A MAZE OF GREED

"Do you... do you l-love him?"

Florence abruptly stopped crying after hearing that question from Ruth. She didn't answer right away and took some moments to collect her thoughts.

'Do I?' She questioned herself because the possibility had never crossed her mind before.

After thinking about it for some moments, she answered Ruth. "I do! Since the first time I laid my eyes on him, I was drawn towards him like a moth is attracted to the light."

"Why?" Ruth was astounded upon hearing that.

"Have you ever loved someone Ruth?"

Ruth answered instantly. "yes, my mother!"

Florence couldn't help but let out a peal of loud laughter that made Ruth puzzled.

"Oh, Ruth. You are so naive! I mean romatically. A man? Have you ever liked or loved any man?"

Ruth's ears burned and she slowly shook her head. She was in her early twenties and had spent enough life in the world but not once that thought crossed her mind.

"Thought so. Then you can not understand."

Ruth's eyebrows knitted as she didn't like the plain tone that Florence used.

"Why should a man have to affect you so much that you have to go through such pain? Why should a man be a reason to make you ask questions that make you doubt your worth?

If he doesn't care about you then you shouldn't too. You can always find a better man for you." Ruth was sure that any one of Florence's admirers would be more than glad to accept her for her lifetime.

'There is always someone destined for everyone, Ruth. God make pairs in heaven. You just have to wait, know and accept the right one.' Her mother, Bertha Moore once told her that.

And she believed in it, in her mother. That was one of the reasons that Ruth didn't reciprocate any man's feelings till now. She was waiting for that destined one in her life.

"I told you that you can't understand. You don't know him, Ruth. He is the most charming and handsome man that I have ever come across in my life. He has that something about him that keeps one pulling towards him.

He is dangerous yet irresistible. Every woman would envy me if I have him by my side. He is the only one who can give me my happiness, satisfy my all desires and provide me with a stable and secure life.

I will have everything money, power, safety and love at my feet. I will be the happiest person alive if I get him by my side, for myself!"

Ruth was scared for a moment at the passion and desperation that oozed from Florence's words and eyes. At that moment she looked different... so much different, that for a second Ruth felt like she was talking with someone else.

'If she wants this man so badly then she must be really in love with him, right? But what if she couldn't get him?' Ruth gulped down her saliva and then asked the question that Florence had never given a thought to.

"Does he feel the same for you too? Do you think that he will also be happy with you as much as you will be with him?"

The dreamy look on Florence's face replaced with a frown in an instant.

"Are you suggesting that I am incapable of keeping him happy?" Her tone was accusing.

Ruth's eyes widened. "No, no. You are getting it wrong, Florence! I am just asking you."

Florence's eyes hardened and Ruth felt a chill ran down her spine when she clasped both of her shoulders tightly.

"Ruth, he is the man that I have set my eyes on and I will be damn if I can't get him. I know that there is no woman that can give him the fulfilment that he needs in his life. He is a powerful man with the highest social status and only I deserve to stand beside him!

And about his happiness... then let me tell you one thing, dear. There is not a single man who can not be happy with me in his arms."

'Love is not only about what you get from the other person, love is all about giving everything you have to your loved one and sharing everything that you two achieve together.'

Ruth wanted to say but the way Florence's brown hazel eyes burned with the determination made Ruth clamp her mouth shut and voice out her concerns.

Though she didn't like the way Florence was claiming him without considering his opinions and not knowing if she should call it love or madness, Ruth was no one to judge their relationship.

She had no clue of what kind of bond they shared and who the man was. All she knew that Florence cared for him and what he did to her was wrong.

He should have at least give her a reason for his absence but he didn't. And that was unfair in Ruth's eyes.

"tell me, Ruth. What should I do to get him?"

The pleading and hopeful look in Florence's eyes churned Ruth's core. She didn't want to give her any false hopes but she also didn't want her to quit on the man she loved.

"Someone once told me that do what you like and not what others want you to do." Ruth repeated the same thing that once Florence told her when she was confused about accepting Thea's idea about her job at Mr Cooper's tailoring shop.

Florence blinked twice, letting her words sink in her heart and soul.

"You are right! I will get him because I want him!" Florence's eyes flashed with determination.

She gave a wide smile to Ruth and pulled her again in her embrace. "Thank you so much, Ruth! I am glad that I helped you that day. If not then I might have failed to get you as my friend. I will always keep this in my mind! Thank-"

Florence was disturbed when urgent knocks sounded on her door.

A bit annoyingly she turned to see who it was but a gasp of surprise left Ruth's mouth when she saw an awkwardly standing woman at the doorstep.

"Who are you?" Florence asked a bit coldly.

"Thea?"

*

*

*

After Fannie left Edwin's office, his mood was disturbed by the way she acted. Just because of his little attention to the ungrateful woman, she thought that she could stand in front of him?!

'Someone needs to learn a good lesson it seems.'

"Master!" Rees's voice brought Edwin back from his thoughts.

Losing a will to drink the tea, Edwin put the white porcelain cup down on the table a bit harshly that made the tea spill on his table. That only infuriated him further but this was not the time to think about it.

Inhaling a deep breath to control his irritation, Edwin stood up from the chair and walked to the bookshelf on his left.

"I am listening Rees."

"We have caught the flower seller that our suspect went to meet that day. It is a young boy." Rees informed.

The suspect that Rees had his eyes on went to buy tulips one day after not stepping outside of his house for days. His wish to buy flowers out of the blue spiked Rees's suspicion. And after Edwin's permission, he instructed his men to find that flower seller.

And after a couple of days of search, they had finally found him.

"Have you questioned him?"

"Yes, Master! The boy told that he was ordered to go to that place at the same time and day. He was told that a man will come and ask for a bunch of flowers but he will not mention which kind of flowers he wants.

He will only say that give me the flowers that bloom in this season and then the boy should give him a bunch of tulips."

Edwin's straight brows scrunched in the middle. "But this is not a season when the tulips blooms."

"Exactly, Master. It was some kind of a code. He was given tulips in specific because it means something in particular. But we are yet to figure out what it is."

"Did that boy told anything else? Who instructed him to do the task or has he seen anyone's face or anything?" Edwin again took his place in the chair, his mind running faster than horses.

"Unfortunately, he doesn't know anything. No one came to meet him. He went into the woods with his woodcutter father to help him when someone left a note with instructions, a bunch of tulips and a pouch full of gold coins."

Edwin cursed loudly in frustration. Whoever this person was behind the five deaths in the woods was always a step ahead of Edwin. The person had everything planned meticulously.

And even if Edwin had a brief idea about who the culprit was, he needed some solid proof and a strong plan of retaliation. And before all that he had to save his family's name from getting downgraded in front of the world and the Council.

"Master, I will take your leave now.. I am sure that we will find this secret code soon and our men are on the suspect's watch without fail."