A Pound of Flesh (A Pound of Flesh #1)(39)

He pulled them open and grabbed at one.

She watched as Carter inhaled the smoke and closed his eyes. He did it twice more before he looked at her.

“Thanks,” he murmured through a smoky haze.

She moved around to his side of the table, glancing at the guard, who now appeared unworried by her proximity to his inmate. She flattened out the text of The Merchant of Venice in front of Carter and sat back with her own.

“I wanted to have a look at this particular speech.” She motioned to the page. “I was interested to hear your interpretation of it.”

“This speech? How predictable.”

Kat huffed. “Predictable or not, it’s an important part of the play and I want to hear what you think of it. But maybe your answer will be just as predictable as my speech choice.” She’d grown to enjoy riling him.

Carter cocked an eyebrow. “Okay, Peaches,” he said, sitting back in his seat. “I’ll bite. What do you want to know?”

“Amaze me.”

He snorted and blew out the last of his cigarette. “The speech is spoken by Shylock.”

“Wow,” Kat retorted with wide eyes. “That’s awesome! Shakespeare scholars the world over will be peeing themselves in excitement at your amazing insight!”

Carter chuckled. “Okay, Peaches,” he replied. “ ‘I am a Jew …’ ”

Kat’s mouth popped open. She listened to him quote the entire speech without looking once at the page in front of him. Instead, his eyes bored into hers, blue and bright. Hearing him speak Shakespeare’s words was indescribably erotic. His eyes burned with a passion Shylock would no doubt have conveyed to the courts as he expressed his anger at the wrongdoing that had befallen him.

Trying hard to remain composed, Kat said, “Impressive. But you still haven’t answered my question.”

Carter raised his eyebrows. “It’s mainly about revenge. He’s understandably pissed about the way he’s been treated because of his religion and he vows to match the ‘villainy’ with his own. Only his ‘villainy’ will be a lot worse. Shylock’s a badass.”

“So, does that excuse Solanio and Salerio’s treatment of him? He’s a badass; surely he deserves everything that comes to him?”

Carter scoffed. “They’re only treating him that way because they’re narrow-minded shits who see nothing but a label on Shylock. For them, ‘Jew’ means ‘evil.’ But the blatant anti-Semitism isn’t the most important aspect of the play or speech.”

“It’s not?”

“No,” Carter replied, firmly sitting forward. “Shylock says, ‘If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die?’ He’s making the point that no matter his religion, or label or whatever, he is human just like the bastards who treated him like shit. People everywhere, every day, make judgments about others because of their color, religion, background, race, sexual orientation … criminal history.”

He glanced up at her.

“The world is a shitty place, and Shylock’s the only one in the entire play with the balls to make a point about it. The irony that the supposed unintelligent, evil, uneducated Jew has such courage is what makes the shit important. The fact that he’s a Jew is simply a plot device.” He exhaled and rubbed his chin with the palm of his hand. “Shakespeare could have made him an inmate at Arthur Kill if such a place existed then.”

Kat was astounded. His fervor made her wonder what bigotry he’d encountered to make him sympathize with the character so much. Had he been treated a certain way because of his time in prison?