Chapter 14: New Dixie

The next morning Eve had another surprise for her servant. They would not hike back to Paradise Pass, but instead hike directly west. They would spend the entire morning descending a back trail and emerge on the western side of the Island to visit Eve's hometown of New Dixie.

As she followed her Mistress down the trail, Trish could see that the west side of the Island was very different from the east side. Instead of flat plantations and wide beaches, the western district was rugged, hilly, and separated from the ocean by steep cliffs.

After six hours of hiking through forested, hilly terrain, Eve and her servant crossed through a banana plantation and several fruit farms. Finally they reached their destination, the small town where Eve spent the earlier part of her childhood.

New Dixie was distinct from every other town in Santa Eduviges. The entire population was black instead of mixed-race Creole. The oldest houses and shopping area reminded Trish of the historical districts she had seen in Southern towns in the US. There was a reason for both the architecture and the ethnic make-up of New Dixie: the settlement was founded during the Civil War by former US slaves. From 1865 until the end of Reconstruction, several additional families from Louisiana immigrated to Santa Eduviges and settled in New Dixie. From the beginning, one of the most important family names in the town had been the Bousquets, originally from a plantation in Baton Rouge.

Eve's parents no longer lived in New Dixie. When she was 10, her father got a job in the government and decided to move the family to the capitol. However, Eve's older brother had returned to New Dixie and was living with his wife in the house that used to be owned by Eve's grandparents. Eve called him on her cell phone and let him know she was in town. Trish overheard:

"My servant? Oh yes, she's with me. So ... you're curious to see her, yes?"

Eve knew a lot of the older residents in the town and on the way to her brother's house stopped to chat with various family friends. Of course, an important purpose of her trip was to show off her servant and brag about her. The story of how she bought Trish at auction and outwitted a man with considerably more money entered into most of her conversations.

Had Trish possessed any intelligence at all, Eve would have suspected she was playing dumb about not understanding the importance of New Dixie and history of Eve's ancestors. However, the girl was a total ignoramus. She honestly had no clue about the history of her family or their connection with Eve's family. Perhaps she was vaguely curious about the Southern appearance of New Dixie, but she was not putting all those clues together or making the connections.

Fortunately, Trish was not too dim-witted to understand that if she was with her Mistress in her hometown, she needed to be on her best behavior. Her relationship with Eve was improving and she wanted to keep it that way. So, the servant knelt humbly and quietly, stood up when ordered, smiled for pictures, and did not flinch when curious fingers touched and explored her hairless pussy.

Before going to her sibling's place, Eve wanted to make sure her servant was presentable. Obviously, after a half-day of exhaustive hiking, she was not. It would not do to have a servant use her brother's shower, but she did not want Trish standing in the yard trying to clean herself with a garden hose either. Fortunately, the fire station had an outdoor shower. When Eve explained the situation, the fire-fighters were more than happy to oblige. The policewoman handed her servant some soap and shampoo, while the fire-fighters brought cameras and a video recorder. Eve made her servant wait while the men brought out chairs. As soon as everyone was seated and had their cameras ready, Eve gave her servant the go-ahead to get cleaned up.

Trish was so hot and so much anticipating having the chance to wash off that she was able to ignore her audience. Showering in front of spectators was not nearly as bad as peeing in front of spectators, nor as bad as being spanked on the street. Anyhow, she reminded herself that everything in her life revolved around keeping her Mistress happy. She faced her viewers while she shampooed her hair, and turned her back when she had to bend over to soap her feet and legs. After she was clean and had toweled-off, Eve told her to kneel so she could comb her hair. Finally, the show ended and the firefighters thanked their visitor for the photo session. Trish's naked body was documented by several hundred additional photos, most of which would be on the Internet within 24 hours.

Trish followed her Mistress two blocks and arrived at a Victorian-style house. Eve's brother, sister-in-law, and a couple of kids were waiting. She introduced her brother as Master Jules, and her sister-in-law as Mistress Annette.

When Eve introduced her servant, the entire family's eyes scanned her exposed body. Trish knelt as usual, but then her Mistress told her to stand up and put her hands behind her head. She complied, assuming the display posture so Eve's relatives could have a proper look at her. She had to give the usual explanation about her depilation treatments. She noticed that Eve's brother wanted to touch her, but with his wife standing next to him, he decided against it.

Eve and her brother sat in the living room to get caught up on each other's news. Annette went into the kitchen, but Eve called out to her.

"Annette! Don't forget about my servant. You can just relax. Have her take care of dinner."

So ... in spite of being exhausted from the walk, Servant Trish had to go into the kitchen and set up for dinner. Annette stayed with her, making sure she set the table properly and had the meal dished out. When Trish was finished and the food was on the table, Annette took the servant to the back porch and ordered her to kneel:

"So ... little Bourbon princess ... how does this make you feel? Kinda sucks when the shoe's on the other foot, doesn't it?"

"I ... I don't know Mistress ... I ... feel happy serving Mistress Bousquet."

"You'd better feel happy, serving her. You'd better realize how lucky you are. She's letting you off way too easy."

Trish was terrified and taken aback by the Islander's hostility. She didn't understand what she possibly could have done wrong. Considering the relatively trivial crime she had committed, she didn't think she was being let off easy at all. Annette tightened her lips and continued:

" ... and you'd better hope I never get my hands on you. If I do, you'll learn that payback really is a bitch. Now get up, little slave wench, and serve your superiors."

"Yes, Mistress Annette."

Trish was terrified, especially at the thought of ever being alone with Eve's evil sister-in-law. What on earth could have angered her so much?

During the dinner conversation Trish picked up more clues. As she served food and refilled drinks she overheard Jules and Eve:

" ... so you're serious, your servant doesn't have a clue who we are?"

"No ... no clue at all. I've tried dropping a few hints: nothing. She honestly doesn't know a thing. She doesn't even know about the Civil War, and I'm serious about that. So, she certainly doesn't know where her fortune came from. Not a clue."

"And you're not planning to tell her?"

"I've thought about it, but I guess I won't. What would be the point? That's not why I bought her."

Annette interjected:

"The point would be to let that little bitch know that she deserves everything that's happening to her. To let her know that we don't forget. To let her know that her family needs to pay for what they did to us."

"Annette ... please. What difference does it make now? You're talking about stuff that happened 150 years ago. She had nothing to do with it. The only reason the Bousquet plantation matters at all is that it allows me to not feel guilty about keeping her. If anyone ever tries to tell me that keeping her is morally wrong, I can argue that her people did the exact same thing to us."