She gaped at him. “I will deal with my hair inside, by the fire, while my boots dry. And this isn’t my cloak.” He continued to only take note of one part of what she’d said. “It’s going to rain, and neither of your pretty capes are waterproof.” She eyed him suspiciously, then shuffled to …
Angelie barrelled through the door of Zara’s shop at lunchtime the next day. “They’ve made it a competition.” “A what?” Zara tucked a strand of hair back under her headscarf and doused the flame on her still, lavender oil could wait; Angelie was never this intense. Her friend leaned an elbow on the scarred wooden …
Eva strode into the glass and marble foyer of the offices housing her great aunt’s lawyers, she was very good at appearing comfortable in places designed to intimidate and the receptionist looked slightly put out at Eva’s breezy greeting. “I’m sorry, but Mr Harrison is not available this afternoon. He’s in very important client meetings.” …
The cold snap was still in force when I woke, no surprises there. If a chilly bit of weather is going to go to the sort of effort needed to cool down a south-eastern swamp, it was going to hang about for a bit. I decided to do some long-planned, long put-off work on the …
It was a pity Deon was so damn attractive, and even more of a pity that he knew it. He was charming every woman and half the men in Mydor before the portrait was even half done. Zara ignored him. He took it as a challenge. Every morning she’d find him waiting for her in …
She dragged leaden feet across the floor and dropped onto the rustling heap. Both her cloaks were wet, and her boots were all but dripping where she sat. She shrugged off the cloaks, throwing them off to one side, then shucked her boots. Both pairs of hose were soggy, so they were added to the …
Summer opened the sliding glass door to the wide wooden terrace to find her husband having a heated argument with a magpie. Braedon clearly understood the bird’s trills and caws and was glaring at it in a way that would cow most other creatures. She put her coffee and breakfast down on the table, interrupting …
The following morning, Eva returned from the buffet table to find a man sitting in her seat and laughing a bit too heartily at something her mother had just said. Her father looked up. “And here she is now. Evangelina, do you remember your Uncle Dominic?” Her full name only got used when her father …
Zara pulled the shop door closed and locked it, then wove through the shoppers still crowding the merchant district. As she waited for the street stall vendor to wrap her order for dinner – two stuffed pastries, one savoury, one sweet – she scanned the news sheets pinned to a rickety wooden noticeboard between two …
“It’s a beautiful day, let’s go on a picnic!” Braedon looked out at the golden sun and clear blue sky, then back at his beaming wife. “It’s already 30 degrees out there and it’s not yet nine. We’ll cook.” “We’ll go to the lake.” “Along with half the rest of town. The others will be …
The DNA of Stories 