The Mistress of Black Grove Manor (92 page)

              To his surprise, Kazuma saw John wearing lime green sweats and a white shirt. He looked like the hulk alright, if the hulk had lost forty pounds due to an eating disorder. All Kazuma wanted to do was laugh in his face. This was the man Ally was so afraid of? He understood why she was afraid for her own safety, but Kazuma would have no problem beating him.

              The second he exited his car there were cheers from the crowd. They were standing in a circle around the railroad tracks, drinking beers and eating hotdogs. For some this was a regular event, and the only time they were able to escape from the monotony of everyday life. For others it was a dream they could never achieve. They’d fought in high school on the wrestling team but had dropped out when it got too tough. Those men came here to live out their decayed dreams. Kazuma was here because he’d learned to fight like it was an art style. He was a martial artist and every aspect of his craft had to do with the mind-body dichotomy. Every match he won propelled him all the more closer to understanding that he truly was.

              When he entered the man-made ring, John laughed at him.

              “This is who I gotta fight? Ladies and gentlemen, does he look like a fighter to you? Why don’t you go home and cry to your mother? I’m sure she’d cook soup for you and dry your tears.”

              Kazuma dropped his sweatshirt to the ground, revealing his muscles. Ally walked over to Ronnie and the others, feeling protected by their presence.

              “When does it start?” she asked.

              “The minute the first insult is thrown,” responded one of the guys.

              “My mother’s dead you asshole,” she heard Kazuma say. He ran towards John and roundhouse kicked him straight in the face.

              “Is that all you got?” John asked, spitting blood onto the ground.

              “Put your hands up and fight,” Kazuma said. “Or do you not know how?”

              John threw a punch but Kazuma was too quick. He jumped to the side and clocked John in the jaw. This time John took the full blow, and crouched down to his knees, blood dripping puddles on the ground.

              “Get up,” Kazuma said. “You know the rules. Or do you forfeit?”

              John stood up and attacked Kazuma, heading straight for his gut. He knocked him onto the railroad tracks, causing Kazuma to hit his back in the process. The wind was momentarily knocked out of his lungs and he lay there defenseless as John pummeled his fists into his stomach. From the sidelines he heard someone screaming—a woman.

              “Kazuma get up!” she shrieked.

              It was Ally’s voice, and she was distressed. All Kazuma could think about was the first night they met, when he’d heard her crying halfway across the street. He’d come to her aid then and he would come to her aid now. No, he would come to her rescue. The second he was able to breathe again he kicked John off the tracks and onto his back. Delivering the last blow, Kazuma hit him in the side of the head. It wasn’t enough to debilitate John, but it was enough to subdue him.

              John lay on the ground, his eyes rolling in circles. There was a loud ringing noise in his ear.

              The man keeping score rushed over and started the countdown. When he finally reached one, John didn’t stand up.

              “Kazuma wins!” he shouted and the crowd erupted into cheers. Kazuma himself couldn’t believe it. The fight had been over before he knew it and suddenly Ally was there, wrapping her arms and tear-soaked face around his torso.

              “Let’s go home,” she whispered.

              Kazuma kissed the top of her head and whispered that he loved her.             

              “I love you too baby. But if you ever lose a fight, so help me god, I’ll kill you.”

              He chuckled and wrapped his arm all the more tighter around er.

              “Don’t worry. With you by my side, I’ll never lose a match.”

              Together they walked back to the car, Kazuma limping from John pushing him onto the tracks and Ally crying quietly out of happiness. They were broken people hat had fused together to become whole and as a result they created new life. They were caught in the ring of fiery love, and it burned because of them all the brighter.

***The End***

To Love a Wounded Soldier

By: Stephanie Hunt

CHAPTER ONE:

The early morning sky was tinged in hues of gold and pink as the sun rose over the horizon. Delphine Delacroix stood in front of the window in the small bedroom she shared with her younger sister Marie, relishing the few precious moments of peace and quiet. Soon enough everyone would be awake and the ceaseless, exhausting flurry of activity would begin. The endless fields tinged with frost rolling before her sparkled and shone in the sun. Everything looked so serene and peaceful it was hard to imagine the country was at war, had been at war for over a decade. But the perpetual hungry ache in her stomach was a stark reminder of their poor conditions.  She couldn’t recall a time in her life when she hadn’t been hungry.

Every bit of food farmed on their lands were collected by Napoleon’s men for the French army, leaving the farmers with barely enough to feed their own families. Most nights Delphine and her parents went to bed hungry in order to leave enough food for the three younger children. Delphine found it hard at times to feel patriotic when they never saw the fruits of their labor but she comforted herself with the knowledge that their endeavors were keeping the brave soldiers fighting for their country alive.

From dawn till dusk everyone worked their fingers to the bone, over the years most of the men had left to join as soldiers so all the work fell on the women, the children and the elderly. But even so Delphine knew they were one of the lucky ones, tucked away in a remote corner of the French countryside the harsh realities of the Napoleonic Wars hadn’t touched them quite as badly as other cities and villages where armies trampled through, destroying everything on sight and people lay dying while the streets ran red with their blood.

She sent up a silent prayer towards the sky asking God to put a swift end to this madness. She continued to ask for the same thing every morning year after year, hoping the day would come soon when their lives would go back to normal.

Except hers wouldn’t.

Not really. In a few short months her life was about to change completely.

She looked over at the twin sized bed she shared with Marie and smiled, the younger girl was curled up in a ball, sound asleep, the blankets pulled snugly around her boyish body. Her dark hair so like Delphine’s hung over her shoulder loosely tied in a braid. The two sisters were three years apart in age but looked nearly identical with their wide blue eyes, dark hair and rosebud lips. Marie was a good head shorter and slightly plumper than the tall slender Delphine but both were great beauties. They had inherited the elegant carriage of their French father and the rosy beauty of their English mother.

While she adored all four of her younger siblings, Delphine had a soft spot for Marie. They were as close as two peas in a pod and shared everything with each other. A lump caught in Delphine’s throat as she imagined saying goodbye to this precious sister and maybe never seeing her again. It would be the hardest part about leaving for the American colonies.  But thank goodness it wouldn’t happen for another few months yet! She had received an unexpected respite from an ordeal she was starting to dread. It had arrived the day before in the form of a letter from Mr. John Williard saying he had some business to attend to in the Midwest and wanted her to delay her departure. His letter had said,

The Midwest is not as developed as the New York Colony and much of the land is rough and barren. I need to attend to this right away so I cannot wait for your arrival before setting off and fear your company will only hamper my progress.

I do not expect it will take more than a few months at the most. I will inform you a month before I’m due home so you can set out then. I know you must be disappointed but it cannot be helped.

Warm regards,

John Williard

Disappointment! Disappointment was the very last emotion Delphine was feeling. She had felt a flood of relief at knowing she had been given a few months of reprieve. There were times when Delphine wasn’t quite sure if she had made the right decision responding to Mr. John Williard’s advertisement for a mail order bride. It was too late to regret anything now but given the chance again she may not have been so impulsive. It was her father, Nicholas who had brought home the newspaper clipping and urged her to write to him right away. The ad was simple and to the point.

“Well to do, prosperous settler living in New York Colony.

Seeking a genteel bride from a good family.

Must be willing to work hard and live a quiet life.

Willing to provide my bride’s family with a handsome offer.”

Delphine hadn’t wanted to but her father was convinced it would be a wonderful opportunity for both her and the whole family. And Delphine had acquiesced knowing how helpful the ‘handsome offer’ would be for her family’s well-being. Especially living as they were in near poverty.

A part of her also didn’t believe he would write back to her, she had certainly not expected to be picked as his bride! But after exchanging two letters he had proposed marriage and she at her father’s urging had agreed. The monetary amount was settled on as was a wedding date three months later. Of course none of her family would attend and Mr. Williard didn’t have any family, so the wedding he explained in his fourth letter would be a simple affair at the church with a few witnesses. If Delphine felt sad at the prospect of such a bleak wedding she didn’t let it be known to either Mr. Williard or her family. She concentrated instead on the comforts the money would bring to her family and tried and failed to feel excited about her “Grand Adventure” as her father called it.

CHAPTER TWO:

As the date of her departure approached Delphine began to feel more and more anxious about her decision so when Mr. Williard’s letter arrived postponing both her journey and the wedding a month before she was set to sail, Delphine found it hard to feel any disappointment. Marie was the only one who vocalized her concerns about this sudden marriage but nobody cared about the concerns of a fifteen year old. It never occurred to Delphine to feel anger or resentment towards her father or question why it was up to her to bring financial stability to her family when he was the one who had never been capable of holding down a steady job or make sound financial decisions. The truth of the matter was she adored her wonderful, dashing father and found it easy to overlook his numerous faults. They all did.

Her mother, Rose was the hard worker in the family, born and brought up in a respectable farming family in England, she believed in hard work and possessed an endlessly sunny and cheerful disposition. When she was seventeen years old she had met Delphine’s father on a chance encounter and had fallen madly in love with the charming, handsome French man. Neither family ever forgave the elopement and so the five Delacroix children; Delphine, Marie, André, Christian and Nicole grew up without ever knowing any extended family.

It didn’t take Rose long to discover that Nicholas was lazy, bad with money and would never amount to much but they loved each other and despite their struggles and the poverty they were very happy. Over time they managed to rent a small farm in the countryside which provided them with enough to get by but it wasn’t nearly enough and both Marie and Delphine knew their best chances of escaping poverty would be to marry well which was a near impossible dream. Why would any man settle for a landless, penniless, farmer’s daughter when an influx of well born, well to do ladies were readily available to them?

Delphine knew an American colonist willing to pay handsomely for a bride was her best chance at marrying well so she didn’t begrudge her father pushing her for the match, no matter how much she may be opposed to it herself. But with the arrival of Mr. Williard’s latest letter she felt as though someone had given her the gift of freedom, albeit a short one but it was freedom nonetheless and Delphine was determined to take advantage of this boon and something for herself before starting her role as the obedient, dutiful wife. The only question remained...what?

The what, was answered a few days later when she went into the village and came across a notice tacked up on a billboard outside the General Store. She read the notice several times wondering if she was brave enough to do it and by the time she had walked back the three miles to the farmhouse she had made up her mind. It wouldn’t be a great adventure really but she would be doing something for herself and for the country and she knew was brave enough to do it.