stomach. Len had never set his eyes on such a prestigious family before, nor such a sum of money. Len preferred to target the country genteel folk. Those who were anxious to climb up in their ranks and would pay anything to ensure that their perfect daughter's name was never associated with one who looked like Alex lest it ruin her chances.

"They were walking away," hissed Len under his breath. "Perhaps you were not as charming as you needed to be."

Alex glared at Len, but quickly composed himself as they approached the front door. That, in itself, was very unnerving. He had never been allowed to enter through a front door of a house in his life.

It had been the same ruse since Alex had met Len in the newly formed Haiti nearly two years ago. Len was travelling through the Caribbean, and was either very brave, or very stupid, to enter Haiti as a white man. He kept his cloak covering his face as he searched for talent, for freaks he could add to his collection.

Len had discovered Alex working on a plantation. Despite securing his freedom, Alex was still forced to work for a miserable pittance of a wage that was not enough for a rat to live on. Len had seen something behind the fatigue and resentment. Perhaps it was merely his size, and the structure of his face, that he believed white women would find appealing. Len had proposed an offer to Alex that he simply could not refuse.

From that day, Len and Alex had travelled together. First between the islands as Len taught Alex English. Len dazzled the white families of the Caribbean with his show, which, at the time, involved more acts than just Alex. Len would always conclude with the daring rescue. Alex would pluck a woman from the crowd, one whom Len had advised him upon, and he would place her on a horse and spook it. After rescuing the woman, she was his, in some sense of the word.

It never took very long. Alex really did not understand what it was about himself that these women found so appealing, but then, he supposed that the forbidden was always tempting. A few subtle conversations, a half a dozen compliments, and there would be a kiss. And then another. Until Alex would arrange for one of their trysts to be discovered.

Len had, at first, urged Alex to seduce the women, but Alex's conscience could only be ignored until a point. He had refused, and it turned out that total seduction was unnecessary. A kiss was enough. Len, with his ever-perfect timing, would always swoop in, and propose an amount that would ensure these families would never see them again.

It was always paid.

And then they were gone. Alex remembered all of them. Every single lady that he had led to believe he felt passionately for. He remembered the look of heartbreak on every one of their faces as they discovered who he was. What he was.

Alex regretted every ounce of hurt he had caused. He never envisioned that when he gained his freedom that he would become a man who tricked young women.

The only way he could live with it was the knowledge that these women could never truly love him. They lusted after him, and were entranced by his exotic appearance, but women like that, white, rich women, could never and would never love a black man.