CHAPTER 2

" Please sing for me again" Ruth pleaded. 

Purist began to sing again. Ruth fell on her thighs and suddenly fell deep asleep. Martin watched them sleep and smiled Lady Akeshia watching him from a distance. She had never seen him smile like that before. He was secretly falling in love with Ruth.

“The council of elders are here to meet with you sir. They are waiting for you at the office” said Lady Nana to Martin. 

Martin hurriedly left the room accompanied by Lady Nana to go and meet the council of elders. The four of them were already seated at his house office. Martin ordered lady Nana to serve them tea as he entered the office.

“An issue has been suspected in your place. We do believe that you know what we are talking about" said Mr. Mboya as Martin nodded his head in disbelief. 

“Ruth Bora, a sixteen year old minor from the family of Bora is married to Martin Tupfer which is against the law” said Mr. Mboya again.

“Ruth Bora married me out of her own consent and her parents consent as well" Martin replied.

" Is that the only way to defend yourself Martin Tupfer?” Said Mr. Kamau who was seated next to Martin.

“This is not a law court and if indeed people are not allowed to marry each other and live in peace, then, what do we call love?” Martin said.

“We call love when a person becomes intimate with the right person. We call love when there is no greater sacrifice to marry anyone. You highly know that it is against the law to marry a child and for the selfish reasons of love you highly deny her right to education” Mr. Kamau said. 

“How many children are out there with no education? Have you taken a chance to educate them? What actions have you as the council of elders taken into place? Mr. Mboya, this meeting is adjourned because I need to be with my family right now. Once you are done educating all those children in the village at least you can finally arrest me” Martin said who left the office in a hurry.

He went to the garden and started watering the flowers. He always did this whenever he was annoyed to forget everything about life since he loved flowers. Yet this was not able to calm him down at least not for this time.

 He hurriedy went back to his room and asked lady Akeshia to accompany Purist back to her room as he wanted to talk to his wife privately. He sat beside his wife and caressed her at her cheeks. 

“I want to make love to you today. I want you to be the mother to my second child” Martin said as he started to unbutton his shirt. 

"Please stop……I am not ready right now beside my leg still aches and the more it aches the more I continue missing my mother who used to sing for me during my trying times like this” Ruth said tears welling down her eyes.

“What do you want me to do?” Asked Martin in a serious tone. 

“Nothing……just don’t make love to me and let me sleep because all I need right now is to just rest” said Ruth hesitantly.

Ruth continued crying.

Martin wore his shirt and stood aghast for a while.

What was he doing?

Did  he just want to make love to Ruth?

What extent was he willing to go to make sure he doesn’t loose Ruth to another?

No, he wasn’t falling in love with this little girl. 

“Do you want to go to school?” as much as he did not want to ask this, it still slid from his mouth.

“No” Ruth answered quickly and of course she didn’t want to go back to school. What Martin didn’t know was that she was happy with her new married life. 

“That means you want to be my loving wife” Ruth nodded her head still surprised with Martins’ sudden change of behaviour.

“I will be your loving wife so long as you don’t take me back to school” said Rith in a pellucid voice smiling.

“What if am arrested at the end and my daughter suffers from this all? Will you be able to bring things back all together?” Asked Martin.

“My Love plea……” Ruth pleaded by folding her arms but Martin suddenly interrupted.

" Tomorrow am taking you back home. I don't want to be arrested” Martin said and left the room but just as he was about to close the door, Ruth fell from the bed and yelled.

“I love you Martin. I just love you with all of my heart. Please don’t take me back home because I can’t bear the pain of losing you. I will not hurt you like the way your wife did” Ruth said as she cried in pain. She might had said this because she knew that if she went back home Martin would stop educating her siblings. 

Martin immediately carried her back to the bed. He examined her whole body and noticed there were some traces of blood from her leg wound. 

“Let me call the doctor” said Martin a bit worried.

“No……all I need is for you to sleep beside me and sing for me” said Ruth smiling. 

“I insist to call the doctor” said Martin. 

" Babe am famished" Martin was astonished by her sudden reply. 

Did  she just call him Babe? Does this mean that Ruth was falling in love with Martin too? Of course! Although Martin was only forty nine years, he was still a handsome young man. He had fair beards on his face, silver eyes, brown complexion and was a bit slender which was all Ruth ever wanted in a man. He always loved older men. Yet maybe it was just an illusion between the both of them.

Ruth therefore decided that she would endure any pain just for Martin not to leave her. 

“I LOVE YOU SO MUCH MARTIN” Ruth insisted and surprised Lady Akeshia who had been ordered to bring food to the room. 

“You may leave as I will feed my wife” Martin ordered Lady Akeshia who left the room in a hurry as she did not want any more chaos between her and her boss. 

“Babe….thank you for changing your mind. I promise to be the best wife ever” although Martin had not yet changed his mind, Ruth was only saying this in order to see Martin’s obvious reaction. 

“Then you will make happy” Martin smirked as he continued feeding Ruth.

MARRIED AT SIXTEEN.