Imported Love

Chapter Twelve

“Don’t you wish they were the same man?”

If only Clara had known how much I had wished that. Every moment of everyday I’d spent hour after hour praying that I’d wake up the next day and Ethan would be my fiancé. If only she knew how much trouble I had gotten myself into. Maybe she could have helped me in some way, in anyway really. But now, she would be forced into helping me with a completely insane plan. She would help me dig myself deeper into the hole I’d fallen into. She would help me escape Abel and to be with Ethan.

I skipped breakfast that morning and went out into the barn. I needed the peace and quiet to think, and currently it was my only connection to my real home.

Adler was inside the barn, coaxing Abbervail out of her stall with an apple. He looked up when he noticed me.

“Morning, Miss Erica,” he chimed, allowing Abbervail to chomp down on the apple. “I was just about to give Abbervail a bath.”

“Do you mind if I stay?” I questioned him.

Adler shrugged. “Don’t make no difference to me,” he said, “I’ll just be cleaning.”

I sat down on a bale of hay and leaned my head against the wood of the barn. I pressed my hand to my forehead. The skin under my palm was slick with sweat and warm to the touch. I shook it off, perhaps I just had a cold.

Adler maneuvered Abbervail onto a large stone platform. He tied a rope to her halter and patted her cheek.

“Mr. Ethan had his papa build him this when he got Abbervail. It’s just like one of those water showers in the house. Have you used one yet?” Adler inquired. He turned on a water spigot that was linked to a hose. He began to wet the horse down, smoothing Abbervail’s coat as he did.

“Never,” I admitted, “we don’t have them in my village.” There was one of the tiled things in my bathroom, but it frightened me. I’d never seen something like it.

“They’re real nice.” Adler sighed, wistfully. “My momma and I don’t have one in our house, but Mr. Ethan says he’ll ask his papa one day if we can get one. Can you just imagine having something so fancy in your house?”

“It’s overwhelming,” I muttered, picking at the hay bale beneath me. All of the fancy things that Abel owned were beginning to have a effect of me. It was strange to see so many different types and colors of china at the dinner table. All of their foods and clothes were foreign to me. Even the things that they said often confused me. This place was beginning to feel less and less like home.

“That’s what I thought too, but once you get used to it, it isn’t so bad.” Adler assured me. He reached into a sudsy bucket and plopped a sponge onto Abbervail’s back. Her muscles rippled under her beautiful coat.

“Miss Erica, can I ask you something?” Adler questioned, peaking around Abbervail’s chest.  

“Go right ahead, Adler.” I replied, smiling at the little boy.

“Well, it’s just, I’ve been thinking. Mr. Ethan comes in here an awful lot, and sometimes he talks to Abbervail. I don’t think he knows I’m in here when he does it, though. When he talks to Abbervail, he talks about you. I think he’s in love with you Miss Erica.” Adler hid his face as he finished his sentence.

I couldn’t help but laugh. “Adler, that wasn’t a question.”

Adler poked his head around Abbervail again and scowled at me. “Well, what I meant to ask was, do you love Mr. Ethan too?”

I pursed my lips and shrugged my shoulders. “I don’t know Adler, but no matter what I feel I have to marry Mr. Hastings.”

Adler nodded as if he understood. “Yeah, I figured that’s the way it had to be.” He sighed deeply and began to wash away the suds from Abbervail’s body.