The Prize Rules Ch. 01

"Please walk this way," the man said and Eden followed, wondering about him.

He was fairly tall and he looked trim and fit to her eyes, and she wondered whether it was the impeccably neat way that he appeared to her in his blue blazer or if it was him which made the blazer look that good.

She'd only been on board for a few minutes, but this gentleman was the neatest in his appearance and for the way that he carried himself that she'd seen so far - not that the rest were slouches in that regard. She wondered as well over the sound of his accent, since the only German whom she really knew was her father.

His hair was a dark brown and there was something about him – some combination of that hair, his expressive eyebrows, the twinkling blues eyes under them, and his mouth which gave him a strangely-pleased expression, but Eden reminded herself that thus far in her young life, she hadn't really met anyone from Europe, other than - again – her father.

Hans-Joachim himself was feeling a little stunned, and for him, it was a rather new feeling to have been caused by a young woman. He'd never even seen a person who plainly had an Oriental background from this close before. He'd seen a few in his time on the ship, though not many and he'd never really heard one speak English – or anything else which he might have understood.

After a brief thought, he realised that he'd also never seen a woman who was as beautiful to him as this one was. He wondered why her cabin was all the way back here not far from the 'indentured servants' as he often referred to himself and those like him on the crew. Single berth cabins didn't come much cheaper on this tub.

He stopped at the door of the second-last passenger cabin. He wasn't certain just what sort of remark that he'd have expected her to make, but what she did say along with her thanks surprised him.

"You're German, aren't you?" she asked and then she recovered a little quickly for what she thought must have sounded a little impolite to say the least, "I'm sorry, I don't think that was what I should have asked. It was just me wondering out loud, I guess."

He nodded his head once, "Yes. A good guess on a ship belonging to the Hamburg Amerika Line, I would say. Please don't feel ashamed to ask something like that, Miss. The number of times when I have had to explain the difference between German people and Dutch ones are not even worth speaking of."

He glanced at the key in her hand and decided that he wanted to speak with her a little more and balanced the possibility of that against his need to report for duty.

"If I can ask," he smiled, "Where do you come from? I have seen only a few people who look to be from somewhere very far away indeed.

Oh, and I am being very rude, I'm afraid. My name is Hans-Joachim Ullmann."

He added a rather polite little bow to it as he held out his hand and Eden found it rather charming and polite to see in a steward on board a passenger ship.

"From Trinidad," she smiled up, liking the way that his hand felt to her, "There are a lot of Chinese people all over the Caribbean, Mister Ullmann. In fact, there are a lot of different sorts of people all over. Some of them tend to stay with their own a lot of the time, I guess.

Did I hear your name as Hans-Joachim? I like it by the way. My name is Eden Chang."

"My delight and honor to meet you then," he grinned as she inserted her key into the lock and opened the door.

"Be sure to take a look around your cabin," he said, "and if anything is not correct or spotless, then you should report it to the Steward on this deck at once," he said as he set her luggage down, "They are easily found and all wear white jackets.

Sadly, I have to report for my own duty now, but I am very pleased to have, ah, bumped into you. Aufwiedersehen Fraulein."

Eden said goodbye and she held off going into her cabin for the moment that she stood watching him walk away.

She went inside then and taking his advice, she looked around for a moment. She closed her cabin door then, deciding that she liked her little room. As she set her bags down on the bed and opened them, she wondered a little at herself.

She'd never met very many white people at all, since she'd never had the occasion to. As well, they were a little scarce back home and she supposed that they moved in circles which were not her bailiwick. Of the men like that she'd seen, there hadn't been one which she could have told herself was attractive to her in any way.

Then why, she asked herself, did that one seem to have had an effect on her? She wondered for a moment if it was something which her German blood was trying to tell her, since this sort of thing had never happened to her before.

She didn't plan to do anything about what she felt, but she did feel that Hans-Joachim Ullmann was at least a little ...

Fine, she admitted to herself with a chuckling smile, he was bloody handsome and gorgeous.

She shook her head with a quiet little laugh at herself and got on with her unpacking.