Tangled Passion by Stanley Ejingiri

diary. Secondly and most troubling was the fact that Shanika had eventually gotten pregnant and this he had also documented in the diary. His relationship with Shanika was something that begun out of curiosity; it meant nothing initially and wasn’t supposed to go anywhere. But when he woke up one day and realized that he had fallen in love with the slave girl, he was both surprised and scared. Although he kept the relationship secret all the time it was something he never regretted—she had made him feel better than any woman had ever done and he couldn’t help but love her more each day that passed.
    It was impossible to be sad or heavy around Shanika, she knew how to lift your spirits and make you laugh, even in the saddest moment. She was also smart and her simple and humble opinions in matters that Longstands didn’t expect her to know anything about, most times turned out to be the best option. Only six months into their relationship, she was fluent in the English language, engaging in conversations that were both complex and constructive with Longstands. There really wasn’t anything not to love about Shanika and it was almost impossible to find a flaw in her—Longstands was content with her and missed her every minute he was away from her.
    But as the end of his contract in St Lucia drew closer and the time to travel to England approached, Longstands became very worried for Shanika. She was pregnant and it would be the first time that they’d be separated in a year. He’d already postponed his trip to England twice, simply unable to leave Shanika, but he’d run out of excuses to give Suzanne for a third postponement and had yet to find a way to ensure that Shanika was safe for the time he was going to be away.
    Longstands had a few friends but none of them knew about his relationship with Shanika and he couldn’t trust any of them enough to tell them about the pregnancy. Mr. Blanchard was one of his closest friends and it had crossed Longstands’s mind several times to lie to Blanchard about the situation—after all he only needed a safe place for Shanika to stay until he returned from England. If he told Blanchard that Shanika was one of his very good slaves that had gotten impregnated by another slave and begged him to let her stay in his quarters until he returned, he was sure that neither Blanchards nor his wife would have a problem with it. Longstands’s only dilemma was that even though Shanika wasn’t exhibiting any signs of pregnancy, she was actually due in four months; some sixty days before he was due back from England.
    If he was still in England when Shanika gave birth as would most likely be the case, it would take Blanchards only a few minutes to realize that he had lied and that the child was actually his. The rumour would travel across the Atlantic and knock on his door in England…and his wife Suzanne would of course be there to answer the door.
    After very long consideration, Mr Longstands decided that the best option was to send Shanika to an island where slavery had been abolished; he knew about boatmen who smuggled slaves to the island.
    “I want her to be safe, very safe—absolutely safe,” Longstands said, trying to explain the level of safety he wanted for Shanika as he discussed it with the boatmen in the shadows.
    “Don’t worry sir,” the first man said with a Portuguese-saturated accent.
    “We do it already, many times, this not the first,” the second man added, struggling with his English. Longstands was reluctant and fearful but his choices were limited. As much as the men sounded experienced and capable, their demeanour wasn’t as convincing.
    “I have to go to England, so what if you get your balance when I return?” Longstands said, looking for a way to quell the suspicion in his belly and to make sure the boatmen returned to him. He simply needed some kind of assurance that Shanika would be transported safely to her destination and that the boatmen