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 …
She found a low-backed wooden chair and set it by the hearth. “Take off your tunic and sit down. I want to see how bad your cuts are and get them clean.” He unbelted his tunic, then pulled it, and his undershirt, off draping them over the edge of a table to help them dry. …
Cadan sat up. “There’s a place closer where we can dry off and rest.” Eleanor looked around, at the dense cover of trees and thick undergrowth. “Someone lives near here?” As they began picking their way through the undergrowth, Cadan said. “Not exactly. Lily Smith’s father liked building things, tinkering about, experimenting. Sometimes the results …
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 …
“You didn’t mention that in your report.” The man gulped. “You hold an important position and your time and attention is in such demand, it is necessary to only present information of the utmost relevance.” I leaned back in my chair, pinning him with what I’m told is a decidedly unnerving stare. “Relevant to whom?” …
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 …
They walked for a long time, if she’d done this straight after arriving from town, Eleanor wasn’t sure she would have made it halfway without misery and blisters. Finally, the path began to run beside a gully, containing a stream that Cadan said was the same one running past the village. He found a suitable …
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 …
This is a free novella for subscribers to my monthly newsletter, I'd love you to join, and find out what happens... My name is Arianna Goldbest, or possibly FitzMichael. I'm a stain on the family, a dishonour to the name, for I had the temerity to be born out of wedlock. One might presume my …
The DNA of Stories 