The Prize Rules

***

I think that many odd loves were built in war-torn Europe. I don't have numbers or anything to back up my feeling, but I think it happened more often there than it did in other theatres of that global conflict.

If I'm right, then they were sorely needed as tiny bright spots in a very dark time.

It might have said something about me that it took me a couple of years to notice the accent in a friend's mother's speech. I'd just never stopped to think about it.

A war bride. Go figure.

Anyway, the time flips around in this as it did in the last chapter and I've marked it with the dates to keep you on track.

Words in this ...

Kapitänleutnant – translates to 'Captain lieutenant', and pronounced as Kapiteyn-loytnant, or 'Kaleun' (Ka-loyn) for short.

0_o

***

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1945 The Caribbean Sea

The girl woke up the seventh morning or so and found the woman sitting at the small desk, poring over a booklet with a strange-looking object in her hands. The printing was small and after reading a little and then looking at the object, she'd lose her place and need to backtrack for a moment. Of course by then, she might have forgotten just what feature that she was reading about and ...

"What is that, Mama?"

The woman smiled back over her shoulder, "I think that it's something that's used to make a person feel a little dumb."

She grinned then, "Oh, you mean this thing? It's a camera. It belongs to your father and he asked me to bring it with us. He really wants pictures of us. I think that he is hoping that if we send him some, it will help the time pass a little more easily. I think we can manage that, but this is a serious camera, meant for serious photographers. The instructions are making me dizzy."

She set it aside and stood up, "I have a better idea. Let's get some breakfast. Are you hungry?"

It was a slightly rhetorical question as it turned out and soon, the two adventurers were in the dining room. "I think we ought to see what they have in a more 'touristy' style of camera at the ship's store. I think that we just need one of those Kodak cameras."

"What do you mean?" the girl asked.

The woman looked at the girl, "Well, taking really good pictures is something that you can learn and practice at over your whole life. But most people don't need or want all of that trouble. They only want to be able to take pictures. Some companies know this and make cameras like that. And those ones are a lot cheaper and, I'd hope that they're easier to use than that one."

The clerk behind the counter that morning happened to be someone who enjoyed photography himself and he stared a little once he'd heard the request.

"It's a what?" he asked, "A Leica? They're excellent cameras, but I can see why you might be having trouble."

The woman fished the camera out of her bag and set it down on the counter along with the instructions.

"Throw that instruction booklet back in with your luggage, Madam," he grinned a little, "The Leitz company is far better at making cameras than they are at writing instructions. Before the war, I used to think that the instructions were a nasty German plot to cause all of the photographers in the world to lose their minds in frustration. I can have you taking good pictures with this in a few minutes."

Like a lot of people who know a great deal about their own personal passion, the clerk had to remind himself not to overwhelm the woman. He could see that she wasn't an idiot, but he also knew about those instruction booklets. His personal belief was that the workings of the atomic bomb were likely far easier understood than the damned instructions.

So he didn't sell the woman another camera that morning.

Instead, he sold her a couple of rolls of film and using one of the same cameras that he had in stock, he taught her how to load her camera with film.

"There's a roll of film in it already with about twenty shots gone," he said, "If you like, since the sun is being cooperative this morning, why not just stand and pose with your little girl there and I can finish the roll for you and let you load another? You could get pictures with the two of you in them."

It happened just that way and the woman also bought her daughter a little bag of peppermints, since she'd been so patient. As well, she bought them each a pair of inexpensive sunglasses which were made of a new material known as plastic.

"We can pretend to be movie stars," she joked to the girl, but that only got her questions and she knew then that the girl had never seen a movie before.

"Well I'll fix that," she smiled, "As soon as there's a movie that I think that we'd like to see, I'll take you to the theatre in Port of Spain."

Over the next couple of days, she shot her way through one of the rolls of film.

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1937 Caribbean Sea

Their next evening was the start of it.

Without either of them meaning to or having a plan in that regard, they both felt something between them as they ate dinner early together. There was a bit of a dance put on for the evening, and they'd been careful about it as they'd conspired over just how to go about making a bit of an evening of it for themselves, neither one being much of a ballroom sort of person. Both of them knew the ropes, as it were, but neither one had all that much of a background for it. Still, they decided that they'd like to go.

There were hard and fast rules in place regarding what a crewmember could and mostly could not do with respect to the passengers. Hans-Joachim had told Eden about it and it had been a little bit of subterfuge on their parts to manage to make an evening out of it all anyway.

Eden had gone alone in her best dress, which was far below the standards of most of the wealthy women there in attendance and it certainly was no evening gown. She wandered around a little and she danced with a few men, though she kept it at almost arm's length in her wariness. More than once, she'd been dancing with an older man who, emboldened perhaps by a little drink, kept trying to get more and more friendly.

She did manage to keep her smile from her face whenever the particular man's wife appeared in front of them to almost yank him away, since it happened more often than not. But she almost never had to walk to her small table alone before another man appeared almost magically.

If she didn't like the look of him, she spoke only Mandarin, which made it very hard for anyone to even begin to apply whatever charm they thought that they could bring to bear on the young woman. It never occurred to them that Eden was immune and thought their attempts to be a little humorous – at least from her point of view. Her features were difficult for a lot of Occidental people to judge. While they thought that she was lovely and exotic, she knew that most of them were as old as her father or almost nearly so.

The attempts by the younger men were even more humorous to her eyes, but the little episodes made her aware that she really only had eyes for one man as she waited for him to appear and by then she wasn't really surprised at all to find herself feeling that way.

It hadn't been planned at all, but there was a bit of a stir when Hans-Joachim made his entrance a little later. Eden thought that she could almost hear the sighs of a few of the women there to see the tall and handsome navigator walk into the room dressed in the brilliant white dress uniform of the passenger line. She even watched a little as more than a few women saw him and nudged their friends to indicate where they ought to be looking with a motion of their chins.

There were a couple of attempts made to snag his attention here and there, but seemingly without effort, Hans-Joachim nodded and smiled, speaking a few words to each one only long enough so as not to appear to be brusque or rude as he disengaged himself politely each time with his spoken wish that they enjoy their evenings. Once he was clear of the obstacles ...

All eyes were on him as he walked straight across the dance floor to Eden and asked her to dance with a chivalrous bow.

As pretty as she thought that she might be at best in her humble attire, the surroundings and the atmosphere of the place had an effect on her and she was in Heaven for the moment.

There were things such as this put on where she was from, but she was never in attendance, not knowing any of the families of the 'plantocracy'. So something such as this was far above her head.

She felt a little like Cinderella, though without the fancy ball gown. But she knew what she wanted to do.

She took his arm and they danced.

Whenever they sat at her table for a little break, a woman would surely come by to ask him to dance a little. He went out of politeness most times, leaving Eden to sit for a little while and watch him being gallant while the woman usually poured it on a little too thickly.

But he was always quick to keep it so that it was always seen that the young officer was doing his bit for his employers out of what was expected of him.

Eden saw flickers of his thoughts cross his face where the tedium might have shown for a split-second or so, but on the whole, she knew that he was doing his job.

She liked to see it because she could see that he wanted to be with her and she felt the same, wanting to be near him as much as possible now.

She also saw the way that he appeared to be trying to get back to her table as quickly as the situation allowed and while he was away from her, she now declined any other requests that she dance.

The shoes that she was wearing were her very best pair, not that she owned a lot of them, but they were also just a little tight, so she was very conscious of her limited mileage in them for one evening and she wanted to save what she had left for him.

And when he asked her to dance, she was in a little bit of Heaven all over again. She'd never felt quite this way over anyone before.

Perhaps the only other person who seemed to be able to see through their little act was the captain when Hans-Joachim had brought her to his table. It was during a moment when he sat a little alone and glad to be that way for a time.

She'd been introduced to him and the middle-aged officer knew what he was looking at between them right away, though for the most part, he didn't let on. He'd been young himself once and he had daughters of his own, so he knew what this was.

He smiled at Eden warmly after speaking his careful and quiet warning to his navigator regarding the passenger rules in German – which Eden clearly understood, and then he leaned over to her a bit.

"I am an old sailor," he smiled as he spoke in his thick accent, "and I have been in this business for a long time now. I have spent my time moving people from one place to another and I have seen many, many lovely young women over my time. But I have very seldom seen anyone as beautiful as you are, Fraulein Eden, so I wish to offer you a small bit of advice."

He looked around at the people in the room for a moment and then his smile widened in a fatherly sort of way as he said, "This ... all of this here, is to provide the passengers with something a little special – a little bit of a magical evening, you might say.

By your dress this evening, I can tell that you do not come from unlimited wealth – which only matters to those who do. Nevertheless, this evening is for you as well, every bit as much if not more and I want to say that you should not feel the least bit intimidated by the airs put on by some of these ... "

He searched for the word for a moment, "dowagers who come from families with money.

The gowns are all show and dressing to make the person inside feel a little better. The true jewel resides inside and the most costly gowns cannot bring that out if it is not there to begin with.

And in most cases, I am afraid; the illusion is a little thin to one who sees this over and over again.

Please enjoy your evening while I try not to see what is plain to my old eyes, and if my young friend here does not treat you with the gallantry that one as lovely as you deserves as he squires you about here on my ship, then be sure to tell me about it.

I will have him peeling potatoes in the kitchen for the rest of his life, if his eyes are that poor." They laughed at his joke and then they were back on the floor as the band began a waltz.

Later on, when he'd walked her to her cabin, they'd both felt the fire within themselves.

What began as a goodnight kiss escalated rapidly in them both and before anyone happened along the passageway, Eden unlocked her cabin and pulled Hans-Joachim inside.

After closing the door, she was back in his arms in milliseconds; kissing him for all that she was worth.

She felt herself trembling against him, her sudden and surprising need almost trilling against his. She could feel his arousal as she pressed her body against his, needing to feel both the contact and that arousal as her own fed from it and the flames of it rose higher inside of her breast.

She wanted to pull herself a little higher up on him. She wondered why for a moment until she pulled the hem of her dress up a little so that she could give in to her need to hold him with one of her legs as well. It made at least a little sense to her then.

Beyond only that, Eden suddenly wanted to pull herself against him so tightly that she wouldn't have minded much if she could have pulled herself right inside of him so that their hearts touched, but that wasn't possible, so what she really wanted was what they could do.

She wanted him inside of her.

"Have you got a , ... " she breathed into his ear as he kissed her throat, and she was a little stuck for the word, knowing that her next sound would leave her as a moan.

"A prophylactic?" he groaned as he nodded against her sweet skin, "Yes. They issue them to some of the crew. I have never used them. I think that they are made out of the skins of old dirigibles left over from the last war."

It caused her to chuckle down low in her throat, "Well, let's see how much they are worth, Hans-Joachim."

She pushed herself away from him with more reluctance than she'd have ever thought possible as she turned on the small writing lamp over the desk in the cabin and turned off the overhead one.

Her first bit of joy came to her just from taking off her shoes, but it wasn't the main thing. "Take that fine uniform off and then help me out of my dress, if you would."

Eden was surprised that she could even speak that many words, the way that she found herself still trembling for him. She sat on the edge of the bed and watched as he began to get undressed. She had to smile at the way that he laid it down over the back of the chair a little carefully.

Even in his lust – which she could clearly see in him as he did it, there was still a little of that Teutonic neatness to it. He looked over with a silly grin, "Well I cannot be seen in this looking as though I spent a time riding in the back of a truck over the worst sort of roads to arrive all rumpled."

Eden nodded and her reply shocked her more than a little and she wondered who it was who forced it from her, "I understand, Hans-Joachim, now come here please and help me. I think you'll need that fine uniform to hide the way that I want to rumple you."

He laughed and nodded his agreement and then she stood up so that he could get her dress undone and slip it down over her shoulders. Her undergarments were next and she was surprised at how careful he was in it, until she realised that he was savouring the moment.

She turned to see him standing before her, more beautiful to her than any man that she'd ever seen in her life – and where she was from, she'd seen plenty of men of many kinds who had the ability to make a girl think of a few naughty little thoughts. But what she saw in his eyes, aside from the flicker of the flames there, down deep inside of him took her breath away.

As he came to her, while she was back on the bed and backpedalling slowly to give him the room on it, Eden felt that strange little something inside of herself that she'd felt there now and then, but never the way that she felt it now, and certainly never this much.

She felt the rising of her own lust for this one man and to her; it seemed to be a sort of descent which she'd have to make for this, a sort of standing on a bit of a precipice, in a way. She thought about it for only a moment.

Then she made her dive into its dark and super-heated depths.

The first time, Eden revelled in the feel of him against her and she bucked herself hard against him as she rocked them together. She was so happy to feel him inside of her in her want of him. Her experience had always shown her that a man did this mostly for himself and also, given the most usual scenario of a hurried tryst in a place a little out of the way, it was only the one time for any given occurrence.

So under those circumstances, she expected and hoped to get about what she gave, and right then, Eden needed this so much, so she gave ... oh, how she gave. She'd never felt this want rising so fast in her. It usually required a few weeks of getting to know the man.

It was a little amazing to her even so, because while she sensed his need for her at the same time, she thought that she saw something else as well. She just wasn't certain about much more than the mechanics of fucking at the moment.

She looked up at him now and then, only to realise that her 'now and thens' were beginning to become more frequent.

She was usually content just to fuck with her eyes closed for the most part, always a little unsure of herself and her body's effect on her partner, and so if she wasn't lost in just kissing him while it went on between them, she just kept her eyes closed most of the time to enjoy the sensations which she got to feel so seldom.

It didn't hit her right away, but during the times when she opened her eyes, she gradually came to notice that his eyes never left her face in it – if he wasn't kissing her throat and making her a little crazy that way.

He seemed to know just when to do that too, she thought, always seeming to know when to give her that little push in that way.

His lips left her throat then and she kissed him with as much passion as she thought that she could put into it, feeling a little more confident now. When she felt him lift himself up to go for just fucking her for a time, Eden opened her eyes again and looked up.

Hans-Joachim seemed to be a little transfixed, while still thrusting on at his wonderful pace. His eyes moved around a little, but she knew that he was always looking at her face.

She smiled from the pleasure of it and she gazed at his body for a moment before her own eyes wandered back to lock onto his.

"What?" she asked, still smiling because she couldn't help it.

She had the thought that out of all of the 'fine' women who had been there at the dance, young Eden Chang had walked off with the prize and it was a thought and a moment that she cherished a little.

"What are you looking at so much?"

Hans-Joachim didn't stop or even slow a little. He just smiled down at her with his beautiful - and to her, mysterious blue eyes.

"The most beautiful woman that I have ever seen in my life," he said, as though it was a complete and utter statement of fact, as though he was commenting on a basic truth, such as the sun rising every day or the way that gravity seemed to always work.

"I almost believe you," she grinned.

He managed a little shrug then, "Believe what you like, Eden. I meant it, every word."

He didn't wait to hear her rebuttal. He just kept plowing her little furrow. She didn't know it, but he guessed that someone who looked like her must hear drivel like his quite often and wouldn't know a heartfelt thing if it was spoken to her – especially at a time like this.