The Most Beautiful Girl in Cuba - Chanel Cleeton Page 0,50
as we know it.
Michael grins at me. “Let’s hope so.”
“I’ve got it,” Hearst shouts from his office once more, interrupting our conversation. “We’ll call her ‘the Most Beautiful Girl in Cuba.’”
Thirteen
Evangelina
One by one, my friends leave me as they are released from prison or sent on to other places. Unfortunately, this war creates a never-ending supply of women to punish for others’ deeds, so newcomers replenish their ranks—the wives or sisters of Mambises whose only crime is loving one of Cuba’s proud patriots. When they are gone, others come, and so the cycle continues, and still, I remain. My final friend, Señora Sotolongo, is with me a bit longer, but eventually she’s taken to a prison hospital.
There are others who visit me: Donnell Rockwell who works at the American consulate and has become a great friend of mine, and Karl Decker, a new friend who says he will be working at the Journal in Havana.
And then one day, I am called to see the warden once more.
The Marquis of Cervera is seated in the warden’s office.
The warden places a newspaper on his desk, and shock fills me at the sight of my face staring back at me. I read the name of the newspaper: The New York Journal.
“It would appear that you have some fine friends,” Don Jose accuses.
I never imagined my case would draw the interest of the Americans in such a fashion, that my story and face would be plastered across their papers, that the world would see me brought so low. All along, Bryson promised me he would keep me out of the press to avoid further angering the Spanish. The last time he visited me, he told me that the judge he’d attempted to bribe in order to secure my release was trying to force his hand by threatening a harsh sentence for me. Perhaps once Bryson’s plans went awry, he had to come up with another option, but I wish he had warned me that this news was breaking. If the Spanish were determined to make me pay for embarrassing Berriz before, this can only make things worse.
“George Bryson has been expelled from Cuba on the orders of General Weyler,” Don Jose announces.
Horror fills me.
“Because of you,” he adds, a gleam in his eyes as he delivers the crushing news. “The queen regent of Spain herself has directed General Weyler in this matter.”
As the warden speaks, the Marquis of Cervera sits there silently, watching me.
I should have known Bryson’s promises were too good to be true, should have realized the Spanish wouldn’t give up so easily. The more attention the situation draws, the more likely it is to prompt Spain to retaliate against American interference. After all, more than anything, right now they need to appear strong.
“You must wonder what will become of you,” Don Jose says.
I have been wondering that every minute of every hour of every day that I have spent in this horrible place for the last fifteen months, but if my past interactions with my jailers have taught me anything, it’s that whatever they tell me, it won’t be the truth.
I lift my chin slightly, keeping my mouth shut. I can’t bear the thought of asking him, of giving him the satisfaction of seeing me desperate and dejected.
“You will be sent to Spain,” he continues. “You will serve twenty years in a convent.”
Originally, I was to be sent to a penal colony in Africa, then led out into the square and shot like a spy, or imprisoned for life in Cuba, and now they plan to throw me into a prison of sorts in Spain. It seems like each day they throw a different horror my way. I bite the inside of my cheek as hard as I can to keep from crying out, my anger a living, palpable thing unfurling inside me.
“There will be no more visits from your friends,” Don Jose tells me. “You will be held incommunicado for the rest of your days here.”
The Marquis of Cervera leans forward in his seat, speaking for the first time since I walked into the room. “There is one thing you could do to help yourself.”
He says it idly, as though it is little more than an afterthought, when I’ve no doubt this was his true intention all along. Why else would he go to all the trouble to come here?
“If you were to withdraw your accusation against Berriz then we might be able to work something out.”