Little Black Girl Lost 4 (20 page)

Chapter 1

H
i y'all. I'm back again to share more about the Wise Family tree. At the end of Little Black Girl Lost 3: Ill Gotten Gains, I told you all that Josephine's diary read like an engrossing novel. Was I lying? I'm told that some of you, the fans of Johnnie Wise, didn't understand that book one of the Diary of Josephine Baptist was just the beginning and that there was more come. Well, here we are again, set to begin book five in the Little Black Girl Lost series, book 2 of the Diary—a series within a series, if you will. Since so many of you read the series out of sequence, I think a review is in order, don't you?

In Little Black Girl Lost 4: The Diary of Josephine Baptiste, my great, great, grandmother, Ibo Atikah Mustafa, was set to marry the heir-apparent to the throne of Nigeria. The author has gotten many emails wanting to know how her name is pronounced. For the record, her name is pronounced, Ebo. Anyway, Faisal, her father, had promised her hand in marriage to Adesola. However, Ibo loved another—Amir Bashir Jibril, Adesola's younger brother from another mother. Full of defiance—their sense of right and wrong, dulled by lust—Ibo and Amir stole away together the night before her marriage. Just when they thought they were safe, Dutch slave traders stumbled upon them. After a fierce battle and the death of ten slave traders, Ibo and Amir were captured and taken aboard the
Windward,
which then set sail for the Americas.

Shortly after becoming the chattel of Captain Rutgers, who had often traded with Ibo's father, a slave trader himself, the breaking of the slaves began. One slave, a male, was lashed so severely with a bullwhip that he died on the deck and was summarily tossed to the sharks. When that didn't break Amir, who was viewed by the other slaves and their savior, yet another slave, a female, was beaten and tossed to the sharks alive. Amir was unmoved by this act of barbarity too. After this, Captain Rutgers shot a man, tossed him overboard to the sharks, quickly followed by his daughter who couldn't have been more than six years old. Father and daughter watched each other being eaten alive.

While even this didn't break Amir, it devastated Ibo. When she broke and cooperated, so did Amir. After this, the debauchery aboard the
Windward
kicked into high gear and continued every night until they reached New Orleans. But along the way, Ibo saved Captain Rutgers' life. Rutgers had raped a slave and was brazen enough to fall asleep with a loaded pistol within arm's reach.

The slave girl put the gun right under his nose and was about to blow it off when Ibo grabbed her arm. The weapon discharged. The sound awoke Rutgers and he chased the girl up on deck. Knowing they were going to kill her anyway, the girl, running at full speed tackled a deckhand and they both fell into the murky depths of the Atlantic Ocean in the blackest night and were never found.

While Captain Rutgers felt indebted to Ibo, he didn't feel so indebted that he would return her freedom. Instead, he promised to sell Amir to Francois and Helen Torvell, friends who lived on the Isle of Santo Domingo, modern day Haiti. Rutgers kept his word once they reached the island, but, a group of organized runaway slaves, called the Maroons, attacked the Torvell mansion that very night. A great slaughter began at the mansion and spread throughout the island. Francois and his house slaves, Herman and Marcia Torvell, were butchered like cattle. Poor Helen was repeatedly raped by a line of black men that was probably reminiscent of a Universal Studios' Theme Park line. I exaggerate a bit, but I think you get the point. Captain Rutgers and Ibo fought for their lives and barely escaped the angry mob.

Upon reaching the shores of America, New Orleans, to be exact, Ibo was sold to Beaumont Bouvier, another friend of Captain Rutgers. Beaumont was a sugar plantation owner and the unquestioned master of Bouvier Manor and Bouvier Sugar. He was also a homosexual, as were the seven house slaves—all men. Beaumont urged Ibo to change her name to fit in with the rest of his servants. She cooperated as a way of staying alive and remaining unmolested in hopes of one day taking revenge against those who had enslaved her. A few hours after being purchased, Ibo Atikah Mustafa became Lauren Renee Bouvier.

The next day, Beaumont Bouvier and Louis, his lusty young male servant and lover, were found in Beaumont's bedroom dead, gruesomely bludgeoned to death. The killer had cut off their penises, stuck them into each other's mouths, and arranged their remains in a sixty-nine position.

Cadence, Beaumont's wife, was carrying on two adulterous relationships. The first was with Tristan, her husband's brother, had been going on for years. Several children were produced from this union. Beaumont knew of the relationship and even knew none of the children Cadence birthed were his. Nevertheless, he kept quiet about the affair, which helped conceal their clandestine relationship because it afforded him protection from the law. Homosexuality and Adultery were against the law at that time in America. What I found particularly strange was that the secret was no secret at all because everyone who lived in Bouvier Manor knew of it. The other adulterous affair was with Bouvier Hill's resident blacksmith, a slave named Joshua.

Prior to Lauren learning of their relationship, she had planned on recruiting Joshua, who was quite taking with her beauty. He was tall, powerfully built, and ornery enough to lead a rebellion against the master of the plantation—or so she thought. After Aubrey, the head butler and supposed friend who had given Lauren her name, implicated her in the murders of Beaumont and Louis, she heard Joshua sneak into the house, climb the stairs, and enter Cadence's bedroom. She watched them claw and tear off each others clothing before closing the door. But the closed door could not contain their unrestrained howling.

Afterward she listened to them confess to the murders and their undying love for each other. During their lengthy post sexual conversation, neither murderer showed any remorse for what they had done. They seemed to be quite pleased with themselves for having gotten rid of the thorns in their sides—those thorns being Beaumont, Louis, Aubrey, and the other six menservants. Aubrey and the other men had been executed after a quick investigation by Lieutenant Avery, who had been left in charge of the local Garrison. Now all they had to do was wait to see what Beaumont had left Cadence in his Will.

Much to their chagrin, Beaumont's Will wasn't exactly the way Cadence, Tristan, and Joshua thought. He had not only freed the house slaves, but had also left them a significant portion of the Bouvier fortune as well as providing for their educations, homes, and start up money for their own businesses. However, there were a few stipulations. They had to keep the Bouvier name and they could not leave New Orleans. With all the housemen being dead, having been shot via firing squad, their entire share fell to my great, great grandmother, Lauren Renee Bouvier, making her wealthy beyond her wildest dreams.

Lauren, who had promised to find the love of her life, Amir Bashir Jibril, sent for him on the isle of Santo Domingo, as she could never leave New Orleans and take her fortune with her. After months of waiting, the ship she had been waiting for had finally returned. Amir had been found. He was alive and well. Shortly after they embraced each other and expressed their undying love, a stranger walked up to Amir and blew his brains out of his head and all over Lauren.

And now . . . Little Black Girl Lost 5: The Diary of Josephine Baptiste Book 2!

Chapter 2

I
t had been six months since Beaumont, Louis, and the housemen were murdered, yet, Cadence still hadn't selected full-time house servants. Much of her reasoning had to do with the freedom she now had to increase Joshua's regular nightly visits. She had temporarily replaced all the men with women who were handling the vacated jobs, but so far, no one was allowed to live in the house except Lauren, who thanks to Beaumont's generosity was no longer Bouvier Manor's personal property. Although she was not of French and African decent, Lauren was now considered a member of a distinguished group of free Negroes called,
gens de couleur
, meaning she could come and go as she pleased, which, in many ways incensed Cadence, who was inebriated with her newly acquired power.

If Cadence had her way, she wouldn't allow Lauren to live in the house either because she sensed the young woman had become haughty and had the nerve to start thinking she was as good as a white woman. It had gotten to the point where she was looking Cadence in the eyes, like she was Walker Tresvant or a nigger of his ilk. She didn't like Walker, but she could at least tolerate him because he was one of the wealthiest men in New Orleans, black or white. Besides, Walker had been educated at the Sorbonne and had an air of quiet elegance about him. He was self-assured with millions of dollars the Tresvant family had earned.

Lauren, on the other hand, hadn't earned anything, yet she roamed the house at will like she owned the place; she ate Bouvier food, used the Bouvier library to read Bouvier books, and now owned The Bouvier House of Fine Dresses & Accoutrements. Whatever money she had was initially Bouvier money. She did whatever she wanted like she was back on her farm in Africa with no one to answer to, not even her mother and father, which infuriated Cadence. But when she realized Cadence's attitude changed after the reading of the Will, and began to sense that Cadence wanted her out of Bouvier Manor, she pretended she didn't know. She played the dumb nigger role to the hilt so as to keep Cadence from suspecting that she would one day answer for her crimes against Beaumont, Aubrey, Louis, and the rest of the housemen she coldly had shot to death for crimes they did not commit.

Listening to Julian Bailey read the letter Beaumont had written had nearly driven her mad with jealousy. She wondered what was so special about Lauren Renee. How did she worm her way into her late husband's heart in a single day? Upon returning to the mansion, she practically ran up the stairs and continued on past her room and entered Beaumont's bedroom. She turned the place upside down, looking for Aubrey's books, which Beaumont kept in his room. Having found them in the closet under a piece of wood flooring, she examined them closely. She flipped through page after page, looking for something, anything that would tell her about the newly emancipated rich little black girl she formerly owned. After finally viewing Aubrey's books and seeing what Beaumont had paid for Lauren almost pushed her over the edge. That's when she gave serious consideration to killing her too.