An Appetite for Love

by Elaine Young

  Ruth pulled the dress off her. There she stood in English clothes when the door opened. Ruth looked up, for a split second wondering if she should try to cover herself or not.

  Her mother stood in the doorway. Above all else, she didn’t look surprised.

  She closed the door behind her and walked into the room.

  Ruth sat there, frozen. What is going to happen now? She may not be able to be shunned but that didn’t mean her parents couldn’t punish her.

  Her mother carefully picked up the dress, folded it and set it down on the back of the bed before sitting down beside. Katherine looked at her daughter, a tight smile over her lips. Her eyes looked sad.

  “You’ve been borrowing your cousins clothing, I see.” Ruth opened her mouth to protest, to defend her cousins. They hadn’t forced her into anything. They shouldn’t be given trouble. “And I’m guessing it would be a safe bet that you’ve met a boy?”

  Ruth closed her mouth, a flush burning her cheeks. She knew that would be enough of an answer for her mother. She nodded.

  Her mother sat silently.

  “I’m sorry, Maemm,” Ruth said quickly. “I didn’t mean-”

  “You’re sorry?” Her mother raised an eyebrow. “Sorry?”

  Ruth closed her mouth again. Maemm is right. Sorry’s not good enough. I’ve gone and broken deatt’s heart and now…. Now her own heart was broke. That’s selfish of me. She deserved to have her heart broken, but not deatt. Deatt had never done anything to deserve this.

  “Did you not think for a second,” Ruth winced, waiting for the harsh words. “That this may be Gott’s plan for you?”

  Ruth stood there, her mind frozen as she thought about what her mother had just said. She didn’t sound mad. She sounded calm and collected as she reached out and touched Ruth’s knee. “You’ve not taken your vows yet,” she reminded her daughter.

  Ruth stared at her mother. “But… deatt…”

  Kathrine waved a hand away, dismissing the concern. “You father has never minded if you, or Mary, wanted to take part in the English world.”

  The words hit her like a blow to the chest. “But-”

  “You’re not too old,” her mother said. “Rumaschpring is still an option.”

  Another blow.

  She was right. Her mother was right. She could…

  “I could stay here,” she whispered.

  “Well nee, you should come home with us, at least for a little while.” Her mother said.

  “Jah, of course. You’re right,” Ruth nodded.

  “But, you could stay with your cousins for a little while, and of course see this boy…”

  Ruth’s cheeks flushed. Dean.

  Ruth’s heart skipped a beat. She had a chance to see him again.

  There was a soft knock on the door. It opened.

  Ruth’s father stared at her, his eyes burning into her soul as she looked at the clothing she wore. Ruth felt her cheeks flush

  “Is Joshua here already?” Kathrine asked, taking the attention off her daughter.

  “Jah.” It didn’t do any good. Ruth looked down, unable to meet her father’s eyes. “We’d best get going.”

  “I’ll change.” Ruth’s voice was so soft she hardly heard herself.

  Her mother stood. “Take your time,” she said softly. “We will wait.”

  Ruth nodded and watched as her mother headed to the door, and her parents left her alone.

  Ruth changed quickly, shame overwhelming her as she thought about the look on her father’s face. How was she supposed to be able to go out into the English world after seeing that look?

  Ruth packed her bag quickly, folded the English clothes that she had been wearing and left them on the bed neatly.

  She picked up her bag and headed for the door. When she made her way back into the living room everyone turned to look at her. Joshua stared at her, his eyes locked on her. Clearly he had found out about what she’d been doing. Gott’s plan. Ruth tried to remind herself of what her mother had said. Maybe this had been Gotts plan for her. Maybe she was supposed to do this. Or maybe it had been a test. A test I failed. Ruth took a deep breath, trying to keep her face straight. She looked around. Grace stepped forward. She pulled Ruth into a tight hug.

  “I’ll see you around.” She promised.

  Ruth fought back the urge to cry. She fought back the tears. Grace pulled away and gave her a soft smile before turning to Mary.

  Ruth looked around. There was no sign of Natasha or Jamie. Maybe they had been sent to their room, for fear of corrupting Ruth more.

  After Grace hugged Mary everyone turned to the door.

  Ruth reached the door first and pulled it open. She stopped dead in her tracks, Mary running into her.

  “Ouch!”

  Ruth paid no attention to it. She’d realized why Jamie and Natasha weren’t there to say goodbye.

  She stared at the boy in front of her.

  Dean’s cheeks were bright red.

  “Hi.” He looked so embarrassed, his eyes locked on her. “I uh, heard you were leaving and wanted to say goodbye.”

  Ruth stared at him with wide eyes, her voice unable to work.

  “You must be the… boy my daughter’s been seeing.”

  Her father’s English amazed Ruth.

  He stepped forward and looked Dean up and down.

  “Yes sir, I am.” Dean glanced at Ruth before stepping forward and holding his hand out to shake. “I’m glad we got a chance to meet before you left.” He looked scared as he turned his full attention to Ruth’s father. “Because I’d like to court your daughter.”

  Ruth’s heart jumped into her throat. She stood there completely unable to react.

  Richard reached out and shook Dean’s hand. “We’ll have to see about that.”

  Two weeks later

  “Are you sure about this?” Mary asked. “You still have time to-”

  “Nee I don’t,” Ruth said, then paused. “No. No, I don’t,” she corrected herself. If she was going too go out in the English world she was going to use English words.

  “Are you going to come visit?”

  “Of course I will,” Ruth promised her sister.

  “She’ll be back before she realizes it.” Kathrine spoke from the doorway. Her eyes sparkled. “And then she will be gone again.”

  Despite her fears, Ruth’s father didn’t seem to mind that she was going to take part in Rumaschspring. Ruth grabbed her bag and headed for the kitchen. She checked the clock. They should be here soon. Her heart skipped a beat.

  Her father hadn’t been into the idea of having Dean pick her up, but he had agreed it would be a chance for him to at least speak to the boy again. He sat at the table. His eyes red, but he refused to meet Ruth’s gaze.

  She padded over to him, placing a hand on his shoulder. “I’ll be back soon,” she promised. “I’ll… I’ll be good.” She wasn’t going to go out and do what Katie’s sister had done- which none of the parents were supposed to know about. She only wanted to be able to spend more time with Dean.

  “Jah, I know ye will be.” He reached out and put a hand on hers. “But I’ll miss ye. You’re my little girl and I don’t like the idea of any man courting you.”

  Ruth smiled. She wasn’t sure why he’d used that word, or if it had been Jamie or Natasha who told him to, but it had done the trick. Just enough for deatt to give him a chance.

  A knock on the door caused Ruth’s heart to skip a beat. Mary rushed to get it as Ruth turned to her mother. Kathrine closed the distance between them and pulled her daughter into a hug.

  “Don’t forget Gott’s plan,” she whispered just loud enough for only Ruth to hear it.

  “I won’t.” Ruth promised, hugging her mother tightly.

  She pulled away, willing herself not to cry as she turned to the door and faced Dean.

  Her heart skipped a beat.

  He closed the distance between them in a fraction of a second, his arms wrapping around her waist, at
a respectable spot. He pulled her close to him. Her arms wrapped around his neck.

  “Ruth,” he whispered, his head nuzzling into the crook of her neck. He pulled away quickly, clearing his throat as if he wasn’t sure that had been allowed. His cheeks flushed as he turned to her mother. He gave her a soft nod. He turned to her father and gave him a nod as well.

  Ruth glanced past Dean to see three others standing there. Natasha and Jamie, but Natasha spoke to someone, someone Ruth knew all too well. Joshua.

  They looked deep in conversation. Gotts plan. Ruth smiled softly.

  “I uh,” Dean cleared his throat. “I just wanted you to know.” His eyes locked on my father. “I spoke to Grace about…. Courting customs to great length. I understand what’s expected and allowed.” He swallowed dryly. “I know during…” He paused, his brow furrowing as he searched for the word. “Rumaschpring, things are a little different but I want you to know that I’m not taking this lightly.”

  Ruth’s heart skipped a beat. She turned to see her father’s reaction.

  To her surprise she saw a smile spread across his lips.

  “I expect my daughter to be in safe hands with you.” He stood, holding out his hand to Dean.

  “She is,” Dean promised as they shook hands.

  Ruth, Dean, Jamie and Natasha stayed only a little longer during which time Joshua promised to come out and visit them- but Ruth wasn’t sure it was to visit her. Ruth had a few chances to head out to the truck, but she didn’t take them, seeing the look in Joshua’s eyes as he spoke to the girl beside him. She caught her mother looking at them once. They didn’t say a word, but her mother gave her a single nod, a smile spreading across her lips.

  Finally, around midday they had to get going. They would already have to get a hotel room for the night, a thought that Ruth’s father was not a fan of, but Dean promised to get his own room, giving the girls a room to themselves. Ruth reached out and took her hand, her fingers tangling together as she silently thanked him for everything he was doing- for everything he had done, and everything he said to her father. Most of all, for the fact that he sounded so honest about it.

  Dean held his arm out for Ruth to walk her out to the car when the time came. Her parents cried as she said goodbye. But the look in her mother's eyes said it all.

  Don’t forget Gott’s plan.

  ***The End***

  Rich Love

  By: Stephanie Hunt

  Chapter One:

  “I thought I asked you to plant those last week.”

  Aiden listened to his mother’s voice transition from pleasant to a dangerous drawl that really brought out her Charleston accent. He couldn’t see her; she was in the front room and he was in the library, but he could imagine her face. The same one he’d seen when his grades weren’t A’s or when he’d let his tie hang a little askew. He straightened it reflexively as the gardener spoke.

  “Yes ma’am,” he said. “You did. And I told you that this soil won’t take them and that, even if it did, the sun and heat would kill them.”

  “The Parker family has a whole bed of them.”

  His mother sounded triumphant now, as if the gardener had been put so firmly in his place that no response was possible. Aiden heard her begin to walk away, her heels sharp on the hardwood.

  “In a raised bed, with special soil, in the shadiest corner of the yard. They won’t grow where you want them, in full sun in that side yard.”

  Aiden felt his eyebrows shoot up. Patrick Gilmore’s voice had remained respectful, but it had also been very firm. The staccato stab of the high heels stopped.

  “Maybe I’ll find a gardener who can,” Savannah Cross snapped.

  “That’s up to you, ma’am.” The low voice was still respectful. “But the most you’ll find is a gardener willing to give you a bed of dead flowers.”

  A long silence stretched out. Aiden bit his lower lip as a sudden desire to laugh rose in his throat.

  “Fine,” his mother said, biting off the word. “Then get something else in that bed. Right now!” She walked away, sighing loudly as if she’d wasted her time.

  “How hard can it be?”

  Aiden turned away from the window with a start. He’d forgotten that Victoria was there. Gorgeous Victoria Caine. She’d hardly looked away from the screen of her cell phone, where she was texting busily, no doubt arranging a night out with her bevy of friends. Everyone loved Victoria. She was spoiled by her father, careless with her money, and pretty enough to draw a crowd.

  He looked at her as she smirked at him, laughing at the gardener. He forced his mouth to tip into a smile as he walked over and sat down beside her. Her golden blonde head didn’t even reach his shoulder. In addition to being pretty, she was perfectly shaped, a petite hourglass. Men stopped and stared at her whenever they were out together. He thought briefly that he really couldn’t stand her.

  They’d been seeing each other for a few months, ever since his mother had introduced them at a charity event she’d been overseeing. Aiden thought back, but he really couldn’t remember what charity the event had been for. He doubted that his parents did either. It had been a flurry of catering and harassed maids for weeks up until the event and when it was over, his mother hadn’t even known how much money they’d raised.

  His father had, but all he’d said was that they’d spent twice that and that he hoped to God it could all be written off on their taxes.

  Aiden looked around the room. It was huge. Floor to ceiling bookshelves looked back at him, hundreds of volumes that no one ever touched except when the maids dusted. The big bay window let in the sunlight that poured over the beautiful garden that no one bothered to look at unless there was a party being hosted there. The whole house was like that. A pool no one swam in, a home gym no one touched, rooms and rooms of collectibles and art that no one even looked at.

  “What?” he asked, realizing that Victoria had spoken.

  She tossed her blonde hair over her shoulders and said, “Maybe I should just go home if you’re not going to pay attention to me.”

  The way you’ve been paying attention to me? With your eyes glued to your phone? He didn’t bother to speak up in his defense. Instead he tightened his arm around her and said, “I’m sorry, Victoria. I was in my own little world.”

  “I asked if you’d like to go out with me tonight,” she said, her tone still a little chilly. “But if you’d rather be in your own little world, maybe I’ll take someone else.”

  Aiden wasn’t stupid. His parents hadn’t had to spell out the reasons for their enthusiastic support of Victoria Caine. She could have been a known arsonist and they would have loved her just as much. The dollar signs dancing around her and her father were all they needed.

  The Cross family fortune had dwindled so much that fortune really wasn’t the right word for it. William Cross, Aiden’s father, had made a lot of investments that hadn’t really paid off, failing to realize that this wasn’t his father’s world anymore. He hadn’t wanted to invest in any of that “newfangled technology” or “wave of the future” stuff. His stubbornness had cost him millions. Which wouldn’t have been too painful if they weren’t spending those millions regularly in a desperate attempt to make people think they were still as wealthy as they’d been before.

  In other words, if this didn’t work out his parents might just murder him and claim the insurance money.

  Aiden turned on his most charming smile. He knew he was good looking and he looked rich and confident.

  “Come on, Victoria,” he said, letting his Charleston drawl come through. “You know I don’t want to sit around this place when I could be with you.”

  Mollified, she smiled back at him. “All right.”

  He put his fingers under her chin and tilted her lovely heart shaped face up, kissing her gently.

  She returned the kiss, but only for a moment. She pushed him back, giving him a coy smile. “You’ll mess up my lipstick.”

  He doubted it. That pro
bably took some form of passion. Their kisses were chaste and brief enough for a church service greeting. He smiled again.

  “I’ll walk you out.”

  He couldn’t think of anything he wanted less than to spend an evening with her friends and their significant others, but what could he have done? His mother beamed at him as he walked Victoria to the door where their car was waiting to take her home. At least he was making someone happy.

  Chapter Two:

  Saige Gilmore looked up at the huge house. It was tall, white, and almost blindingly bright under the summer sun. There were two porches, one ground level and one on the upper level. Both were furnished with impeccable elegance. She glanced around for her father, but didn’t see him.

  He’d said he’d be waiting out front. She chewed her thumbnail, wondering if she should just go in. There was an iron gate with a fancy scrolled C at the top. The Cross family, she remembered. Her father had taken this job right before she’d headed off to college and, now that she was celebrating her graduation, she realized he’d been there for 4 years. He hadn’t really told her much about the place, or the people.

  She took a deep breath and squared her shoulders. The gate was open. Her father wasn’t where he’d said he’d be. The hot June sun was on the verge of baking her brain. She went in.

  She was promptly nearly run down by an approaching car. It beeped at her and she put her hands into the pockets of her shorts to keep from making a rude gesture. She didn’t want to endanger her dad’s job by flipping the jerk of a driver off.

  Saige jogged toward the huge front steps and then realized that she was following the car. It parked at the steps and she skirted the bumper to go in as the driver got out. She’d just raised her hand to knock when the big red door opened. She nearly hit the man in the chest.

  “Sorry!” she said quickly, looking up, and up, at him.

  He was so tall! She wasn’t a short girl, but he had to be a foot taller than she was. He made the woman he was with look like a child. A particularly lovely child. The man wasn’t bad himself. His brown hair was just long enough to suggest that he needed a haircut, but his jaw line was closely shaved. His eyes were dark blue, like an ocean just before a storm, and there was a cleft in his chin. All in all, a pretty good looking guy.