Angelique's secret
Caryl NUGARA
Angelique stood on deck as the ship entered harbour in star-lulled
quiet waters beneath a sky blanketed with darkness. She felt it swaying
on gentle waves eddying along as the salty spray brushed her face.
Ripples sparkled on top of the water with speckled gold. Standing alone
she enjoyed the ships' movement on the wavecrests.
--page-17-Angelique.jpg) Benny
had met her on a voyage and declared his intentions. Filled with rapture
he said, "Marry me Angelique. We could make many journeys together."
There was something so assuring about him which made her consent. Benny
admired her glowing face, blue eyes accentuated by eyebrows which arched
like tender leaves and hair touched with strands of bronze.
He stood beside her as his ship approached an island. The fragrance
of unseen flowers mingling with the smell of incense was carried by the
night breeze.
A trailing cloud dropped a swathe of rain on the coast, muffling the
sound of a drum beaten tremulously somewhere in the distance. He wrapped
his arms around her and she found his vitality comforting because she
had a lingering fear that his ship was concealing contraband within its
hold. She knew that at each port they anchored there were furtive
movements of figures by night conveying treasures. She comprehended that
her husband was an avid collector of artefacts.
One day she ventured into the ship's hold. To her amazement her eyes
set upon carved ivory ornaments, copper amulets, rare pottery, porcelain
figurines, a golden urn, a large cup embedded with gleaming stones and a
papyrus sheet rolled up. With trembling hands she spread it out and saw
the portrait of an Egyptian princess in metallic paint.
The diamond eyes seemed so alive that she fearfully rolled it up
again. She knocked her foot against a luminous lamp with diagonal
cut-out facets. There were boxes and bowls of silver fret-work patterns.
With trepidation she touched a brilliant crown which would have once
enhanced the grandeur of a king long ago. Angelique had eventually
discovered Benny's hidden treasures.
There was a banquet on board the following night and as the captain's
wife, she was the hostess. In a lovely dress she stood beside him garbed
in his smart gold-braided uniform. The fiesta of food, wine, smiles and
laughter proved that the guests were certainly enjoying themselves. The
music was a fitting preamble for dancing and Benny held her tenderly as
they danced, her beauty emphasized by the glimmering diamonds she wore.
Angelique was charming and took pleasure out of every moment but she
promised herself that her husband's secret would always be hidden within
a veil of mystery and locked in her heart forever. |
