Family Reunion (81 page)

He finally understood that all men had the ability to dream and that it had nothing to do with ones color of skin as to how grand his dream, nor his ability to succeed in obtaining it, but everything to do with allowing a man freedom to seek his dream and build his world, without another man saying, you cannot, wrong color, dreams do not belong to you. With each step that he took he felt stripped of his pride for his many ships, his shipping company, the new shipping yard, his mansion in New York, his plantation in Mississippi and… his slaves.

Manny had to shake his head as the feeling to stop and turn around overcame him. Once again, he felt it…
fear
– because there was something he must face bigger than he was, his wife's father – King LuMaden.

The moment Lena's foot touched the first level portico within the stone balustrade, the many servants and concubines began bowing before her, greeting her in French and in Spanish.

"Welcome home, Princess
Ceś
alena!" They called out to her. Lena smiled and nodded as they opened an aisle between them for her to pass through. Their eyes going immediately to Manny, murmuring and gaping at his presence and the colors they wore. Turning up the inside stairs, they carried on up to the second level, with people gawking everywhere. Reaching the second level, another aisle of people stood for them to pass through and for Lena to see at the end of it, Austeao. Both women could not hide their surprise as Lena slowly approached her aunt, her mother.

"Mere." She called to her in French, adapting easily to their homeland language, that was a blend of French/Spanish, and a dab of the native tongue, as Austeao returned in French.

"Esa! Oh my…it is true! You have come home! We thought never to see you again!" They met half way, falling into each other's arms. She didn't care at that moment about what was right or wrong, Esa was alive. Lena started to cry as she hugged the older woman's slender frame to her, no longer able to hold the stoic expression expected of her. Sniffing, Lena answered still, speaking French, "I know mother - believe me, I have been well cared for. I have returned to visit my father so that he may see my family, where is he?"

Before Austeao realized what she’d said, or could give an answer, he
appeared bellowing in anger,
"Can a man not rest without the uproar of those within his household!
What is all the-..." LuMaden stopped, unable to say another word as he stared at the woman standing before his wife. Lena, upon hearing her father's bellow stepped over so he could see her in full view, casting upon him eyes that mirrored his own.

"Dauda, it is I,
Ceś
alena who has caused the stir… I have come home." She said softly as she slowly walked up to him. LuMaden could feel his heart racing and wondered if it could stand under the shock he was feeling. He stood transfixed under a spell as the dark, aureate beauty came to stand before him. He stared down at his daughter, trying with all of the power he held not to react as his entire soul screamed he should. Lena shook, tears running down her face, her throat tight and aching she whimpered, "Dauda."

Lena found herself seized and crushed against her father's strong chest, his arms pinning her there desperately as her arms wrapped around his waist. LuMaden gave up the fight and broke his own rule as he rubbed both cheeks over her forehead, kissing her as his lips went by. Needing to touch her, he pushed the gele from her head, kissing her temples, the top of her head and held her desperately as he sobbed, "Esa, Esa...my little Esa, you have come back to me." He spoke in raspy French, inhaling the sweet scent of his daughter as tears poured unchecked from his eyes. So caught up in reuniting with his daughter, LuMaden had not noted the arrival of the white man nor those who had come with him, now gathering in a cluster behind him near the rail of the balustrade.

He did not hear the silent smothered gasps of Austeao as she looked at the new people and Lena's words registered along with recognizing the colors her daughter wore of marriage and belonging to the white man now present. Murmurs in French, sounded like humming from a chorus.

Once more, the colors told the story and nothing could later be denied once worn before witnesses for all to see. Nothing else mattered to the onlookers, the juiciest part of all had been told without a word. She had gone away and returned as a wife to a white man. She had bore his children, who also had children now present for everyone to see.

Manny stood back among his family thinking.
'So you are King LuMaden, father of my wife.'
Manny noticed that the seventy something year old man didn't look much older than his own fifty years. No wrinkles, no stooped posture; in fact every inch of his almost six-foot frame was strong and solid. Neither was there a grey string of hair to dot his tawny mane.
'How in the world could a man of over seventy years look as he did? Apparently, his daughter had inherited his ability to cheat time.'

"Dauda, I've missed you so badly, you are just as, I remember you." She sighed, backing away from her father. "I thought I'd never get the chance to see you again."

"My little princess, oh the spanking I owe you for disobeying me, for venturing off the palace grounds, never have I raised my hand to you, but well you deserve it for leaving me alone."

Austeao swallowed down her resentment, there he was surrounded by his subjects, her, his concubines and many sons and daughters, yet, before his Esa, no one else mattered. Regardless of how certain she knew it to be, she had accepted it – his displays had caused the problems existing between their children. She could only wonder when he would see his own part in making Ashtaphere the bitter man that he was, while she made no excuses for her son's treachery, it was not entirely without cause.

"Please forgive me father, I never meant to leave you…I don't know what else to say." Lena murmured, slipping into English.

"No more need be said my daughter, you are home now, that is all that is important." He smiled wide, followed by a joyous chuckle, "And know, that I shall send word to all the neighboring Islands, my Princess
Ceś
alena has returned! We shall celebrate this day! All will-…"

"Dauda…" Lena broke in suddenly, growing nervous. LuMaden eased her gently from him, smiling down at her. "Yes my Esa?"

"Dauda, I - I have not come home … -(She swallowed nervously)- …to – stay. Neither am I, alone. My return was only to – see you again, to let you know – that I am well. I have brought my family with me…they are here, behind me." She finished quietly.

All suddenly grew quiet, eager to catch her words softly spoken. LuMaden stared down at her, and then took in her adornments, the colors of her sash, the gele in his hand he'd taken from her head.

Her hair had
been completely covered, and he now began to take notice of many things as her words penetrated.
'A family? My Esa? How could this be? My daughter with a lord over her?'
His eyes widened, stunned. "Where is this…
lord
… over you?"

Lena felt her nervousness build, fear gripping her. She was a Princess, daughter of King LuMaden and she had dared to return displaying in full regalia, the undisputed fact that she had married a white man.

"My father, please first hear me out, understand before your eyes light upon him, that I love him. With all of my heart I do. We have children and grandchildren, I love him - I love him." As she spoke to him, LuMaden tried to absorb her words. Then a shadow was cast behind her, bringing LuMaden's eyes up to focus on and behold, eyes of aqua blue; skin not naturally dark from birth but tanned from the sun; hair silky straight and bleached blonde from the sun.
'Blue eyes! White skin! Blonde hair! This man is white!!'
His mind screamed, there had to be a mistake, there just had to be.

His eyes jerked down from Manny's who had seen the shock written all over LuMaden's face before he tore his gaze away and back onto his daughter. Manny instantly regretted his one spoken promise to her,
'Heavenly father, now what?'
He had a feeling this king just might refuse him his wife, and if that were true, he knew he might as well get ready to pay hells price and beyond, because there was no way he was going to leave the island without her.

"
Esa!!
Where is this lord you speak of!! Tell me!!
Where?!"

Lena swallowed feeling her insides quiver. "He-…"

"I am her lord - her husband - you need not look any further. Princess
Ceś
alena, your daughter is
my
wife." Manny didn't need to understand French to know what was just said. The two men stared at each other, one waiting for the other's next words. LuMaden's hands dropped away from Lena's arms, her gele slipping from his fingers to the floor.

Without breaking eye contact with Manny, his hand rose with a single gesture. All those looking on scattered leaving only Catamon and his men, his wife Austeao and a few other women servants who had fallen to their knees to look down, waiting for his next order.

Manny swallowed the saliva flooding his throat; Lena thought she might actually faint, a chill replacing the warmth from her father's hands. Before LuMaden was a dilemma, a man who unwaveringly returned his stares. "Fathe-…"

"Shush!" LuMaden ordered Lena sharply.

Manny and his children immediately felt a sting to their stomachs, with Rory beginning to realize the possible consequences of their arrival.

They all
stood quiet and waited, unable to do anything more. LuMaden took in Manny's possessive stance, his features set, refusing to display fear or uncertainty, yet he noted as well, this man did not care for his shushing her.
'So there is no fear in you white man, knowing that I have the power to do with you and yours as I will.'
LuMaden could read the fire in his eyes, there was no doubt that he intended to defend his right as her husband. LuMaden was confident why; inhaling to relax, his heart gladdened with the knowledge that he had the fix for the problem. Movement to his left broke LuMaden's glare, pulling his attention away to four young men who stepped up backing his daughter's husband. To the left of him, stood one definitely, a younger version of him,
white
, another to his right, with darker skin, auburn hair, but still,
white
and beside them stood Esteban, much better, at Mike's side and Joseph beside Rory.

LuMaden observed the obvious stand as if to say they would fight beside their father, where as Joseph's colors confused him until a lighter mirrored image of his daughter moved into place before them all to stand beside her mother. It had not escaped LuMaden's notice that she took hold of her mother's hand, gripping it tightly as eyes, like his own stared defiantly at him.

"Esa…" He began, "…you have indeed presented your father with a predicament. By what title or name do I call this man who stands behind you… instead of
you
, behind
him
."

"Maynard Ramsey Webster." Lena returned firmly, she turned then to Manny, "My lord, my father – King LuMaden." With her heart pounding, she took her position behind Manny, riling her father that she should do so. Manny placed himself squarely before his wife, blocking her father's view of her. LuMaden's eyes narrowed at his audacity.

"King LuMaden, your daughter's return here is due to a promise I felt compelled to honor - please know that this is nothing more than a visit. Our children beside me carry your blood – it is only right that they know this side of themselves as well."

"Hmph, no title before your name?” LuMaden enquired of him with clear disdain.

“
No, no title, I am as my wife, your daughter introduced, and our children.”

“
I am not blind Maynard Webster. It is plain for all to see that they are one and all spawns of her." He then turned his head to look over his grandchildren and then his great-grandchildren. None of them were the product of a man
he
would have chosen for his daughter to marry; they were in fact nothing more than the children of a white man.

Yet, he could not deny that his blood flowed through their veins, many of them bore his eyes. It was too much; LuMaden needed time to think things through. All that he was sure of was his word, one that said the man who returned his daughter to him would reap a great reward as well as his word to his people that a celebration would take place. Being a man of his word, he would follow through. However, he would resist spreading the word of her return to the neighboring Islands until this situation before him was resolved.

"Your journey no doubt has been long, Maynard Webster. For now, I invite you to join me as my people rejoice in the return of their Princess. Because you have brought her back to me, you shall be rewarded." LuMaden announced grandly with a smile that did not spread to his eyes. With a clap of his hands he called.

"Austeao!! Prepare my daughter for her people – so that all will see- …" He looked back at Manny, straight in the eyes, "…-Princess
Ceś
alena has come home!" Before anyone could react, Austeao with the aid of her servants rushed forward grabbing Lena away from her family. Shocked and caught unprepared, Lena could only gaze back at her family before she disappeared within the palace walls.