Chapter 7: The Island

The following day, Friday, was uneventful. It was typical for any day her Mistress had to work: Trish got up and served breakfast, then went next door and spent the day picking mangos and other fruit from the two yards. She learned how to cook a couple of new food items and how to wash clothes by hand. She served dinner at Flora's house and cleaned up. Finally she bathed her Mistress, got in bed with her, and fulfilled her most important duty by bringing her to orgasm.

The following morning Trish began her routine for the third day. As she waited for the water to boil, she decided to sneak a look at Eve's computer. It was an old clunky desktop that had been given away as surplus by the police department. The CPU had a small door. When Trish opened it, she was deeply disappointed to discover the C-drive was missing. The CPU was designed for law-enforcement and had removable drives. Trish looked around the desk and noted a small safe sitting on the floor. Fuck. Undoubtedly, because she was a cop, Eve knew all about securing computer equipment so no one else could use it.

Trish did not notice that her Mistress had woken up and was quietly watching her from the hallway. Eve slipped back to her room and got dressed. She was tempted to confront her ward about looking at the computer, but decided to keep that discovery to herself. It was an important piece of information: that Trish wanted to access a computer, probably to get on the Internet. So, it turned out that she was not totally resigned to spending the rest of her life on Santa Eduviges as Eve's slave.

Eve knew, even more than her servant; that it would be impossible to escape and get off the Island on her own. However, she was not sure who might be able to assist Trish from the United States or some other country. The main concern was the possibility that she would contact someone in Baton Rouge and, through her financial manager, somehow arrange a way to extract herself from Santa Eduviges. Admittedly, that was a long shot given the Island did not have diplomatic relations with the US, but Eve needed to eliminate that possibility altogether.

The Mistress got up for a second time and ate breakfast. She could tell Trish was a bit nervous. After eating, she decided to send her servant next door so she could get online in private.

She researched the Bousquet family of Baton Rouge to learn more about the rift between Trish and her cousins, trying to figure out how she could turn that to her advantage. First, she learned that the elder Bousquets were killed in a private plane crash when Trish was 18. Through reading her Facebook comments, Eve could tell that Trish was not particularly upset by their deaths: she had grown up in European boarding schools and saw very little of her parents during her teenaged years.

Eve then researched the rival branch of the Bousquet family, a sister of Trish's father called Beatrice Bousquet-Davis who had been cut out of a will by her grandfather. Trish's father had partly reconciled with his sister before he died, to the point that in his will he had stated that if anything happened to Trish, she and the cousins would be granted control of the family fortune.

The will also stipulated that Beatrice Bousquet-Davis would have some say in spending the family fortune and that the financial manager had to consult with her. However, that part of the will had been ignored by Trish and the manager. Eve suspected that the manager might be taking advantage of Trish's spendthrift lifestyle to help himself to some of her money. Looking through the court documents of the lawsuit filed by Beatrice, it seemed that the legal dispute was very bitter. The judge ruled against the aunt and cousins, but in his comments he expressed reservations about the ruling.

There was no way Eve would contact the financial manager. However, Beatrice was a different matter. She figured that the disinherited side of the family would be more than happy to learn that Trish was serving a life sentence on an island that had no diplomatic relations with the US. She decided to e-mail Beatrice and tell her what had happened to her niece. She got a response within five minutes, with a phone number and a request that Eve call her and reverse the charges.

Sure enough, Beatrice was elated over Eve's message and pressed her for more details. Eve responded by hanging up and e-mailing a copy of the arrest report, the prisoner's travel itinerary from Panama, and pictures of the cocaine pellets. Then the officer got back on the phone. The aunt was beside herself with joy. Eve advised Beatrice to talk to her own attorney before saying anything to anyone else. The response was:

"Of course, Officer Bousquet. I'm not telling that shyster manager of hers a damn thing. He'll find out soon enough."

After expressing profuse gratitude, Beatrice finally asked where her niece was now. Eve responded by telling a portion of the truth, that under the laws of the Island, Trish was a prisoner and that she had been awarded custody.

The conversation concluded with Eve commenting that the next-of-kin needed to be notified of the arrest and conviction, given that there was no US Embassy to handle the matter. She would send an official e-mail that the aunt could use as legal documentation that the officer had fulfilled that obligation. And that was the truth. Beatrice and the cousins were Trish Bousquet's next-of-kin.

After hanging up, Eve drafted a standard note that, under the laws of Santa Eduviges, served as official notification for the next-of-kin documenting the arrest and conviction of a criminal. She sent that off and got a grateful response.

From what she knew of the family dispute and US law, Eve figured that Beatrice would return to court with the notification letter and arrest documents to request being granted Power-of-Attorney over the Bousquet estate. Since Trish was in no position to make any financial decisions, it would be logical to award control of her finances to the next of kin. It looked like Beatrice had every intention of moving as fast as possible with the request and that she would face a sympathetic judge.

Now the family dispute was taken care of. Hopefully within a few weeks Eve would get notice that Beatrice Bousquet-Davis had seized control of the Bousquet fortune. When that happened, the possibility Eve's servant could access her money to extract herself from Santa Eduviges would vanish. So ... whenever Trish did manage to sneak onto the Internet, she would be confronted with a very nasty surprise.

Resolving Trish's family affairs filled up the entire morning. Eve originally had planned to take her ward to the nearby town to the weekly farmer's market. However, she knew there no longer was any point going there, because the best food already would be sold. Instead, she decided to take her servant directly to the capitol so she could be issued a Santa Eduviges ID card and officially registered as her property.

The two women took a rickshaw to the capitol, retracing the route they had traveled Wednesday afternoon following the auction. They returned to the government district and entered the registry office. To the servant's dismay, the place was packed with Islanders waiting to obtain birth certificates and ID cards. Trish was the only naked person in the room. It seemed everyone was staring at her. Eve walked around, asking several questions, with Trish trailing behind. Finally the policewoman took a number. She leaned against a table, reading through Trish's records and filling out several forms. Trish knelt beside her. She stared straight ahead and tried to detach herself from where she was and what she was experiencing.

The wait lasted more than two hours. Finally one of the clerks called out the number that corresponded with Eve's ticket. She tapped her servant on the shoulder and approached the clerk, who was a young man. Like every other young man on that damn island, it seemed he couldn't keep his eyes off Trish's exposed body. Eve ordered her stand up so he could get a better look at her.

The clerk explained that Trish would be issued a national ID card specifically for servants. She would receive a registration number, just like any Islander or naturalized citizen. The registration meant she automatically would become a citizen of Santa Eduviges, although a citizen without any rights. He ordered Trish to stand in front of a cloth backdrop and took a picture of her unhappy face. For the public record, he also had to take some full body shots: from the front, from the back, and from both sides. Trish knelt while Eve handed over some paperwork and waited for the ID to be printed. When it was ready, Eve put the card in her purse without giving her servant a chance to see it.

By the time the two women left the registration office, it was mid-afternoon. The open air markets were closing, but the regular markets still were open, which meant there was still opportunity to shop and stock up for the week. The neighborhood where Eve and Flora lived had plenty of fruit, vegetables, chickens, and pigs. However to buy rice, beans, coffee, or spices at a reasonable price it was necessary to go elsewhere. It seemed Eve wanted to visit every market in the downtown area of the capitol to see where she could get the best prices. Trish had to carry the market bags, which got heavier and heavier as the trek through the city progressed.

Along with the stops to buy food, Eve also wanted to go into several bookstores. She remembered that she wanted Trish to learn how to give massages. She showed several books to her servant, asking her which one was the best for her to figure out what she needed to do. Trish picked the book she thought would be the easiest to understand and follow. Eve picked up a second book about erotic partner massage and handed two Florins to her servant. Trish had to stand in line at the cash register and pay for the two books. She got a very strange look from the store clerks when she showed them what she was buying.

Within a couple of hours Trish had been forced to walk through the entire downtown area of the capitol. Altogether she must have followed her Mistress into 20 stores. She cringed at the thought that several thousand people had seen her running around totally naked and with a collar around her neck. She knew the foray into the crowded city was only the first out of many such trips. As a servant, she would have to show herself to the world: she did not have the right to any modesty.

Before returning home, Eve decided to visit the central police station and chat with some co-workers. She wanted to find out the following week's duty roster, but she also wanted to show off Trish and brag about her, in the same way she'd show off a new car or some other expensive possession. As the other cops looked her over, they were impressed, especially after learning that Eve had paid only 3,500 Florins at the auction. One cop commented that a similar prisoner had been sold the previous year for 4,500 Florins.

"I really wanted her, but I couldn't bid above 4,000. A colonel got her instead."

Some of the men commented on Trish's lack of pubic hair. Eve ordered her servant to describe, in detail, the depilation treatments she had received in the US. She had to raise her arms to show that she had the hair in her armpits removed as well.

One of the policemen brought a camera and asked to take some pictures of Officer Bousquet's new purchase. Eve responded "of course". So, for the next several minutes, Trish posed for a bunch of pictures in the hallway, by herself: with Eve, and with each of the other cops. One cop commented:

"You know, Bousquet, if you find the right photographer, I bet you could recoup some of your investment. The girl's photogenic and you ought to take advantage of that."

Trish could tell that her Mistress liked the suggestion and was thinking it over.

Eve's co-workers told her they were going out to dinner and suggested she go with them. The group walked five blocks to one of the downtown's better-known restaurants. Trish had to lug the heavy market sacks. No one offered to help her.

Once inside, the group sat at a large table, with the exception of Trish, who had to kneel by Eve's chair. While the group ate and indulged themselves with rum, she was given a glass of fruit juice. When everyone was finished, Eve scraped the leftovers onto a single plate and set it on the floor in front of her servant. She handed her a fork and told her to eat. It was yet another humiliation for Trish, to be on her knees in a crowded restaurant, eating a plate of leftovers as though she were a dog. However, she did eat. She was hungry and knew, because her Mistress already had eaten, there would be nothing to eat at home. She also knew that if she rejected the food in front of Eve's friends, later in the evening she'd face a vicious whipping.

It was dark by the time the two women left the restaurant. Eve called a rickshaw and returned to her house. She ordered Trish to put away the groceries. Trish then had to undress her Mistress, which consisted of nothing more than pulling off a light dress and removing her shoes.