It was a week before the three of them were able to reconvene to discuss Charlotte’s situation. They met at Hatchards and spent a pleasant half hour choosing new books. Anya was allowed one novel if she also chose two ‘improving’ or educational books. Both Piety and Charlotte had no such restriction and each left …
Anya, Charlotte and Piety, newly engaged and brimming with romance, were spending the morning together. Ostensibly embroidering handkerchiefs for Piety's trousseau, in reality to share news. Piety concluded her gleeful report of a 'conversation' with Lord Peter, her fiancé with. “It's simply delightful being betrothed. You'will both find it charming, I'm sure.” Charlotte inspected her …
Delauney watched Melenique stalk towards the lift, designer suitcase trundling behind her. "Where did you reassign her to?" David looked up from his phone. "Anywhere there's a problem with performance, she's our roving troubleshooter." "I bet she's good at that." Her husband smirked. "Half the time all I need to do is mention her, and …
Maia swiped her access card, beep, green light, open door, phew. It hadn’t been a sure thing by any stretch, but they were in, and the real work could start. Janya slipped past her, a pat to the shoulder his only sign of approval. Approval for her months of grind to get into the company, …
Merrisa had loved the summer weekends when she was sent down to Grandma’s. In that pretty cottage on the edge of a postcard village, she felt more seen, more heard, than at any time in the showpiece London house her parents called home. Not that they were home much, hence the constant need for Merrisa …
He was easy enough to ignore on the train, sitting near enough to keep an eye on me, but not encroaching. If I'd had a good book, I daresay I could have blocked thought of him entirely. Unfortunately, all I had was the 'improving stories' Aunt Diddy had pressed into my hand that morning, and …
Rowena stood on the castle wall, on the little tower section where the west wall met the left side of the gate-wall and waited. He had to wave. If he didn’t turn, didn’t see her, didn’t acknowledge her silent farewell with one of his own, then it was over. He didn’t care, and she would …
It wasn’t so much a book as a tome. Sitting smugly on a carved wooden stand that, even with a pedestal thicker around than Gregor’s thigh, seemed to stagger under the weight of the paper, ink, and ornamented leather surmounting it. Jin looked it over, arms crossed, attitude unimpressed. “That’s what he sent us to …
"This way. Remember, you have to be really quiet." Luke nodded and pinched his lips tight together. It wasn't often his cousin Doren even spoke to him, let alone showed him a secret way out of the family wing of the palace. Doren was thirteen to Luke's ten, and had other, older, friends and interests. …
“Well, since I’ve been so … inconvenienced … I think I should be entitled to a little … compensation.” The customer’s oily smirk made Jessia want to heave. She gave him her most patently fake, pinch-lipped smile. “Certainly, sir, would you prefer a sample pack of our top-selling perfume, or a five-dollar gift certificate?” He …
The DNA of Stories 