Farm Life

Lilly had finally familiarized herself with these males… and from the eyes that continued to settle upon her, she could have her pick. But, being the devilish girl she was, wanted to experience those all a little bit first. Turning her attention back to Adam when she was questioned, Lilly brightened her smile, and responded with honey in her voice. “Oh me? Well, I’ve traveled throughout much of Europe with my schooling. It’s a wonderful institution; you must come visit me sometime in the fall.” She cooed to him, watching his eyes glimmer with excitement from the invitation. If he were to come, which she doubted… her eyes grazed over his solid frame. Yes, if he did, it surely would not be too terrible.

Lilly’s eyes then turned down to dirk, who was conversing quietly with his elder cousin, the ever mysterious Eric. Her eyebrows rose slightly. Indeed, he was by far the handsomest brother, though not yet rivaling Dirk in attractiveness. She smiled down to the end of the table, and catching Eric’s eye for a moment, she was surprised to feel herself blush somewhat. His eyes were some of the most intense she had ever felt lay upon her. She turned away from him, but by and by, she felt a little plan formulating in her head.

Eventually the table was cleared, and everyone moved to other parts of the house. Some to sleep, some to sit in the living room, Lilly decided to follow Eric, more in inquisitiveness than anything, for the moment anyway. He had made his way out to the back porch. The hot day had turned into a warm and silent night, with only the chorus of the grasshoppers to greet her when she arrived outside. Breathing in deeply of the fresh air, she turned her head to Eric, whom had seated himself in one of the deck chairs.

“Hello.” She said gently, pulling at the sides of her lovely dress in a curtsey, rising to greet those intense eyes with some difficulty. “I don’t believe I’ve had the pleasure… you are Eric, yes?” Lilly sat herself on the edge of the deck chair nearest him, and resting her elbows on her knees, her small face in those dainty hands. The positioning poised her breasts perfectly, which she knew all too well, smiling innocently up to him.





The silent giant did not respond immediately, acknowledging Lilly’s presence with an indistinguishable nod, before returning his attention to the pipe he had been stuffing full of the rich, cinnamon tobacco imported from the distant Caribbean islands, and the Southern States of the U.S.A. Drawing a box of matches from his front pocket, Eric scratched one of the sulpharic tips against the five ‘o clock shadow of his chin, watching the chemical substance spark and hiss to life, then applying the flickering flame to the basin of his smoking utensil. Blue tendrils gushed from the male’s nose, rising into the warm, night air, as inscrutable and necromantic as the very man who was creating them. “Yes.” He replied shortly, in a voice which invoked memories of the roaring ebb and flow of the English channel, off the coast of Cornwall. The silence could almost have been described as part of his speech, so seldom did he utter a word. And his presence was so intangibly domineering, it was stifling, yet, bizarrely, in a comforting way. Minimal clues were distributed through Eric’s body language on whether Lilly interested him or not. Occasionally, he would glance sideways at her whilst inhaling manfully on the stem of his tool, and sometimes, those vividly disturbing orbits would trespass over the revelatory thrust of her breasts, but little was there to suggest that she held any sort of spell over him.

After a good five minutes of pure silence, filled with the harmonic melody of the chirping desert crickets, the male finally opened up an alleyway of conversation with the inquisitive lady. “And you are Lilly.” He terminated the sentence he had commenced a good deal earlier, staring out into the clear night. “Fan of astronomy?” Eric poked his chin towards the sky. “Lady of your upbringing, should know a thing or two.” The gauntlet had been thrown, like a challenge. All of a sudden, the barren, cold manner in which he had been disregarding her, had shifted tremendously. Vivacious green orbs focused upon Lilly’s young, triangular face, gazing steadily at her.



Strangely enough for someone who had been so challenged by Dirk… Eric posed even more of a confrontation. She sat in silence, watching while he stuffed his pipe, lit it in a rather crude, but somehow arousing manner. She mutely bit her bottom lip. He was atrociously attractive, possibly rivaling dirk from her positioning at the moment. Her thoughts were however bluntly interrupted, and upon hearing his voice her attention was shifted intently upon him. But again, she was stalled with his silence for a long pause, until he spoke, again pulling her from devilish thoughts.

“Astronomy? Of course, I learned some with the great minds of Greece.” She said sweetly, though there was a smug smile on her lips as she spoke. Pulling herself to her feet, she looked up to the sky, trying to point out a more obscure constellation that she knew. Finding one she liked, her slim arm moved upward, a single digit pointing off into the inky sky.

“There… Orion… And my personal favorite, the Seven Sisters.” Her hand moved to another part of the sky, and then slipping back down to her side. “Which constellation is your favorite, Eric?” her voice seemed to caress his name on her lips as she walked forward, sitting on the arm of his deck chair while he puffed away continually on his pipe. Her eyes gazed upon him, and if he had even an inking of ingenuity about him, he could see the intent gaze which had been cast upon him, and the playful lust and curiosity which swirled about her eyes.

“You know what I like about stars, Eric?” She asked him, leaning closer on the arm of his chair, so her face was close enough to his to show her interest, but not too close to seem overbearing. “They look like little diamonds up there…. But these ones don’t cost a dime.” She giggled a bit, gazing back up to the blanket of darkness. “My father used to say that they were windows into heaven, and that all the angels were looking down upon us from them. I don’t know about that one.” She bit her bottom lip, looking to him again. “What do you think?” She poised another question to him, again egging him on to gaze upon her as she leaned forward on her chair. But, his gaze once again seemed to strike her back to that of a shy young girl, the moment those emerald escapes laid upon her she could feel that heat rising to her face, no matter how much she fought it. It was frustrating, the power he had over her, but at the same time, she enjoyed the amount of control something as simple as his presence had on her. So, deciding to go with the motion of things, she allowed her cheeks to flush up, and pulled herself back from him, gripping her hands together on her lap, looking up to the stars, and awaiting his answers, no matter the time they took.





The challenge had been accepted, and the rebuke instated, but it was impossible to read the impassive features on that captivating face, serene and unchanging as the windless atmosphere surrounding them. It was desperately warm, even without the presence of the almighty sun, as if a thick film of invisible dust was preventing the heat from releasing into the stratosphere. A lucid shine was perceptible on Eric’s strapping forearms, but he neither complained nor paid any attention to the muggy heat, his undivided attention now squarely upon the constellations which Lilly had pointed out proudly, puffing ponderously to himself. Again, the silence descended like a shroud, so that Lilly could feel her fingertips and toes tingling with the unwelcome infiltration of pins and needles, and it was many minutes before Eric deigned to open up again.

“Corona Borealis.” Came the reply suddenly, in that dismissive tone, replenishing the bowl full of tobacco and cracking it alight once again with a deft flick of the wrist on his pants. “Visible in the Northern Hemisphere during the spring and summer, and known in the common tongue in direct translation ‘The Northern Crown.’” When there was no affirmative answer from the young lady, Eric continued to speak, in that quietly, authoritative voice, much like that of a teacher, which commanded instant subservience. “The Northern Crown belonged to Ariadne, the daughter of King Minos of Crete. It was her ball of thread which allowed Theseus to escape the labyrinth after defeating the Minotaur, and it was he who donned her with that very crown when they wed. Poor girl…abandoned on the Greek island of Naxos by her husband…her crown was taken and elevated to the heavens by the Goddess Aphrodite.” In the short space of twenty seconds, Eric had uttered more words than he had ever articulated in Lilly’s presence before. His habit of either ignoring her totally or fixing her with the most radically unsettling stare she had ever witnessed, and wallowing in complete silence or swamping her with information appeared to be a common trait within the man. Then, no sooner had he finished his monologue, the tirade had ended, and the two of them were once again, thrust into silence.

“Ironic no? That she who was so intent upon saving the life of a man she hardly knew, but swore upon her father’s sacred life that he was the love of her life, ended up abandoned and unloved by the very man whose life she had saved. He had never wanted her…she had merely served as a pastime who had proved its worth in more ways than one.” Again, he paused ominously, allowing the sexual nature of his final words to stretch on into the night, indicating that he was perhaps not to be underestimated, that he was profoundly aware of the flirtatious inclinations of the lady. “The moral of the story?” his rumbling voice murmured, taking another draught of his pipe. “She ended up with the another man, Liber, and lived happily ever after.” A low chuckle escaped his lungs, chewing on the stem between his neat, white teeth, staring out into the dusky plains, as if he had just told a hilarious joke.



Lilly had never seen such a man before in her life. So strong in mind and in body, yet, even in his silence, displayed that he knew exactly what was going on in her little mind. The delicate string of Greek mythology he spun to her made lilly smile as he proved himself indeed a worthy match in the realms of astronomy, and even more in the areas of wit. Her Face lit up bright red when he articulated the story of Ariadne, ending with a sly but veiled quip on her intentions. She felt a desire to explode at him for his insinuations, but kept her mouth closed, merely smiling and laughing softly along with him, until silence took over their conversation.

“Its somewhat of a sad tale, however… The poor girl, having dedicated her life to a single man, only to have him turn around and abandon her… I pray nothing of the sort happens when I marry.” Her gaze turned to him in that moment, knowing what her phrase may mean to him, should he be interested in such things… she did not even know if he was courting someone already, but went on the whim that he was not, for her own benefit.

“To merely take her… as a play toy…” Lilly bit her bottom lip, playing on the moment for full effect. “Its every girl’s worst nightmare you know, Eric. To not be enough for your husband… so that he looks elsewhere… for comforting.” Lilly breathed a heavy sigh, before play forcing a smile on her lips. “But I’m sure someone as strong of mind like yourself would never fall victim to a pretty face if you were already giving your affections to another, would you?” The question was thrown up into the night sky, and ever so secretively, Lilly had allowed Eric a passage way in or out of her spiderweb. Much like the story he had told, she wasn’t about to attach herself to a man that wouldn’t bend over backwards to please her, and seeing the strong backbone which Eric had, a little affirmation of attraction was definitely needed. She bit her bottom lip when she imagined one such as Eric in more compromising positions… she could bet that he would leave no room for doubt when she was beneath him. Not revealing any of this however to Eric, despite her bottom lip being caught between her teeth, Lilly waited patiently for her fantasies to be confirmed.





Lilly was once again made to wait whilst her words were processed and digested within that enigmatic brain of his. The crickets had long ceased their symphony, their carapaces far too light for the crisper air settling in, giving way to the whirring opus of the black shelled cicadas. Yet, the temperature had still not abated by much; it would be difficult to sleep tonight, especially as the farmhouse was undoubtedly poorly insulated as it had not been constructed by professionals. Eric’s green orbits receded from their star-gazing, and resettled upon Lilly’s person, exploring her expression with, for the first time, perceptible interest, as if he were fathoming beyond the metaphoric interlacing the lady had woven before him, and was reading the genuine intentions beneath the façade. “Indeed…indeed…” he replied in a lower tone, responding in a manner that neither answered her query, nor allowed her any room to maneuver and reignite the underlying topic of discussion. Eric obviously had more to say, opening his mouth to continue into the reply Lilly was anticipating.

“Lovely night isn’t it!” a familiar voice shattered the nervous trepidation of the moment, the culprit stepping onto the paneled porch, and stretching his arms skywards. Both factions’ parents interrupted the party, as they joined the two teenagers under the canopy of stars.

“Quite.” Eric’s dad boomed in reply, patting his sizeable gut, now packed to bursting level by the delicious meal his wife had prepared over the course of the afternoon. “If I were young again, I would be making merry with the townsfolk, and marauding the local women.” He rumbled with a vulgar wink in the younger generation’s direction.

“I heard that you disgusting lout!” The discontented screech of his wife sailed out from the kitchen, to which he responded with a deliberate chuckle. “That woman is so easy to rile up…makes her all the more responsive at night.” The lewd commentary ensued, which ironically, tied directly back into the playful banter woven into Eric and Lilly’s discussion.

The former had fallen silent in the presence of the adults, puffing away on his cinnamon- stemmed pipe as if no interaction had even taken place between the two strangers; his regard was now aloof, disinterested, the moment had been lost, and Lilly only had her father to blame. Both gentlemen flopped into the comfortable, beech deckchairs, and began talking business, whilst sharing a brace of expensive Cuban cheroots. As they chattered away crudely, as men tend to, another silhouette ghosted from the bright interior, schlepping down the stoep, and ambling towards the training pen, where a feral creature stood haughtily, whinnying with aggravation as its tormentor approached to test him out once more.