Caribbean Black Jack Book 1 The Queen of Hearts

By Valérie Lieko

At the end of the 18th century, Liliane de la Roche is treacherously abandoned by her wealthy lover on a deserted Caribbean island. Castaway in an unknown and hostile environment, she will do anything to survive.
Centuries later, Andrew Brooks is a card dealer in one of Sint Maarten's prestigious casinos. One night, a mysterious woman, Soledad de La Cruz, plays Black Jack at his table and will turn his life upside down.
Dive into a nail-biting suspense while discovering Caribbean folklore and beliefs throughout history.
The Queen of Hearts is the author's second novel and the first part of Caribbean Black Jack, an addictive series containing four books.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Valérie Lieko
• Release date: Jul 12, 2016
• ISBN: 9781310046346

Valérie Lieko

Author Valerie Lieko, a pediatric neurologist, lives in the French West Indies with her husband and their three children. "Hide and seek Paris-SXM is her first novel". She is hard at work on a series, "Caribbean Black Jack". The book 1 "The Queen of Hearts" is available, and book 2 "The Queen of Spades" is coming soon (May 2017). You can join her on Twitter https://twitter.com/ValerieLieko or Facebook https://www.facebook.com/liekovalerie/ Féroce lectrice depuis ma tendre enfance, débordée par mon imagination, j’ai toujours eu cet aspect d’enfant rêveur. C’est pourquoi le goût du voyage m’a vite envahie pour pouvoir encore plus rêver et m’évader. Après l’étape de la quarantaine, tout en poursuivant mon métier de neuropédiatre, j’ai eu l’envie de partager toutes mes créations intérieures en les écrivant. Mes romans où le suspense, l’aventure sont toujours au rendez-vous parlent d’amour (souvent impossible ou mis à mal), d’amitié, des rapports humains avec toutes leurs failles et forces psychologiques. Mes personnages vivent des aventures originales dans des lieux qui vous dépayseront, avec actuellement un ancrage principal dans La Caraïbe où je réside. J’y glisse toujours une touche d’humour et de « belgitude ». Née à Bruxelles, j’ai vécu dans l’ex-Zaïre puis à Scy, petit village de la campagne magnifique du Condroz belge. Mon premier roman sorti en mai 2015 est une romance contemporaine : « Chassé-croisé Paris SXM ». J’ai entamé une série fantastico-réaliste « Black Jack Caraïbe » qui comportera quatre tomes dont le dernier paraîtra en juillet 2017. N’hésitez pas à me rejoindre et à échanger sur mon blog http://www.valerielieko.com/, sur Twitter https://twitter.com/ValerieLieko, mais également sur ma page d’auteur Facebook https://www.facebook.com/liekovalerie/

Book preview

CARIBBEAN BLACK JACK

Book 1

The Queen of Hearts

By Valérie Lieko

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Published by:

Valérie Lieko at Smashwords

© 2016 by Valérie Lieko

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All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.

Smashwords Edition Licence Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

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The following story is fictional. All references to existing people, events, venues, companies and places only aim to make the story realistic and do not depict reality. Every character and conversation has been invented by the author.

Published by Valérie Lieko

Parc de la Baie Orientale

97 150 Saint-Martin

France

Copyright Valérie Lieko 2016. All rights reserved.

Translated from French by Suzie Coulon

Original Title: Black Jack Caraïbe Tome 1 La Dame de Coeur (registered November 2015)

Cover picture by Peter Klashorst (CC BY 2.0)

Cover by Kouvertures.com

Chapter 1 In an uninhabited Caribbean island

Chapter 2 An unprecedented game

Chapter 3 In a island now inhabited

Chapter 4 A peaceful coexistence

Chapter 5 The horse riding lesson

Chapter 6 A secret burial

Chapter 7 Staying or leaving...

Chapter 8 A starving woman

Chapter 9 Mysterious encounters...

Chapter 10 The local Heritage Day

"What is love? Tis not hereafter;

Present mirth hath present laughter:

What’s to come is still unsure.

In delay there lies no plenty;

Then come kiss me, sweet and twenty:

Youth’s a stuff will not endure."

Twelfth Night (1600), William Shakespeare

Chapter 1

In an uninhabited Caribbean island

Liliane suddenly worries: maybe she moved too far away from the group. But at this very moment, she is so furious at Jacques that she continues to walk briskly, indifferent to the stifling tropical heat. The more distance she puts between herself and the group, the more she calms down. A few steps away from the path, at the edge of the forest, some unusual flowers catch her attention. So different from the ones she used to see in Europe, they remind her of the delicate paintings she admired in one of the precious botanical tracts that her dear Jacques, Count of Carafelli, had brought her back from Southeast Asia.

Her insatiable curiosity outweighing the caution required in an unknown territory, Liliane leaves the path unexpectedly. She briefly waves at the group, now almost a hundred meters away.

Once she reaches the fascinating tropical flowers, she can finally catch her breath, shielded from the glances, especially Jacques’. Showing the slightest sign of weakness is out of the question. Despite her youth gradually fading away, she is determined to convince him that she kept her full strength and vigor. She is focusing on the flowers. They are so perfect that they almost seem unreal. She suddenly remembers their name: porcelain roses... Flowers of exceptional beauty, their cone-shaped center is covered with deep-pink petals standing slightly apart from one another. With stalks difficult to break and thick petals, these roses are abnormally strong, somewhat just like Liliane aims to be perceived.

Reaching for her notebook to draw a few sketches, she realizes that she must not linger on for too long and will have to quickly join the others. She is not afraid of staying far away since the island is not supposed to be hostile, but she has to remain cautious nonetheless, even more so in a territory where the Holy Gospels have not been preached. Liliane does not consider herself a devotee, she simply attends Sunday mass, suffers no remorse about avoiding confessional and only has faith in what her parents asked her to believe in.

While drawing, she thinks about the last few months and how demanding they have been. However, she has managed to overcome the difficulties without ever complaining. She never imagined she could have bravely endured such a long and perilous journey. She has put up with everything: seasickness, powerful waves ready to swallow the boat, fear of never seeing land again, and being the only woman in an all-male crew. With the captain only thinking about profit and imposing unfair rationing methods, the men never seem far from mutiny. She would have preferred a military ship and a resolute hierarchy, but Jacques had decided to charter a merchant ship in order to bring most of his possessions.

The worst she had to endure was this ongoing indifference. During the whole trip, not to mention the preceding months, Jacques had barely disguised his detachment.... Even a dog would be entitled to more attention! Jacques, the man to whom she offered her youth, the man she was ready to follow everywhere, even to the gates of hell... Besides, she had already gone through those gates by accepting to be his mistress for so many years. She would always remember the first time they met, in the gardens of his massive castle. She was impressed with the dedicated personnel, an army of ants, fifty men and women devoting themselves daily to various cleaning tasks, meticulously maintaining the gardens and taking care of the horses. Coming from a family of nobles, Liliane is familiar with luxury; but the ancestral fortune now gone, only her titles remain.

She also remembers how their meetings had been so carefully orchestrated. A coach driver was bringing her official invitations to participate in hunting expeditions. They were gradually distancing themselves from the others, using the forester’s house to hide. When joining the group again, they were glancing at each other with complicity. Jacques was looking at her with marvel, admiring her outstanding horse riding talents. Despite the handicap of always having to ride sidesaddle, she was as good as most of the men.

At the time, she was just leaving adolescence, and immediately became fascinated by Jacques and his strong personality. He sometimes pretends to listen, but in the end, only his opinion prevails. Resistance is futile. He never hesitates to settle a dispute, even minor, with a sword duel against some reckless poor souls. His age does not hold him back, despite the fact that he was already a mature man when they met. She was so young, Jacques was able to shape her into the woman he wanted her to become: docile, dependent, but also elegant, cultured and devoted to give him pleasure, just like a woman in love would. Has she therefore become his toy, one of his numerous goods? Has he ever felt the same passion for her that she feels for him? Liliane prefers not to think about it. Avoiding sensitive issues has always been her weakness, although she sees it as an effective way of protecting herself.

So many years have passed now... If she had never met him, maybe she would lead a peaceful life, as a mother and a spouse, maybe she would be bored to death. Today, the scars of life, against which it is impossible to fight forever, begin to show on her skin. Every time she brushes her hair in front of the mirror, she notices small, but clear wrinkles above her upper lip. When she smiles, expression wrinkles consistently appear at the corner of her eyes. Her waist, once thin, now begins to show some curves that Liliane skillfully hides using feminine artifices. She can no longer dress without wearing a corset rigid enough to keep her shoulders back, hold her breast high and, of course, make her waistline thinner. The other night, Jacques had pointed out that her body had lost its edge, that her youthful firmness had faded out... Hearing this dismissive comment, she froze instantly, but hid her uneasy feeling by laughing nervously.

She also recalls how insistent she had to be before he finally accepted her presence by his side to cross the Atlantic. Although he had decided not to come back from this decisive journey, she had to beg, even cry, until it became horribly humiliating. The last few times he left her place, he insisted that it was better for her to stay in Europe. She was grabbing his legs, imploring mercy, trying to convince him that she would not survive far away from him. One evening, when she threatened to jump from his balcony, he accepted, at last. She was ready to follow through with threats, and he could not afford such a scandal. She had been dreaming about this trip for so long. In the beginning, Jacques was the one constantly talking about it, convincing her that this travel was their ultimate goal in life. He had promised her, years ago, that a fresh start would be possible for both of them, far away from the social pressure that was weighing so heavily on their relationship. They would settle in a vast property, close to New Orleans, and have a try at cotton farming... He even placed a cotton ball in her hand, as a perfect symbol of this dream. The same cotton ball he had picked up himself two years before, when visiting a thriving plantation in Louisiana. Jacques has always enjoyed unusual challenges. Often considering life as a game, he even risked his, after foolishly loosing a game of cards, by deciding to climb the Cursed Mountain, recently renamed Mont Blanc.

For Liliane, America meant that they would finally be a couple. At first, she was fearful when thinking about this radical change of scenery. With a regularly changing government, Louisiana had been quite unstable for decades. Once Spanish, it became French and then English, a fragile situation since the kingdom did not seem to really control its colonies. Liliane would have preferred Martinique, where some of her distant cousins have made a fortune of running sugarcane plantations. Although they have the bad reputation of mistreating their slaves. Slaves... Soon enough, Jacques would have some as well. Seeing him negotiate with slave traders in Bordeaux had been horrifying. How would he act with them? What if slaves had babies? Could she bear seeing children becoming slaves only because they were born under an unlucky star? Liliane was feeling highly disturbed. How does God see this injustice? With all theses ideas of freedom and equality defended by popular philosophers in the capital, it seemed like France was at the dawn of a new era, but Liliane had cowardly put aside all questions and ideals...

The fantasy of finally living peacefully with Jacques and starting fresh in this famous New World had definitely outweighed her fears and apprehensions. Although Liliane could have chosen to keep leading a quiet life in her Parisian mansion, hosting artists all year long, teaching horse riding during her spare time and, above all, becoming free of Jacques’ random presence that made her feel like an expensive pet, always waiting for her master. But the love she feels for him has made her completely dependent and he knows it only too well.

Jacques’ wife, Aude, is fully aware of their relationship and has probably been since the beginning. Eyes and ears shut, she has never bothered Liliane, even when he bought the luxury Parisian mansion for her. He had it all: city pleasures and a mistress in town, quiet family life and a wife in the countryside. However, he had also bought Liliane a small castle in the country, only a few days away from Paris. She used it as a summer residence, allowing her to escape the heat and bustle of the capital. The castle reminded her of her lost childhood and is probably the place that she will miss the most. When she was there, she could appreciate changing seasons, simplicity of peasants and closeness to nature. Perhaps it would be nice, every two or three years, to go back and spend a few months in the small castle