After they settled in, Natalie and Michael began working together in the garden and greenhouse, which they both enjoyed. They soon had it working at full capacity. Something that Natalie couldn't do on her own. Michael was able to get seeds of rare flowers which they grew in the greenhouse and sold to our neighbors. Their customers liked this because they didn't have to take the long drive to town. The newly weds did research as to where they could get new interesting varieties to make it different for the customers on each visit.

So. I was doing the books, housekeeping, baking, canning and making the trips to town all by myself. Aggie and Henry, being their usual selfish selves, didn't think to ask to help.

On one of these trips there was a tall, blond, athletically built man, who introduced
himself as Gunthar, who asked if he could help my unload my car. I agreed, thanked him, and introduced myself as Miriam. After that he was always at the stores that I visited. I thought he worked at one of those stores. I found out by speaking to my customers that
he was an up-and-coming member of the town council. Some thought he had a crush on me since he always helped me unload my car. He even bought one of my pies and raved about it to all the customers. I was starting to believe that gossip about the crush.

After a few weeks he finally got the nerve to ask me out. I told Aggie and Henry about it and they wanted to meet him. He said he was free on the night Aggie set aside and came to dinner. At this meeting he was the soul of politeness and charm.

A week later we had our first date which was dinner at the town's best restaurant.
We had a nice steak dinner paired with some of the establishment's best red wine. He seemed to know everyone there. We were seated at the best table which was a new experience for me. It became one of our favorite places to go if he didn't feel like cooking himself. I was surprised he was as a good as a cook I was.

Every time I came to sell, he helped me unpack my car and acted as my adman.
He often raved about my pies and told all who would listen that my items were
the best they could buy. It almost sounded like political rhetoric. Everyone seemed to like him but I did see something flicker in their eyes I couldn't understand, so I ignored it.

He quickly rose to power in the town government and bought a house at which
he barbecued out on some of our summer dates. We couldn't do this at his flat.

Natalie started to come to town once a month to sell some of her new
cross-bred flowers and buy special nutrients and fertilizers. On these trips she met
Gunthar.

At first, Natalie was happy for me and thought it was a good match. She began
noticing that look I chose to ignore. Since she saw I was not paying attention to it,
she decided to interrogate the townspeople when she came to town with me. She
warned me that some said he had a bad temper and a vengeful streak. Since I had
seen nothing of that, I chose to believe he had changed.

Natalie's actions gave me some proof that there was some true caring for me
within my family. Aggie and Henry seemed glad I was going to town more often
now. The weeks I didn't sell or trade, I was on a date with Gunthar.

Soon my siblings returned to form, complaining that I wasn't keeping up with
my duties. Which was patently untrue. In fact, it was just the opposite. The books
showed there was less milk in each of my last few trips. When I asked Aggie about
it, she said that the goat had stopped giving milk so she had started taking in more
seamstress work. I checked the output of her work and this seemed to be true. It
is sad that I didn't trust her enough to believe her without checking.

One day as I was walking to check on the work in the greenhouse, I heard
the goat braying and heard no reaction to it. I checked on the goat and found
that its udders were swollen and leaking. So, I confronted Aggie. She was ignoring
the goat. I told her that not milking the goat was mistreating it and could make it sick.
This seemed to make her angry, not apologetic.

It also seemed that despite the help of Michael and a hired hand in the field that
the harvest wasn't producing as much. Henry blamed it on dry weather and bad seed,
which I knew wasn't the case.

Neither of them would think of blaming themselves. So, I warned them that if
they didn't get back up to normal production soon, I would move to Gunthar's and
they would have to take over my duties too.

Instead of getting better, things got worse. Soon I had to add milking the goat
to my duties and making sure we always got the best seed.

After a month of this, I called my siblings to a meeting and informed them
I was moving to Gunthar's next week. Of course, I had ok'd this with him before
giving this ultimatum. His face seemed to glow with the thought of my living with him.

Natalie didn't take this news as well as I thought she would. She said she found
he townspeople were becoming leery of the power Gunthar was amassing in the town.
She also said that his most recent ex-girlfriend said she left him because he had a
hot temper and at times became verbally abusive.

Of course, being blinded by what I thought was love and tired of being taken advantage of, I ignored her warnings and moved out with all of my meager belongings.