A Girl and Her Tiger Page 4

  “No!” Priya nearly shouted standing up.

  Fullerton laughed. “Whoa, calm down there, girl. You have a fiery temper. I just had to ask. But I think I know why you lost whatever job you were trying to get.” He laughed again.

  Priya felt her face go hot. Was she so easy to read? She needed to be more guarded. More careful. Her impetuousness had gotten her into this situation and was probably going to make her life more difficult if she didn’t rein it in.

  “Can you help me?” she asked. It was late and she was feeling tired, a little light-headed. She wanted to get this over with and go back home.

  “I certainly know a few people who would pay good money for a sweet girl like you,” Fullerton said. “Especially one that’s still…intact, as they say.”

  “Pay…?” Priya asked, feeling confused.

  “Of course,” Fullerton said. “That’s why you’re here, isn’t it? I have a ship leaving in the morning. I don’t transport many slaves nowadays. It’s technically illegal. But when a girl comes along that will fetch such a high price, well, I can’t really say no.”

  “Slave? What?” Priya mumbled as she stumbled back. She lost her balance and fell to the floor.

  “That’s it,” Fullerton said. “Just let the tea do its work.”

  “The…tea…?” Priya asked, only just now realizing she had dropped her cup on the carpeted floor. She tried to get up, but she fell to the side as everything went dark.

  What had she done?

  Chapter Five

  Priya awoke when her head hit against something, hard. She winced and tried to raise her hand, but she quickly lost her balance. She forced her eyes open and realized she was laying on the floor of a carriage. She looked up and saw Fullerton staring down at her.

  “Drat,” he said. “I was hoping you’d be out until we got you onto the ship.”

  “What ship?” she asked, and then squeezed her eyes shut from the pain. She felt dizzy and nauseous. She tried to reach up to grab the seat across from Fullerton, but only then noticed her hands were bound with ropes. “What’s going on?” she demanded.

  “I have a shipment of goods sailing out soon bound for the Americas,” Fullerton said, looking out the window. “You’re going to be on it.”

  Priya sat up, her senses slowly returning and being replaced by panic. “But…but Indian slavery is illegal!” she said. “The Company outlawed it years ago!”

  Fullerton just shrugged. “I’ve never had a problem finding buyers.”

  “I’ll tell!” Priya said. “I’ll tell everyone that Lord Fullerton is a slave trader!”

  “No one will listen to you,” he said coolly. “Besides, you won’t be coming back.”

  Wouldn’t be coming back? Where was she going? How could this happen? She needed to get away. She jumped up and grabbed for the handle of the carriage, but it was locked. Fullerton reached over and pushed her back into the seat.

  “Sit down,” he ordered. “It’s over, girl. Your fate was sealed the moment you knocked on my door.”

  “The Parkers,” Priya said. “They know I went to see you. If I go missing, they will come for you.”

  “Dumb girl running around Bombay at night,” Fullerton said. “Guess you just went missing.”

  “But the night guards,” Priya said. “They saw me. And the butler.”

  “If I’m not afraid of the British government. Why would I be afraid of them?” Fullerton asked without a hint of malice. It was as though he was just explaining the way of the world to her. “Anything and anyone can be bought for the right price.”

  And suddenly, Priya was terrified. She knew that this man held all the power, and she had none. Her only hope was to escape when they got to the port. If he managed to get her on that ship, it would all be over.

  The port was bustling with activity. There must have been thousands of people from all walks of life coming and going, loading and unloading ships, moving cargo, and hawking their wares. Dozens of ships lined the docks, with their massive masts towering overhead. When the carriage finally came to a stop, Priya’s door was opened and a dark hand grabbed her arm and pulled her out. She was shocked to see that it was Fullerton’s Indian butler who held her fast.

  “Help me!” she said. “Let me go!”

  The man’s face looked pained, but he shook his head. “You know I cannot.”

  She looked back at the smug smile on Fullerton’s face. She knew that the butler would not risk angering Fullerton and losing his job. She wanted to hate the man for it. For sacrificing one of his own people to please his master. But she knew far too many people who would do the same thing in his position.

  She squirmed and twisted, doing her best to pull free from the man’s grip so she could get away, but it was no good. He was too strong. Another one of Fullerton’s men came around the side of the carriage and grabbed her other arm. Together, they moved her through the crowd of people toward the ships.

  “Help me!” she screamed, trying another tact. “I’m being kidnapped! Help me!” Surely, someone in this crowd of people would object to a girl being stolen and sold into slavery. Several people looked her way, but when their eyes fell on Lord Fullerton, casually strolling behind her, they averted their gaze.

  Priya was losing hope. How could this happen? How could no one step in?

  A loud roar rang out so deafening, everyone stopped for a moment and went silent. Priya looked up and saw a tiger in a cage being hoisted upon a ship. But she wasn’t roaring for herself. Back on the dock, three tiger cubs were in a basket and a white man was holding one of them up proudly.

  “Get your own tiger!” the man called out. “Raise it from a babe as your own cat! Or have the fiercest guard dog on the block! Get your own tiger right now!”

  The mother tiger roared again, and a few people laughed at her obvious distress. Priya was sickened. These people had no respect for life—human or animal. She thought back to the Evans family and how casually they had disregarded the life of the kitten.

  Suddenly, she wondered if in her anger she had caused the Evans family to manifest right before her eyes! She blinked and shook her head. No, she wasn’t imagining things. It was the Evans family. Sahib and Memsahib Evans and their son were looking at the tiger cub. Just then, she remembered Sahib Evans’s promise to his son. Don’t worry, son. We’ll get you another kitten. A better one, he had said. This was what he must have meant. By better, he meant bigger. Deadlier.

  As much as she hated those people, surely, they wouldn’t let a girl they knew be dragged away and sold into slavery, would they?

  “Sahib Evans!” she called out. “Help me! I’m being kidnapped! Help me!”

  Sahib Evans looked down at her. He then looked around, confusion on his face, as if she could have been talking to someone else.

  “Help me!” she cried out again.

  Sahib Evans then nudged his wife to get her attention. She looked up at him, and he motioned at Priya.

  “Help!” she screamed. “Help me! I’m being kidnapped! Help me! Find Sahib Parker!”

  Memsahib Evans’s face darkened. She did not look concerned for Priya in the slightest. She turned her head away, back to the man selling the tiger cubs, and helped her son pick one out.

  Priya was in shock. She couldn’t believe what was happening.

  Sahib Evans seemed to hesitate. He tapped his wife on the shoulder, but his wife swatted his hand away. She then said something sharp to him. He then followed her lead and turned his back on Priya.

  Priya’s fear was replaced with rage. How could these people be so cruel? They were perhaps the only people in all of Bombay, in all of India, who could save her, and they chose to do nothing. Tears filled her eyes. Anger, hopelessness, fear. It all came washing over her. There was nothing she could do to keep from being put on that ship and sold into slavery in the Americas.

  When they arrived at the gangplank, the ship’s captain came down to greet Fullerton.

  “What’s this?” t
he captain asked as the men shook hands. “I don’t recall seeing any young girls on the manifest.”

  “A late-night addition,” Fullerton said and he dropped a bag of coins into the captain’s hand. “I hope it won’t be a problem.”

  The captain shook the bag and then smiled. “Not at all, sir,” he said. He motioned for two of his men to take her. Fullerton’s men handed her over, and then Fullerton doffed his hat at her and walked away.

  As the men continued to drag her up the gangplank, Priya struggled, kicking and screaming to get away or for someone to help her. She knew it was in vain. There were hundreds of people around, all witnesses to this crime, yet no one stepped in to save her. There was no escape. And yet, she fought.

  The men forced her down some steep stairs into the ship’s hull. They took her past kegs and crates and bags of goods, animal pelts, and live monkeys and parrots, and tossed her into a cage. She scrambled to her feet and ran to the gate as it was closed shut and one of the men locked it with a key.

  The man reached his hand through and patted her cheek. “I’m sure I’ll be seeing you again later,” he said.

  Priya didn’t even stop to think before spitting at the man. But the man only laughed as he and the other man walked away.

  Priya looked around her cell. There were several cages along the wall. She wondered how many other people had been transported to the Americas the same way. At least she seemed to be the only person being transported on this ship. The ban on selling Indians as slaves must have been working for the most part. Fullerton and the captain probably didn’t sell slaves often, just when someone was stupid enough to fall right on their doorstep.

  Up above, she saw a large hatch pulled open and a crate was lowered down into the hull. It was the cage with the tiger! The men worked to line up the crate with the cage next to Priya. Then they opened the door to the cage and the crate and poked at the tiger with sharp sticks to get her to move into the cage. The tiger lunged and snapped at the men, trying with all her might to kill all of them. Any of them. Priya didn’t blame her. She’d gladly help the tiger overthrow their captors if she could. But eventually, the tiger was ushered into the cage, which the men then locked behind her.

  “Good job, men,” the captain said, slapping them on their backs. “That tiger, she’s damn fearless.”

  The men laughed, congratulating each other on successfully loading the tiger onto the ship. They then worked to remove the crate and finish loading the remainder of the goods. They lowered a palate of hundreds of bags of rice on to the ship. She knew it was rice because rice grains were seeping out of holes in the bags. She wondered for a moment why the captain would be exporting rice. Didn’t they have rice overseas?

  Priya moved against the wall, looking out of a porthole window to the dock. She could still see countless people moving about, but she didn’t bother yelling or waving at them. She knew that no one would help her.

  Then, she felt the ship rock to one side, and then the other. She realized that they must have been raising the anchor. She felt her heart freeze and she sank to the floor with her back against the wall, pulling her knees to her chest.

  She watched the tiger in the cage next to her. She was pacing, panting. She raised her head and sniffed the air and then let out a strangled cry. She too must have known that the ship was moving.

  “Nabhitha,” Priya whispered to the tiger, using the Hindi word for fearless. “Those men said you were fearless. But they were wrong. You are just like me. You are terrified.”

  The tiger was tipped to the right and left, stumbling as she tried to remain upright. She finally gave in and laid down, letting out a sad moan as she did so.

  Priya shook her head and placed her head on her knees as she felt the ship pull away from Bombay and out into the open sea.

  Chapter Six

  Priya held her stomach and closed her eyes to keep from vomiting in her cell as the ship rocked back and forth. Nabhitha and the other animals moaned their discomfort as well. Eventually, the ship reached calmer waters away from the busy dock and began floating gently. Priya stood up and looked out her porthole window. She could still see land, though it was some distance away. She wondered if she could swim to shore if she somehow managed to escape her cage.

  She walked over to the cage door and shook the bars, but they held fast. She fumbled with the lock, but she had nothing with which to pick it. She heard a low growling and saw that Nabhitha was watching her with interest.

  “What do you think?” she asked the tiger. “Can we get out of here?”

  Nabhitha let out a snort and Priya laughed. She then realized it was the first time she had laughed in days. And her situation was no laughing matter. She was a captive on a ship sailing to a foreign country where she was going to be sold as a slave. She didn’t know much about life as a slave, though she imagined it wouldn’t be much different than the way most Indians lived as “servants.” But a servant could always quit or be fired. As a servant, she would still have some aspects of freedom and choice. As a slave, she knew she would be in bondage for the rest of her life.

  Priya laid her head on the bars of the cage and sighed as she thought of her parents. They must be terrified for her. She never came home last night and now had been gone for most of the day. Would Lucille tell her parents the truth, that she had gone to see Lord Fullerton? Or would she lie and say she never saw her? Priya really had no idea what Lucille would do. But the more she thought about it, she realized that as soon as Lucille figured out something was wrong, she would lie through her teeth to protect herself.

  Did Lucille know that Lord Fullerton was a slave trader? Priya shook her head to banish the thought. Surely, in spite of all of their differences, Lucille would never knowingly do something so cruel. So evil. No. Priya couldn’t think that of her friend. Besides, Lucille had offered to go with her to see Lord Fullerton in the morning. It was Priya’s own impatience that brought her to this place.

  Priya grunted in frustration and shook the bars of the cage again. What was she going to do? She had to get out of here! If she waited to escape until after she was in the Americas, she could never get back across the ocean to get home. She needed to escape before the ship lost sight of the Indian coast. But how?

  She looked around the ship’s hull, hoping to see something that could help her. There were ropes and long sticks that had been whittled into spears. Iron chains and bonds. There were monkeys chained against a wall and a few peafowls running loose. There were crates and crates of goods, some of which were partly open or had holes in them big enough for Priya to figure out what was inside of them. Tiger and leopard skins were in some of them. She saw a basket of rhino horns. A few chairs and tables ornately carved in the Indian style were stacked haphazardly. Rolls of handwoven rugs were piled upon one another. Another crate contained dozens of bronze statues of Hindu gods. And in one crate that was secured very well, she could hear the unmistakable clinking of gold coins as they were knocked about. Some of the other crates she couldn’t see into but had a feeling they were full of Britain's prime Indian export: opium.

  This was certainly a smugglers ship. Legal and illegal goods extracted from India and the Indian people to be sold to the highest bidder upon the ship’s arrival at British colonies in the Americas.

  And she was just another thing to be sold.

  In spite of the wealth of goods surrounding her, she saw nothing that could help her escape from her cage.

  Nabhitha had finally given up on watching Priya and had settled down, laying her head on her massive paws. Massive paws of incredibly sharp claws. Claws that could probably pick a lock with ease if only the tiger knew how.

  “Nabhitha,” Priya whispered, and the tiger cocked her ears toward her. Priya held the lock to her cage in her hand and the pointed to the similar lock on Nabhitha’s door. “You should use your claws to break the locks.”

  Nabhitha grunted and turned her head away.

  Priya crept toward the bars tha
t separated their cages and held out her hand. Maybe she could befriend the tiger and they could work together to escape.

  “Hey, come on, girl,” Priya said, reaching out as she got down on her haunches and scooted toward the tiger. “We are in this together, right?”

  Nabhitha looked back at Priya and let out a low growl. Priya hesitated, but then she smiled and talked in a soothing voice as she reached out to just touch the top of Nabhitha’s paw.

  “It’s okay, girl,” Priya said, even though her own hand was shaking and she could feel sweat beading on her forehead. “I’m your friend. We can both escape if we work—Ahh!”

  Nabhitha lunged at Priya, ripping at her arm with her claws. Priya screamed as she pulled away and fell back against the far wall of her cell. Nabhitha let out a terrifying roar as she pushed her face against the bars of her cell as though desperately trying to get at Priya to tear her to shreds.

  Priya cried in fear and pain. She was almost afraid to look down at her arm, scared that it might be completely gone. By the gods, how could she be so stupid! She felt warm liquid pooling on her skin and knew that her arm must still be there. She finally looked down and saw blood seeping out of three large gashes. She removed the sari wrap from her shoulder and used it to wipe the blood away. She sighed in relief when she realized that the wounds were not deep. Thankfully, the claws had not even ripped into the muscles. The scratches were only flesh wounds.

  But did they ever hurt! And she had nothing with which to clean them with. She didn’t even have any drinking water. She wiped the blood away and then wrapped her arm with the cloth to stop the bleeding.

  Tears fell from her eyes from the pain, her stupidity, and the hopelessness of her situation.

  “I’m sorry,” she finally said to Nabhitha when she was able to speak. She knew that she should not have tried to touch a tiger. Respect for tigers was something instilled in Indian youths from infancy. Tigers were usually solitary creatures who avoided humans at all costs. But it was not uncommon to end up in the path of a tiger at some point in a person’s life if they spent any time outside of their village. Priya had been raised in the city of Bombay, so there was almost no chance of seeing a tiger there. But she had family in a village a few miles away. Every time she went to visit the village, her mother drilled into her head the importance of showing respect to a tiger should she happen to see one.