A Simple Deception

XXIX

"Scared is what you're feeling. Brave is what you're doing." Emma Donoghue, Room

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XXIX.

Captain Whitfield anchored his ship about a mile offshore of Port-au-Prince. The very fact that the captain would not moor his ship at the port, or even anchor closer to a beach made Susanna nervous. Of course, she couldn't know exactly what she was getting herself into. All she had to focus on was the fact that Alex was somewhere on this island and she needed to find him.

"We'll wait for nightfall," Captain Whitfield informed Susanna and Adam. "Then you and I," he motioned to Adam, "will row the three of us to shore."

Adam's concerned gaze flicked to Susanna as his brow became stern. "I will go," he replied, "but she will stay behind."

Before Susanna could protest, the captain did so for her. "She goes," he insisted. "Believe me, a white woman might be the only thing to save your life on an island so injured by white men."

Susanna couldn't quite grasp what he meant by that statement, but Adam seemed to comprehend it as his jaw clenched.

"I won't bargain my sister, man," he said intensely.

"It's going to be dangerous enough getting onto that island without a contingency plan. Going under the cover of darkness should protect us, but should we be discovered, having a white woman handy would buy us the time we need to get in, grab my son, and get out."

Susanna then understood that if the men were discovered and were found to be white, it could indeed by fatal. But the captain didn't seem to think any harm would befall her as a woman. Susanna couldn't wield a sword or battle a master, but if she could be of some use just by being herself, then she would insist upon it!

"I'm going!" Susanna declared to her brother. "I haven't come this far to wait and see. If I can help, then I want to."

Adam didn't like it. Susanna could see her brother was entirely uncomfortable, and frankly quite angry at the prospect of bringing Susanna along. Susanna would happily sit for a scolding later when they had recovered Alex safely.

"You need to do exactly as I say," Adam said tersely. "You do not set foot upon that island without listening, Susanna."

Susanna wanted to argue that it was probably safer for her to go alone knowing what they did, then for Adam to come along, too, but she didn't. She knew her brother was concerned for her safety, as he had been their entire journey. She also had to bite her tongue for the overwhelming gratefulness she felt towards her brother for agreeing to follow her on such a voyage. She could understand his protectiveness.

"Yes, Adam," she agreed.

As night fell, the small rowboat was readied off the side of the ship. Captain Whitfield's crew would remain behind on the ship. True to his word, only the captain, Adam, and Susanna would be making the trip to shore. They three sat in the boat as it was lowered down onto the choppy ocean. The wind off the sea whipped Susanna's hair around her face as she struggled to see into the distance as night quickly enveloped them. And then began the arduous journey of rowing to shore, as Adam and the captain heaved on the oars over and over as the shadows of the island drew closer.

"What do we do when we finally get ashore?" Susanna asked softly as they rowed. "How do we find him?"

"It's been a long time since I have been to Haiti, or Saint-Domingue as I knew it. But I know one place to start ... the plantation where I met his mother."

Susanna couldn't keep time, of course, but it felt as though it took an age to finally reach the shore. Captain Whitfield did not moor their little boat in the port with any of the other ships. Instead, the rowed around the dark island to a secluded little beach where they could stash the boat.