Chapter 5:  Slavery once again

Roxton tried to stand up, but failed, falling back on the sofa. He saw the smug on the man's face and all he wanted to do was kill the man. There was no way he was letting Marguerite going back with him.

Summerlee looked from Challenger to Malone. Neither of the men knew what to do. They saw anger on both Roxton's and Veronica's face and fear on Marguerite's. Malone walked to Veronica and put his hand reassuringly on the woman's arm. Challenger walked to the man. Hoping he would come up with something smart to say when he was there.

"Sir…" but Challenger looked helplessly at Summerlee.

Out of nowhere Marguerite's voice was heard. "I'm not going with you Charles. Because I'm not your wife anymore."

"Don't you think that the divorce will change a thing, sweetheart!"

Marguerite flinched hearing those words. "For the law I'm no longer Mrs. Devon. And the law was at my side, remember?"

"The law, the law, the law is nothing compared to the law of God. You have broken the oath you have made when we married in church. The law of God rules over the law of earth."

Charles Devon walked towards Marguerite. Challenger tried to stand between the man and woman, but was knocked aside. Charles grabbed Marguerite's arm, pulling her towards him. Marguerite struggled to get away. Roxton tried to help her, but the pain in his abdomen stopped him. Charles Devon took his gun and threatened to kill Marguerite if the others dared to come any closer. He slowly walked to the elevator, stepped in and disappeared. The explorers could do nothing but listening to the curses Marguerite made and her cries for help, her cries for Roxton.

As soon as the elevator had hit the ground, Charles had pulled Marguerite behind him. He knew exactly where he was going. After a mile, Marguerite recognized some tents. It was the tents of the slave trader camp. Then she saw Altor, Marguerite started once again trying to get away, but all her attempts failed again.

"I see you got her, Sir."

"This is for you, as promised. Now show us the way off."

Marguerite's eyes widened. «Charles knows a way off? Or actually, he doesn't know, the slave trader knows.»

°°°°°

Veronica had let the elevator come up. Which took actually just two minutes, but they seemed like two hours. When the elevator was up, she quickly stepped in and saw Roxton trying to follow her. She stepped back out of the elevator and stood in front of Roxton. "You are staying here." Then she looked at Summerlee, who nodded in agreement. "You don't have the strength. Summerlee will also stay."

Then she, once again, stepped into the elevator. Followed this time, not by Roxton, but by Malone and Challenger. Roxton looked perplexed, Veronica had never talked to him like that.

Veronica quickly found the trail of Marguerite and Charles. It wasn't that difficult. The man was too stupid to cover his tracks. Then she remembered what Marguerite had told them that certain evening, Charles may look stupid, but he always was well prepared. Therefore, he would have known that they would come after her. She motioned her friends to be careful.

After half an hour Malone spotted Marguerite, her hands were bound together. He waved at his friends to let them know he had found Marguerite. What they saw was horrible; Charles was cursing and yelling at Marguerite.

"You stupid woman! I told you in court I would find you. However, it took me a while longer than I expected. Clever of you to come to this … this … what do you call it again? Wait, I remember, The Lost World. Is that right?" When Marguerite didn't answer he hit her in the face. "Right?!" Marguerite nodded, knowing that not answering him would really enrage Charles. She remembered the last time he got this angry at her all too well. It had almost cost her her life and she had decided to leave him. The doctors in the hospital were all too willing to testify against her former husband, so the divorce could happen.

Charles looked at his former wife. Seeing the look on her face, he knew what she was thinking about. "It was what you deserved, you couldn't give me an heir."

Marguerite looked up at him, her eyes filled with rage. "When you threw me off the stairs you killed your heir!"

Charles paled hearing this. It made him furious to hear she had kept that a secret from him. And as always, he turned the story around. "You killed my heir! You'll pay for that!" He was ready to let his belt fall down on her. Marguerite closed her eyes and waited for the familiar first blow of his belt. However, it never came. Marguerite opened her eyes when she heard Veronica saying: "I wouldn't do that if I were you!"

Marguerite sighed with relief when Malone had freed her from her bounds. Then they heard a shot. When they looked up they saw Altor dead on the ground, Challenger with his pistol in his hand. "He wanted to shoot." Was his response.

"Good that somebody looked out for danger." Veronica tried to joke, but failed miserably. Charles and the rest of Altor's men had disappeared into thin air. Except from the four explorers and the dead man on the ground the camp was deserted.

"If it's okay with you, I would love to go home now." Marguerite said shakily.

Malone nodded and said: "We will." Then the four of them went on their way back to the treehouse, not looking back at the place behind them.

°°°°°

Roxton was restless. He was waiting impatiently for his friends to return, with Marguerite. If he wasn't so hurt, Summerlee had had a real job to keep him lay still on the sofa. Though after half an hour, Roxton couldn't lie still anymore.

"I should have gone with them."

"And do what? You're in no position to fight, old boy." Summerlee said friendly. Roxton knew Summerlee was right, but to just sit, no lay here and do nothing made him feel so helpless.

"They will return, all four of them."

Roxton looked at the old man, who he had considered his friend over these past three years. He remembered the time when they had encountered those barbarians. Tribune had given them gunpowder and they had to clean up his mess. While doing that, Summerlee was hit with an arrow and fell over the cliff. Later Tribune told them he had seen Summerlee fall over the edge of the waterfall.

Quickly Roxton tried to think of the time when they had found Summerlee. A tribe had taken him in. The explorers walked into their city coincidentally, while exploring the area. Marguerite had seen the old professor first. He remembered looking strangely at her when she suddenly gave a cry of joy and started walking towards an old man. Only when the old man had turned around the others recognized their dear old friend.

Roxton was pulled out of his thoughts hearing the elevator come up. He looked anxiously at the opening and when he saw Malone and Challenger walking out the elevator he couldn't help but hide his disappointment. The look on their faces … but he hadn't time enough to think about it, for the elevator came up once more. This time Veronica stepped out, followed by Marguerite.

Roxton gave a cry of joy when he saw his love walking into the living room. He stood up, fully ignoring the pain and hurried towards her. In less then a minute he was at her side, sweeping her in his arms. Marguerite held him tightly, afraid all this would be a dream if she would let go.

It was late in the evening when Roxton saw Marguerite yawning. "I don't know what you are going to do, but I'm going to bed." He saw Marguerite looking thankfully at him.

"That's a good idea, Roxton." Summerlee replied. "You're still not recovered from that arrow. And Marguerite …" he said while turning to face her. But he didn't have to complete his sentence. Marguerite was already up, helping Roxton to his own room and then go to hers. When the two were gone, the others also went to bed.

°°°°°

Veronica kept pacing through her room, thinking about today's events. One thing bothered her really. Marguerite had once again not told them the truth, or at least had kept some of the truth hidden. She was sure that Marguerite had not known that she, Challenger and Malone were that close, remembering the look of surprise and relief on her face. So, it probably wasn't meant for their ears to hear she was pregnant, while married to Charles Devon. She had better talk to the older woman about it. Veronica was sure that Challenger and Malone hadn't heard her yelling to Charles, but she had, and she wanted her to know that she knew it.

Meanwhile, Marguerite also couldn't get any sleep. She was wondering if one of them accidentally had heard what she had yelled to Charles. Veronica did have a strange look on her face when she had noticed that they had arrived to free her.

Marguerite silently walked towards the kitchen. «Maybe some of Veronica's herbal tea will help me to get some sleep» she thought. When she turned on an oil lamp, she gave a cry. As well as the other woman who was in the kitchen.

"Veronica!"

"Marguerite, what are you doing here? Why aren't you asleep. You must be exhausted after all the things that happened today."

"Well, those events that happened today are the reason I can't sleep."

"Is it that bad, uh?" Veronica whispered, then she continued: "Marguerite, there is something I need to talk to you about."

Marguerite looked up at Veronica. Not knowing why the jungle girl needed her to talk to, unless …

"You heard what I said to Charles, didn't you?" Marguerite asked softly. Veronica nodded her head.

"Well, that's one more secret you know about me than the others."

"But what I don't understand Marguerite, is why you haven't told all of us that you were pregnant, when Charles threw you off the stairs. Why did you keep that for yourself?"

Tears formed in Marguerite's eyes. All of a sudden, Veronica understood why Marguerite hadn't told them. "You love him don't you? You love Roxton and you were afraid of his reaction if you told all of us that Charles had killed your baby."

Marguerite could no longer hold back her tears. Veronica walked towards her and pulled her into a hug. After some time Marguerite pulled back, embarrassed that she had let herself go like this. But when she looked at Veronica, she only saw kindness and understanding.

"Don't worry Marguerite, your secret is save with me until you are ready to tell Roxton and the others about it." Then Veronica left the kitchen to go to her room, trying to get some sleep.

"Thank you, Veronica. Thank you." Marguerite whispered.