He handed her a glass. “I want to drink a toast with you, Sibylla. To the years to come, to the future, and to life, whatever it may yet bring us.”
“I don’t quite know what that will be for me,” she said after taking a sip. “My children are grown and it is time to turn over my work to them. I fear I shall have a lot of time on my hands.” She took another sip. “I could write my own story, perhaps. You know—the true, one-of-a-kind adventures of an English merchant’s wife in Morocco.”
“A marvelous idea, but you can do that later,” he countered. “First, I think you ought to go on a journey.”
“A journey?” she echoed. “Where?”
“You have inherited a plantation in Cuba, have you not?”
“Oh my goodness, yes!” she exclaimed. “A plantation and slaves! But why do you say I should go there? Rather I should get rid of all that as quickly as possible.”
“Sometimes it’s better to take a careful look before making a decision.”
“Perhaps you’re right,” she replied. “But I shall not be a slave owner.”
“It’s possible to run a plantation with paid laborers, you know.”
“Still, that’s not an easy decision,” she muttered.
André held his breath, but Sibylla said nothing more for a long time. His heart sank.
At last, she asked very softly, “Suppose I do travel to Cuba. Would you come with me, André?”
“I feared you’d never ask! Do you really still want me, Sibylla?”
She put her hand on his cheek. “I’ve been missing you my whole life.”
Afterword and Acknowledgments
Mogador, present-day Essaouira, was founded in 1506 as the Portuguese fortress of Magdoura and today is a small coastal town. In 1765, Sultan Sidi Mohammed Ben Abdallah expanded it into Morocco’s largest seaport at the time. Until the middle of the nineteenth century, it was Morocco’s gateway to the world, from which approximately forty percent of Moroccan commodities were exported. However, the emergence of the steamship and the disappearance of caravans during the nineteenth century led to its decline.
A few historical facts were altered for the benefit of the novel’s plot, especially the French bombing of Mogador, which did not take place in 1840 but in 1844.
We wish to thank the research fellows of the übersee-Museum Bremen and the German Maritime Museum for their help in answering our questions, as well as Henk J. Vroom of Sunshine Art BV and Dottore Alberto Peroni of Castello Del Trebbio. We would like to express our particular thanks to Zahira Efeturk for enlightening us about the Arabic language. If by any chance our readers come across any mistakes, we ask their pardon. They are solely our fault.