The leaves on the palm trees outside his hotel window waved mockingly on the afternoon breeze. ‘Here you are in paradise’ they seemed to say, ‘but all you can do is pace about your too-large-for-one hotel room, talk on your phone, and tap on your computer.’ And the room was too large for one person, …
“If that’s an egg, I’m a gargoyle.” “Well you’d better climb up on the roof then, because it is.” “It’s the size of my torso and made of copper. Look at the tarnish marks from where the water’s dripped on it.” “So? It’s still an egg.” “Fine, it’s a pretend egg. “Why would someone create …
“Most medicines can be as harmful as they are healing. It’s all to do with the affliction, the dosage, and the patient.” Nadira knew it was important to remember the two-sided nature of the cures they created, but did Healer Mentor Fong have to start every single lesson with it? And usually finish with it …
Georgina looked at the diagram on the table. Leonard was clearly very proud of it, pity it looked like nothing so much as a square plate of spaghetti and meatballs. “So this is the layout for the ball.” Leonard puffed his chest out. “Yes. The door is there.” He pointed to one side of the …
“You have to, you’re doing your Leaver’s presentation this week.” “Which is why I’m not going. What am I going to tell them? That I’m going to spend my future career pushing a broom around my Mum’s coffee shop?” Janet rolled her eyes, then propped one hip on the desk in front of mine, arms …
Leanne winced as she heard the voice outside her studio, loud enough that probably didn’t need the phone she was speaking into. Geraldine was coming to keep her company while she worked, again. What that actually meant was that Geraldine would harass her with questions and opinions from the moment she opened the door to …
Grandad was a hoarder. He picked up the oddest things at second-hand shops, and charity places, and car boot sales, always saying. “You never know when something like this will come in handy.” Everything was then taken down to the old shed at the back of the garden, where no one but Grandad ever went. …
Rowena strode down the tower stairs, and through the main courtyard. If her husband had turned to look back at her, she’d have stayed. And he started to. He was going to turn. And then he stopped. Maude had made some sweeping gesture and his attention had moved to her, rather than the wife he …
Isabelle would have given a great deal to be a fly on the wall at her grandmother’s next grand tea. Just what that ‘great deal’ would have been remained unexplored, as the Dowager Empress showed her the hidden way into her favourite sitting room, already set for a larger-than-usual tea gathering. The hidden way included …
Sophia looked down on the young couple between the guards. Given their situation; found guilty of threatening the stability of the kingdom and standing before the thrones, they probably should be looking a little more cowed. But Lord Grayson was looking smug and his wife, Lady Roselin was positively smirking. As well she might, under …
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