The Golden Desires
~~ The Golden Desires: Book One ~~
ANN M PRATLEY
Copyright © 2016 Ann M Pratley
All rights reserved.
Special Thanks to
Damsels in Design
who provided such a wonderfully beautiful cover. For more about this incredible designer please refer to the final page of 'The Golden Desires' and visit:
http://www.damselindesign.com.au
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1 ~ THE BRICKS AND MORTAR
2 ~ THE INNER SANCTUARY
3 ~ THE JOURNEY
4 ~ THE TEST OF A FRIENDSHIP
5 ~ THE NEARING
6 ~ THE DREAM
7 ~ THE ARRIVAL
8 ~ THE STRANGER
9 ~ THE DISCOVERY
10 ~ THE FINAL CHAPTER
THANK YOU!
BONUS EXTRACT: TOTAL FREEDOM
UPCOMING RELEASE: TOTAL NEW BEGINNINGS
INTRODUCING: CRUISING THROUGH TO FULFILMENT
INTRODUCING: PAINFUL DELIVERANCE
INTRODUCING: DARKNESS OF HEART
INTRODUCING: FRIENDSHIP OF DESIRE
INTRODUCING: ALESSANDRA
BONUS EXTRACT: DRAB TO SEX GODDESS IN 365 DAYS
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Special Thanks to the Incredible Cover Designer for 'The Golden Desires'
1 ~ THE BRICKS AND MORTAR
From a great distance it could be seen as a silhouette that should have immediately commanded attention. Vast and high, located and stretching across the broad horizon line of a long mountain range, the shape of the structure looked like it might be a castle, built hundreds - maybe thousands - of years ago. A structure constructed to house reigning monarchs and their hoards of higher and lower class minions. For this reason it might have been regarded as somewhere that attracted people from far and wide, but to this place no-one ever came. No-one from outside, that is.
If anyone had ever seen and found curiosity about the structure, the closer they got, the more the grey brick would have become visible, as would the strength of its walls and an indication of the many hundreds of years they had stood.
But it was cold - too cold for outsiders to venture toward. The mountain range was its protection. A place where no-one ever endeavoured to go. Indeed, for the most part, the structure was long ago forgotten and now unheard of to the known world, located in an area that people saw no need whatsoever to ever go near.
To the people of our time and world, it was a wasteland and a wilderness. There would be nothing of value there and it could not be habitable in such extreme temperatures. It must have been built in a different time … in a different climate.
So no-one of the present world gave it a thought. The people who had built it must have been long dead, and the story of the structure must have died with them.
After all, if they had still been alive, they would have been ancient.
2 ~ THE INNER SANCTUARY
Isabella set off for her morning chore of taking her large basket to gather eggs from the chickens and deliver them safely to the kitchen. Being a kitchen that served more than 2,000 people, it was a place that bustled all day and all night, having workers coming and going throughout all hours in a well oiled gear of order that had worked for hundreds of years. It was the heart of the sanctuary - the place that kept the habitants fed and healthy.
No sickness had come to the small township for as long as anyone could remember. No-one ever questioned why they did not get sick - it had simply just always been the way for the people who currently resided there. They did not question why no-one ever got ill, simply because they had no idea what illness was.
Around her, Isabella saw so many faces that she had known since the day she had been born. Always the same faces, day after day. Some her age, some younger, and many older. They were a constancy in her life, as was the daily routine of each and every one of them.
She had a restlessness inside of her - she always had. But she knew the rules. It was forbidden to go even near the outer walls, she knew, let alone try and leave via the tall wooden gates that stood high against the sky backdrop.
No-one had ever told her why she must never go near the walls or the village gates. And sometimes she wondered if anyone did actually know why it was forbidden at all, or if generation after generation simply accepted the rules and never questioned them.
Now 21 years of age, Isabella had grown into a similar young woman as any other 21 year old in the township's population. Her only real exception was the colour of her hair, which was not as light as half of the residents, nor as dark as the other half of the residents. She did not even know what colour to name it, but had heard others refer to it as the colour of a dark flame. That description she had never understood since all flames she had seen were more like a yellow than the reddish tone of her hair, but perhaps the elders and the ancients knew of a dark flame that was different.
In everything, the elders and ancients knew most and knew best. How many years they had lived in their lives no-one knew. But they were old enough to live separately from the rest of the community. They resided in the large temple that stood majestically in the centre of the village. Constructed of stone with writing and messages on the front of it, Isabella often stopped and looked at it on her daily rounds. Nothing about it ever changed but now and then she felt herself drawn to it, as if it were calling to her. Just her.
~~~~~
"Good morning, Miss Isabella!" she heard Cook Joan call out to her as she entered the broad kitchen area, making Isabella smile at the vision before her.
Always - every single morning - Cook Joan was a sight to see, most often with flour through her hair, and her hair in a mess around her face, the greying hair looking sometimes more like a nest the chickens built for themselves, rather than how Isabella was sure it should look. In addition, it was always a pleasant surprise to see which colours and shapes she would see on the cook's apron.
"Hmm … must be something with tomatoes today, I am guessing?" Isabella teased the older woman before her, having made the judgement purely by the red colour and scattering of small yellow seeds that seemed to be ground into the apron in front of her.
Cook Joan laughed heartily and out loud, throwing her head back as she did so, and Isabella could see the cook's whole body shaking with laughter.
"Oh Miss Isabella, how well you know me by now! Yes today for lunch we shall have a slow roasted tomato rice pie. Oh it is going to be…" she said before delivering a wide gesture with her hands to indicate an impression of magnificence. "Oh, make sure you get some early because it will disappear quickly today!"
Isabella laughed at the cook. Every day she came up with new and adventurous ways to use the spoils of the fields and orchard within the village. But even though it appeared to be some kind of magic on her part, every day she did produce something delicious. Never were there any complaints about the meals that were cooked by Cook Joan, or any of the many other cooks that worked as hard as she did.
"Well, here are your eggs. Is there anything else you would like me to gather for you this morning?" Isabella asked, as was always her way at this time every single day.
"Oh, now let me think…" Cook Joan replied, going into her thoughtful pose, chin resting on her hand, which in turn belonged to the arm that connected the elbow that rested on her other hand. "Oh, yes! Please, Miss Isabella, if you would be so kind. Could you go and harvest for me some basil - just a large handful will be sufficient - and a small amount of oregano. Only two or three sprigs of that will do."
Isabella waited a few moments longer, as she knew that often there was an afterthought coming…
"Oh! Wait, and if there are any ripe, half a dozen apple
s. Only if they are red, mind you - the green ones are not as sweet. If there are no red ones, then do not worry, just leave them on the tree and I shall use them another day."
Isabella nodded and smiled at the older woman.
"Very well, Cook Joan. I shall return shortly with your gifts," she said with a teasing sound in her voice, making the cook laugh at her once again.
~~~~~
Once out of the kitchen, Isabella walked quietly toward the garden and orchard area, on the way being met by her friend Adrian.
"Isabella! Wait!" she heard him call and then saw him running toward her, his usual broad smile gracing his face.
She watched him, smiling, as he caught his breath.
"You know you never have to run after me, Adrian. Even on these days where you have slept in and missed breakfast, you know that I would gladly wait for you," she said to him, teasing him and making him blush slightly in the process as they began their routine walk together.
"Well I know you keep saying that but if I didn't run you might not stop and wait for me. And then where would I be? My morning would be ruined, for it is seeing your beauty that puts such a smile on my face first thing, and stays in the forefront of my mind all day long, until I can go to bed at night, dreaming of your lovely face," he ran off in dialogue to her, making her laugh out loud.
"Oh, Adrian, stop it!" she said, laughing hard with and at him. "You do talk such nonsense!"
"Ahh but see how successful I am in putting such a smile on your face. That is reward enough to me for delivering such creative poetry to you each and every morning, my beautiful Isabella."
She looked at him and saw the all too familiar cheeky grin that he sported. The two of them had grown up together, as had everyone their age. In such a closely knitted and guarded community, everyone was familiar with everyone. As far as they knew, it was as it always had been for centuries, and seemed to work in keeping everyone tranquil and easy with one another.
"Now then, how are your mother and father this morning?" she asked him, knowing he always had something fun to report to her. "And your sisters?"
"Oh dear, my sisters. Well! Little Mary this morning fell and hurt her little knees, causing great mayhem and noise in our home. I don't know why she keeps tripping over her own feet, but she seems to do it excessively!" he started, watching Isabella's face break out into a further smile. "But other than that, nothing has changed from yesterday, or the day before…"
Isabella looked closely at her friend, hearing melancholy in his voice.
"Would you prefer your family was always in vexation?"
"No! Oh, no, of course not. But, Isabella, don't you ever wish that there was change. That something would change?"
The two of them had talked about the same conversation many times, but each time she felt a slight concern for him when he brought the subject up. She too felt the yearnings for something different to happen, but she would never be verbal about it, even to the good friend standing before her. She had been raised to appreciate everything she had, and no matter the level of turmoil she sometimes felt inside, she was committed to keeping it inside.
"Adrian, I am happy. I love being here," she said, waving one hand around to indicate she meant the entire village. "I love my family. I love all the people I come in contact with every day. And I love…" She paused, making him look closer at her. "I love having you as my friend. No, I am happy enough and I don't need anything more."
He was quiet for a few minutes, which was not necessarily normal for him, but he found more and more that on occasion he needed to quieten his mind and the best way to do that was to quieten his speech.
"Very well, Isabella. We shall not talk of this again today. So tell me, what things are you seeking today in the gardens?" he asked, veering the conversation to a much safer subject.
"Well, Cook Joan wants me to get some basil and some red apples - not green! - and something else. I shall remember when I get there…"
He laughed at her. Almost every day she forgot one thing that was asked of her, and to him it was an ongoing joke that made him feel both greatly affectionate toward her, and exasperated with her, due to her determination to always just remember things and never write them down in any way.
Finally they approached the fork in the path that would take Adrian down to his workstation for the day - the grain mill - while Isabella would head down the other path to the garden and orchard.
"Can I see you later?" he asked her, stopping and facing her.
"Of course. I will see you at dinner…"
"No. I mean after dinner. Can we spend some time together … tonight?"
Isabella smiled at him with her usual friendly and relaxed smile, while nodding at him in reassurance.
"Of course. Have dinner with me and we can go on from there."
He smiled broadly at her and then turned and started to walk away, turning once to give her another smile and a wave.
Isabella turned and continued down her chosen path for the moment, in deep thought about Adrian. She saw so many people every day and knew the names of so many in the village, and yet he always seemed to be the only one who ever questioned their existence in the way that he did. He was happy-natured and yet sometimes just so … discontent. And she did not know how he had come to be like that - so different from everyone else. Even though she herself felt like that at times, she had long ago recognised that there was a different degree of it deep inside of Adrian.
~~~~~
Finally Isabella reached her destination. As she entered the small iron gate she was immediately greeted by a wide plethora of sights and scents. In this first section of the wide open space in front of her, vegetables were laid out in strict rows that from a distance looked absolutely perfectly straight, although whenever she got closer she recognised there was a far more relaxed imperfection about the garden.
The vegetable and herb growing area was vast, as it needed to be to feed so many people, and always when she entered the area she could see a healthy amount of people working away - some weeding, some planting, some watering.
"Good morning, Isabella," someone or other would yell out to her and she would cordially greet them in return with a smile on her face.
She was always envious of the people who worked in the gardens. They were there because they truly loved it, and gained so much satisfaction from it. Just like Cook Joan gained so much joy from working in the village kitchen. Just like the clothier found so much happiness in making his creations. Just like the blacksmith working with metal in repairing and making things for others. People around her just seemed to know what they wanted to do in their lives - for their whole lives - and then they started doing it, learning from the elders of their trade and then becoming elders of the trade themselves.
At 21 years old, she too should by now have established herself into some trade or other, but instead she seemed to have fallen into a role of assistant to a great number of people, all of different trades and stations. It wasn't the way things were meant to be, and yet she did love it as it meant that she drifted all day long, fetching this for this person, and that for that person. It was a nice way to spend her time even though she knew her mother wished for her to pair up with someone and start a family, to help contribute to the ongoing survival of the community. But even in that she was uncertain. She knew everyone so well that all the men her age were her friends, and that made it difficult to determine who would be the best pairing partner, or the best father for her children. How was one to make such a choice?
~~~~~
"Adrian," she said, smiling as her friend sat beside her at her dinner table that evening. "How was the mill today?"
Adrian looked less than his usual cheerful self as he looked at her intently and then grabbed a bread roll from the basket set before them on the long wooden table.
"The mill has not been so good today, Isabella. It is the time of year when there is less water flowing from the mountain, which causes the water whee
l to slow down, and in turn slows down milling of the grains. But it is still working well enough - we have a good store of grain to see us through times like this, but it is hard at this time of year. It certainly makes for a long day with everything moving so much slower in the mill!"
Having already eaten as much as she could, Isabella watched him as he indulged in his food. He was always so open about his work, and she loved hearing him talk about it. She got on with everyone but having no trade of her own she enjoyed hearing about all the workings of the village through everyone else.
Adrian felt her staring and turned to face her, stopping his chewing when he saw how attentive she was being.
"Do I have food on my face?" he finally asked her once he had swallowed, with a very distinct glint of amusement in his eyes. "Or perhaps grown a third eye? A second nose?"
Isabella laughed at him and shook her head.
"Silly boy."
They laughed together softly as two companions would. They were so comfortable with each other. Everyone in the village was comfortable with each other but she knew that her friendship with Adrian was closer than some.
"But how was your day?" he asked her. "Did you find the perfect apple? One that was only red, but not green?"
"I did find some perfect apples for the cook…" she said and her voice tapered off slightly, making Adrian almost anticipate what she was going to say next, since he had heard this all so many times. "Although I did forget the oregano and Cook Joan did tell me off for that."
He laughed out loud at her. It was the same thing, day after day, but this was one thing he really did never tire of … hearing which item she forgot on any given day. It amused him immensely and he had almost come to look forward to dinner times just so he could hear the latest episode of 'the forgotten'.
Isabella watched him as he finished up his meal and the two of them automatically stood and took their dishes to the wash station to wash, rinse, dry off and put away on the large table set up for the purpose.
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