The Heart of Love

Poor young man falls in love with rich girl.
He had been walking for days. Anthony was running away from his father who was a drunkard. Anthony had bruises and scars all over his body and some of them still hurt. His father hit him and his mother all the time, when he was drunk.
Anthony sat down on a bench that was nearby. The bench felt very hard to Anthony. That night Anthony slept on the bench. The next afternoon Anthony was feeling rather hungry.
To make himself feel better, he was thinking of a turkey dinner, but he only succeeded in making himself feel hungrier. Anthony saw across the grass some people having a picnic. His mouth watered at all that food. He wished he could get some of that delicious food. A girl saw him staring at the food. She came over and gave him her sandwich. 
The girl asked him his name. Anthony told her. Anthony asked the girl her name. The girl told him her name was Charlotte. Anthony asked Charlotte where he could find a job near her house. Go over there and ask the coach man. She pointed to where the coach was waiting.
Anthony could tell Charlotte didn’t want to go but she ran back to where her parents and her fiancée were waiting.
Anthony wandered over to the coach that Charlotte and her family and her fiancée had come in. Anthony asked the coachman if there was a job for him near Charlotte’s family house. The coachman said there was a job in the stable for him.
      “Where is the house?” Anthony asked the coachman.
      “Over the hill, on the right,” said the coachman. “You can follow the carriage, if you can keep up,” he added.
         When Charlotte and her fiancée and her family left, Anthony tried running after the carriage. Soon the carriage was out of Anthony’s sight. Anthony kept on running for awhile until he got a stitch in his side and blisters on his feet. He slowed down to a walk. His feet hurt every time he put them down on the cobbled street.
Slowly he walked to the barn and went in. The hay under his feet felt good.
A man came up to him and asked, “What are you doing here?”
“I came here to see about a job I heard about.”
         “You will be working with the horses,” said the man.
Anthony followed the man into a stall.
“This is Harry, said the man, “you will be working together.”
The next day when Anthony was putting down hay in the stall, Charlotte walked in and went up to the man.
While he was working, Charlotte came in and told him he was coming riding with her. Anthony followed Charlotte out of the stall. He climbed up on the horse that was waiting for him. The mane of the horse felt scratchy to his touch. They rode through the beautiful country side. They stopped near a grove of trees. Charlotte got off the horse and lay down in the lush grass, leaving Anthony to cobble the horses. Then he sat down in the grass next to Charlotte.
“Why did you agree to go with me?” asked Charlotte.
“Because you told me to,” answer Anthony, “because I love you.”
Then they kissed.
After Charlotte and Anthony went riding Charlotte went back in the house and Anthony got back to work. While he was working the man came up. The man waited for him to lift his head.
When Anthony looked up, the man said, “I am going to tell Charlotte’s fiancé, Jim about this.”
The man then walked off and Anthony got back to work. While he was working he thought, why, would the man tell Jim I have been riding with Charlotte? I am not afraid of him.
Just then the man rushed in and dragged him out by the collar. Anthony was so surprised; he dropped the brush he was brushing one of the horses with. The man threw him down in front of all the stable hands.
“Let this be a lesson to all of you,” the man boomed.
As the whip came down on Anthony’s back, he was thinking this isn’t so bad. He winced.
         After the whipping, Harry helped him back to his quarters.
         That night Anthony wounds began to mend. Early in the morning Harry shook him awake.
         “I think someone is trying to kill you,” said Harry, “you’d better get out of here.”
         Anthony was walking down the centre of the barn between the stalls. He was almost at the end of the barn when the man grabbed his arm. Anthony yanked his arm out of the man’s grasp and continued walking down the centre of the barn.
         He walked to Charlotte’s window which was on the third floor. Anthony started throwing stones at the window to wake Charlotte up. Soon Charlotte opened the window and stared down at Anthony.
         “What are you doing here?” Charlotte yelled at Anthony.
         “Come with me,” Anthony yelled back.
         Charlotte disappeared from her window. A moment later, Anthony heard the patter of feet on the cobble stone courtyard. She then was beside him.
         “Come with me,” Anthony said again, this time in a softer more gentle voice.
         “Yes, yes, I will come with you,” said Charlotte, “I’m tiered of my old life.” “I want some adventure.”
         Anthony and Charlotte walked down the road out of site of the house.