A MAZE OF GREED

Thea's mind was lost for the rest of the day. She wanted to scream 'fuck you, old octopus!' at Mr Cooper and run behind Ruth. Only God knew how she stopped herself from doing that.

Her mind was troubled, and the headache was unbearable. The atmosphere in the shop remained tensed all day. No one talked amongst them, neither they laughed or gossiped like every day. Their faces were gloomy, heart saddened.

As soon as the clock hit the hour of six in the evening, Thea threw everything away and ran out of the shop like a madwoman. She did not know where Ruth was.

Then she remembered another thing. Zoe. Zoe was not there with Ruth. Thea expected her to be around the shop at least today, but she was not. What if one of Edwin's enemies followed Ruth or get to know about who she really was and what she meant for Edwin?

Thea's heart raced. She searched Ruth around before going to her home. After thirty minutes of search, when Thea was about to give up and head to Ruth's home, she found a woman sitting in a far corner of the garden where they used to sit whenever they had something on their mind.

Thea heaved a sigh of relief at the sight of Ruth, who was lost in her world of thoughts. Thea walked towards her while studying her. As she neared Ruth, she could tell how much the woman might have cried by looking at her red and puffy eyes.

Ruth, far away from the sense of her surroundings, did not notice her friend's arrival. Thea once glanced around, making sure that there was nothing or no one seemed suspicious.

In the evening shadows of the bushes, she saw Zoe not far away from where Ruth sat. So she was there watching her. Good!

Thea sat down beside Ruth, adjusting her dress. She did not know how to catch her attention, so she called only her name.

"Ruth?"

Ruth snapped out of the daze and blinked a couple of times.

"Thea?"

Ruth felt emotional, the flood of emotions crashed, roaring loud. But no tears came out of her eyes as she had emptied her tear ducts long ago.

"I... I am so sorry Ruth!" Thea finally said, not knowing what else she should say.

"I wish I could say it is okay. But I can not. Please do not apologise. You have done nothing wrong." Ruth said with a lack of emotions in her voice.

After hours of pondering and mulling over the same things, she had become numb.

"I should have done something. Anything!" Thea insisted.

Ruth shook her head then smiled, the smile that did not reach her eyes.

"You have done enough Thea. I do not want to trouble you more. I saw how Mr Cooper reprimanded you after. I felt bad."

Hearing the old man's name flipped Thea's mood instantly. "That old bull! I am not going to work for him anymore! I will discuss with my parents and tell him to take his job and shove it up his a-"

"Thea!"

Ruth warned, and that made Thea not complete her choices of words.

Thea sighed then turned silent. A minute passed in the same silence, and neither of them bothered to break it. They watched the sky turning pretty shades of pink, blue and purple. The flocks of birds flew above in the sky, chirping and flapping their wings to return back to their nests.

"What are you going to do now?" Thea asked.

"I will find another job." Came Ruth's answer.

She had thought about it the whole day. She could not sit and cry over the loss. She needed money, and for that, she needed to find a job.

Thea fidgeted with her fingers, then strike the topic she was anticipating for.

"How about Rees's suggestion? They still have not found any suitable maid for Lady Elsie. If you want I can-"

"No!"

"No?"

"No! Thea I have already told you that I do not want to work anywhere near that man. I am sure I will find some way soon. Till then, do not say a word to Mrs Payne.

Her health is already not well, and I do not want her to worry about me."

"But Ruth-"

"Please Thea! Trust me I will find something suitable for me. Please do this for me, please!" Ruth requested with puppy eyes that Thea could not ignore.

She wanted to push the topic of working in 'the great manor' further but refrained herself from doing that. Ruth was in no state of handling it, and Thea did not want to add in her friend's misery.

"Fine! But keep the offer in mind if nothing works, okay?"

Ruth nodded her head.

They spent some more minutes in silence, and when the Sun set behind the horizon, Thea stood up.

"I will get Zoe. She is sleeping there." Thea pointed to the black and white cat that slept peacefully at the foot of the bushes.

Ruth nodded, then turned her head in the other direction, her mind still on work.

Thea did not like Zoe at all. And the fact that she was a supernatural creature at least a century old, made her more apprehensive towards her.

"Come on kitty, wake up!" Thea shook Zoe.

Zoe also for some reason, did not like Thea and enjoyed annoying her. She hissed at her for waking her up from sleep.

Furrowing her brows, Thea hissed in return. "Do not behave that way with me. Princess or not, you are just a cat and can not intimidate me. So stop fussing and get up. We need to get back home."

Zoe narrowed her eyes at Thea and moved her front leg aggressively with an intent to scratch Thea's face, but now familiar with her tactics, Thea moved back on the right time.

"I told you!" She smirked at Zoe.

Zoe growled and hissed some more, then made a mental note to teach Thea a lesson afterwards. She stood up on her four and yawned. Then she remembered something.

She mewed, moving her head to the right. Thea did not understand at first as she kept giving incredulous looks to the cat.

Zoe rolled her eyes then said, "You dumb human. Your lover is waiting for you there."

Thea's eyes widened in surprise. "You... you can speak?"

"Of course, I can. I just choose to not compete with your loosely running mouths. I have better standards than that."

Zoe scoffed as if humans were the most foolish animals on the earth. Leaving back a fuming Thea, Zoe sprinted to Ruth.

Ruth scratched Zoe's neck, smiling. Thea moved her head to the right to see a tall and muscular man watching her. He had hidden him well behind the tree, yet Thea recognised him instantly.

She nodded her head as a signal then went back to Ruth.

"Ruth I just recalled my mother told me to get something from the market. It will take time... so..." Thea rubbed her arm uneasily with the same uneasy smile.

"Oh, okay. Sure... umm bye then." Ruth said while getting up from the ground.

"I will see you in the morning?" Thea asked.

Ruth smiled. "yes. I will leave from home at the regular time so not to make Mrs Payne suspicious."

"Hmm"

They bid their goodbyes and parted their ways. Thea watched Ruth walking away with Zoe by her side. Her shoulders slumped in defeat.

But she knew her friend well. She was a fighter. She would never give up!

Releasing a sigh, Thea walked to the tree where the man was waiting for her.

As soon as she reached there, he pulled her into a hug. They stood away from the eyes of the people in the garden and thus had some privacy.

Thea did not object and relaxed in his arms. The tears she had been holding the whole day came running down her face.

"Come on."

Rees whispered in her ear. They walked in the direction of the woods, leaving the garden behind.

Thea was silent throughout the way and tried hard to not think about the day. Rees also did not pry into her mind, for he was not sure if he could bear revisiting the things that had happened today.

Reaching the woods, Rees picked Thea up and placed her on a thick branch of the tree, where he could have her to his eye level.

Some moments went in silence.

Thea deliberately let Rees reach her mind. She felt him trying to reach her when she did not say a word for long. She did not know how to explain it all, so she chose the simplest way.

All her memories of the day ran in Rees's mind. And when he was done reading it, his heartbeat was in pain and guilt. He could not control his anger when he saw Mr Cooper throwing Ruth out of the shop. The way the two women mocked her, Mrs Linlithgow's hurtful words and Ruth's innocent eyes, pleading desperately- it all made him sick in his stomach.

"I... I am sorry you had to do that Thea."

He croaked with a strained voice.

Thea paused, then lifted her head to meet his brown eyes.

"It was not me Rees.. I did not ruin that dress."