Creative short stories

Two small-time criminals, Bill and Sam, kidnap Johnny, the 10-year-old red-haired son of an important citizen named Ebenezer Dorset, and hold him for ransom. But the moment they arrive at their hideout with the boy, the plan begins to unravel. Calling himself "Red Chief", the boy proceeds to drive his captors to distraction with his unrelenting chatter, malicious pranks, and demands that they play wearying games with him. The criminals write a ransom letter to the boy's father, lowering the ransom from two thousand dollars to fifteen hundred at Bill's suggestion. The father, who knows his son well and realizes how intolerable he will be to his captors and how desirous they will soon be to rid themselves of the delinquent child, rejects their demand and offers to take the boy off their hands if they pay him. The men hand over the money and the howling boy – who had actually been happier being away from his stricter father and thus does not want to be "rescued" from his more-lenient captors – and flee after the father threatens to turn his son loose on them. (Wikipedia)

A boy growing up in a household where there is no love and no luck but always a shortage of money develops an uncanny ability to pick horse-race winners while furiously riding his wooden rocking-horse.

Devlin saw the whiteness of fatigue and the thousand shocks that she had received written upon Catherine's face. He saw the fragile delicacy of her features. She was utterly vulnerable and Devlin had the instincts of the strong to protect the weak. He could no more have hurt her than flown. But Catherine only saw him as a prison warder - her bodyguard - and he didn't know what to tell her to make her feel differently. He understood fully why she should feel as she did. "You're tired," he said. He deliberately made his voice soothing. "You're very, very tired ..." "You want to make love to me, don't you?" she asked. "I can tell Devlin, you've looked at me and you want to make love with me!"