Roxanne Rhoads's Blog, page 126
June 21, 2021
A Bewitching Monday
Fantasy Author Ivy Keating: Ink Well--One writer’s process explained for the reader + giveaway
http://www.ismellsheep.com/2021/06/fa...
Spotlight & Excerpt: Then Came the Thunder, by Rachael Huszar
http://sadiesspotlight.com/then-came-...
Guns and Smoke by Lauren Sevier and A. Smith #Dystopian #WesternRomance #bewitchingbooktours https://bewitchingbooktours.tumblr.co...
Dragon(e) Baby Gone by Robert Gainey #DetectiveFantasy #Dragons #Fantasy #bewitchingbooktours http://ow.ly/KRaH50FeOo7
Sarana and the Dark King by Ivy Keating Virtual Book Tour #bewitchingbooktours
https://www.mommasaystoread.com/2021/...
Bake Believe by Cori Cooper #bewitchigbooktours http://ow.ly/NRwx50FeOlQ
Road to Juneau by Liam Quane
https://www.instagram.com/p/CQYsm4urROA/
Falling in love was never part of the plan...
Wintersfall- Gen-Heirs: The Guardians of Sziveria by Sarah Westill
https://amzn.to/3whBX3y @authorsarahwestill
#Fantasy #PNR #ParanormalRomance #GenHeirs #TheGuardiansofSziveria #SarahWestill #WhatToRead #SummerReads #NewRelease #NewBook
Author Interview - Road to Juneau by Liam Quane #SciFi #Fantasy #authorInterview #bewitchingbooktours http://ow.ly/5p5t50Fbx8g
INTERVIEW - HISTORICAL LGBTQ+ - MARY, EVERYTHING (The Flapper Covenant, #1) by Cassandra Yorke #bewitchingbooktours http://ow.ly/lpaG50Fbx6i
#Fantasy #PNR #ParanormalRomance #YAFantasy #Giveaways #AmazonGiftCardGiveaway #WinFreeBooks
Mary, Everything by Cassandra Yorke #LitFic #LGBTQ+ #TimeTravelRomance
https://fang-tasticbooks.blogspot.com...
Road to Juneau
Road to Juneau
Liam Quane
Genre: Sci-fi, Fantasy
Publisher: Beaten Track Publishing
Date of Publication: 18 May 2021
ISBN Hardcover: 978-1-78645-473-7
ISBN Paperback: 978-1-78645-452-2
ISBN eBook: 978-1-78645-453-9
ASIN: B08V51WV9M
Number of pages: 330
Word Count: 109,038
Cover Artist: Holly Dunn
Book Description:
New York: two years after the Third World War. Humanity is rebuilding its cities brick by brick; the damage done to the people, however, is a lot harder to repair.
Dan Hardacre is one of those people. An aspiring stage actor and experienced draft-dodger, Dan struggles to find his place within the Utopic rebuild of New York City. When he’s not caught up with the duties of work, Dan lives a quiet life in mourning for his mother, Dyani, who went missing when he was a teenager.
One night, Dan experiences a vivid, terrifying nightmare that puts him right on the front lines of the war for which he dodged the draft; it ends with him facing Death itself in the form of a metallic, faceless humanoid creature that calls itself the Valkyrie. To investigate the reason behind his haunting experience, Dan seeks out a meeting with his estranged father, who reveals the startling truth about Dan’s dream: it wasn’t a dream.
With this newfound knowledge and the powers it brings, Dan makes it his mission to return to the scene of his nightmare. However, he soon comes to know that confronting the Valkyrie not only endangers him but the war-withstanding world he leaves behind.
https://amzn.to/3uhgG8e
#SciFi #Fantasy #Dystopian
Mary, Everything by Cassandra Yorke #LitFic #LGBTQ+ #TimeTravelRomance
Mary, EverythingThe Flapper Covenant Series Book OneCassandra Yorke
Genre: Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction, LGBTQ+Time Travel, Time Travel RomanceDate of Publication: March 30, 2020 ISBN: 9780578680361ASIN: B086HYTB3QNumber of pages: 414Word Count: 108,498Cover Artist: Cassandra Yorke
Tagline: A gripping tale of best friends and romance, sorcery and survival, at the dawn of the Roaring 20s.
Author Commentary: This novel is a memoir wrapped in fiction. While it's a tale of time travel and sorcery, at its core are real events and real themes - haunted yearbooks in college archives, yearning for times long gone, battery and abuse, exile and homecoming.
While I hope you enjoy it, I promise you will never read another story like it. It's from the heart, it's gritty and lurid - and below the action, it's real.
Book Description:
A young woman born in the wrong reality.
A destiny that will lead her into the past.
And a love so enduring it reaches across time - and existence itself - to bring her home.
Courtney is a lonely undergrad at secluded Braddock College in 2004, working a drowsy summer job in the Archives. Assigned to a new project, she becomes haunted by a college yearbook from the 1920s - filled with familiar faces and memories of times she never experienced. A chance encounter with a mysterious girl named Sadie - dressed in long-outdated clothes - alters her reality. But if you were never meant to be born, that reality can expel you like an infection - or kill you outright. While Courtney struggles against forces she cannot comprehend, a psychopathic stalker smells blood and closes in for the kill.
Sadie, now in 1921, races against the clock to save her friend, joined by some remarkable allies - an American combat sorceress and veteran of World War I, an enigmatic professor who specializes in piercing the veil between realities, and two young women who insist they’re Courtney’s oldest friends - one of them even claiming to be her truest love.
Time is running out for Courtney, and a terrifying wilderness - haunted by the dead from centuries past - may hold the key to her salvation. But none who enter have ever returned…
Cassandra Yorke's groundbreaking debut brings Magical Realism home to the Midwest in an explosive new style, blending midwestern gothic and historical fiction with a warm lesbian love story to create a riveting, deeply immersive epic you won't be able to put down. It's the world of Boardwalk Empire and Gatsby, with an urgent, immersive narrative about what it means to belong, what it means to be hated, what it means to be loved, and ultimately what it means to come home.
Amazon
Excerpt
The crosswalk is the busiest place in town any time of the year, and even if Braddock has a fraction of the people in the summer, it’s still bustling. As I’m coming up, I spot a girl approaching from my left. She’s ghostly pale like me, with auburn hair cut in a short bob around her soft jawline. The most striking thing about her is her narrow, almond-shaped eyes. I’ve always thought chicks with eyes like that are really cute. They catch mine as I approach, and there’s a kind of click; two people in a crowd with matching energy. She greets me with a narrow, witty smile. I return hers in my usual unintentional way, soft and genuine and a little bit sad-looking without ever meaning to seem that way. And we stand there for a minute, waiting for the traffic to clear.“Say, is it gonna be dry like this all week?” she asks.
“Um…” I wish I had a better answer ready. “I think so? I haven’t really checked the weather.”
“Why, I sure hope it is.” She stares back across the street at the shade of College Green. “Anything I hate is rain in the summer.”
Roll my eyes in agreement. “Ugh, totally.”
I sneak a look at her. She’s wearing a brown bell-shaped hat, the kind that were popular in the 1920s. She’s wearing a 20s style dress, too: green, knee-length, with a round-cut neckline and loose cap sleeves. She’s even wearing old-fashioned brown stockings and brown heels. It catches my eye and I stare for a second or two; it’s a hot day for stockings, especially the old-fashioned silk kind like that. And her shoes are really retro, like old church grandma shoes. She must shop at that vintage thrift store all the way up at the far end of Court Street; it’s the only place around here where you could get clothes like that, unless she goes thrifting in Columbus.
She’s standing here next to me, watching the street, not self-conscious at all. Like she wears stuff like that every day without even thinking about it.
Then she looks at me, glances away, looks at me again a little longer. Her eyes linger on my top and on my legs, and she looks away again, blushing. I’ve always been a little bit empathic and I can feel curiosity in her glance. And…attraction?
Nah, that can’t be right - girls are never into me. Maybe I look too preppy, I don’t know. I’m a D&D nerd, raised on video games from the age of five, but because I wear an Abercrombie hoodie or Hollister shorts or flat iron my hair, people assign me a whole package of expectations - Courtney is a bitch, Courtney’s stuck-up, Courtney’s a backstabbing gossip, Courtney’s rich. Courtney is heterosexual...? Look, I’ll be honest with you, I’m gonna have a hard time living up to all of that. Maybe not the bitch thing - because yeah, I’m probably a bitch - but the rest of it?
Sorry, no can do.
The traffic finally stops from the other direction. I give her one last smile - which she returns warmly - and step onto the street. A few quick steps take me to the other sidewalk. I stop and look at my slender Fossil watch, making a pretense to turn in her direction again for one last look. She’s awfully cute, and I love her chic vintage style. I wonder if she’d think I was creepy if-
There’s nobody there. I glance around to see if she took off in another direction. Nothing. There are plenty of people around, walking dogs, wearing flip-flops, riding bikes. But no girls with vintage clothes.
She’s gone. It’s like she was never there.
But she totally was there! I talked to her!
Unless I’m finally losing it?
I rub an eye with the heel of my hand, not really caring that I just stamped dry mascara on my skin. Maybe I need to get out more. Maybe I need friends. I stand on the busy sidewalk for a moment, completely disoriented, before remembering that I was looking for a place to sit down and eat my salad. But even as I make my way onto College Green and up toward the Civil War statue, looking for a place to sit, I can’t get that girl out of my head. Not just because she was cute. Something about her, that weird click when we saw each other.
Eh, maybe I’ll see her again. I shove a straw through the lid of my drink. Nobody just vanishes.
I wish you could just disappear.
Though I guess if you wanted to disappear, this would be the place to do it. Outside the city limits, the nights are dark and old, and people who vanish are never seen again.
About the Author:Cassandra's life was changed forever when she was taken captive by a haunted college yearbook as an Ohio University senior in the summer of 2004. Ten years later, she started work on Mary, Everything to make sense of the experience. Bathed in summer sunlight and crafted from early 2000s punk rock, Cassandra's goal is more than just telling a story - she wants to take you captive, too.
She lives in central Ohio with her wife, house rabbits, and video games.
And of course, her own ghostly memories.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/cassieyorke87
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cassieyorke1921
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cassieyorke1921/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/20211211.Cassandra_Yorke
TheStoryGraph: https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/dc35e2b2-2257-48a6-b5b4-db307f06ac01
a Rafflecopter giveaway
June 18, 2021
A Bewitching Friday
Road to Juneau by Liam Quane Virtual Book Tour #bewitchingbooktours http://ow.ly/QI4P50Fdl8P
Guns and Smoke The Fool’s Adventure Series Book One by Lauren Sevier and A. Smith - Dystopian/Western Romance - Life should be about more than just surviving. #bewitchingbooktours http://ow.ly/3dnf50Fdl31
INTERVIEW WITH CORI COOPER (Bake Believe) #bewitchingbooktours http://ow.ly/2fHC50Fcpjf
Falling in love was never part of the plan...
Wintersfall- Gen-Heirs: The Guardians of Sziveria by Sarah Westill
https://amzn.to/3whBX3y @authorsarahwestill
#Fantasy #PNR #ParanormalRomance #GenHeirs #TheGuardiansofSziveria #SarahWestill #WhatToRead #SummerReads #NewRelease #NewBook
Author Interview - Road to Juneau by Liam Quane #SciFi #Fantasy #authorInterview #bewitchingbooktours http://ow.ly/5p5t50Fbx8g
INTERVIEW - HISTORICAL LGBTQ+ - MARY, EVERYTHING (The Flapper Covenant, #1) by Cassandra Yorke #bewitchingbooktours http://ow.ly/lpaG50Fbx6i
Lauren Sevier and A. Smith Chat About Juggling Writing and Family #bewitchingbooktours http://ow.ly/3Vsq50F86KZ
INTERVIEW WITH CASSANDRA YORKE (Mary, Everything-The Flapper Covenant Series) #bewitchingbooktours http://ow.ly/umqW50F86Mf
Bake Believe by Cori Cooper
https://www.instagram.com/p/CQQ0UhQNchQ/
#Fantasy #PNR #ParanormalRomance #YAFantasy #Giveaways #AmazonGiftCardGiveaway #WinFreeBooks
Mary, Everything by Cassandra Yorke
https://www.lisasworldofbooks.net/202...
June 17, 2021
A Bewitching Thursday
INTERVIEW WITH CORI COOPER (Bake Believe) #bewitchingbooktours http://ow.ly/2fHC50Fcpjf
Road to Juneau by Liam Quane #bewitchingbooktours http://ow.ly/jUty50FcpuI
Falling in love was never part of the plan...
Wintersfall- Gen-Heirs: The Guardians of Sziveria by Sarah Westill
https://amzn.to/3whBX3y @authorsarahwestill
#Fantasy #PNR #ParanormalRomance #GenHeirs #TheGuardiansofSziveria #SarahWestill #WhatToRead #SummerReads #NewRelease #NewBook
Guns and Smoke: The Fool’s Adventure Series, Book One by Lauren Sevier and A. Smith https://www.instagram.com/p/CQOVtIjr8s1/
Spotlight & Excerpt: Mary, Everything + Giveaway #bewitchingbooktours http://ow.ly/8LBL50Fcpo0
Book Spotlight & #Giveaway ~ Guns and Smoke: The Fool’s Adventure Series, Book One by Lauren Sevier and A. Smith @LaurenSevier @abbiewritesx ~ Dystopian, Western Romance #bewitchingbooktours http://ow.ly/VbcK50Fbx4M
#WhatToRead #SummerReads #Fantasy #PNR #ParanormalRomance #YAFantasy #Giveaways #AmazonGiftCardGiveaway #WinFreeBooks
Wintersfall Gen-Heirs: The Guardians of Sziveria Book One by Sarah Westill #Fantasy #PNR
Falling in love was never part of the plan...
WintersfallGen-Heirs: The Guardians of Sziveria Book OneSarah Westill ASIN: B091G1HQYVPublisher: ISL MediaPublication date : June 3, 2021Genre: Fantasy, Paranormal Romance
When a professional assassin’s daughter goes searching for her mother and sister’s killer, she never expected to fall in love…
With her inherited ability to handle a gun and know exactly how to use it, Katria is a valuable tool for the Sziverian government. In exchange for a deeper investigation of their deaths, she agrees to work for the First Intelligence Office.
Haunted by a dark family history, Sean Blackbain escapes the whispers by leading an Intel Guardian team.
All he wanted was to disappear.
Then a botched assignment sends the team home. Sean and Katria learn the contracts they signed three years ago were for more than work. They’re married. Away from dark alley danger and secret missions, they find themselves thrust into the glitz and deception of the ranked Guardian society.
As a Sympath, Sean can feel and absorb people’s emotional states, including the desire his new wife can’t hide. Fighting against their attraction is useless, and he quickly discovers he’ll do anything to keep her safe. Which turns out to be more difficult than he ever anticipated. The more Katria digs into the murders, the more danger seems to find her…
https://amzn.to/3whBX3y
#Fantasy #PNR #ParanormalRomance #GenHeirs #TheGuardiansofSziveria #SarahWestill #WhatToRead #SummerReads #NewRelease #NewBook
June 16, 2021
A Bewitching Wednesday
Interview - The Somewhere I See You Again by Nancy Thorne #YARomance #bewitchingbooktours http://ow.ly/KWVb50Fbxas
Author Interview - Road to Juneau by Liam Quane #SciFi #Fantasy #authorInterview #bewitchingbooktours http://ow.ly/5p5t50Fbx8g
INTERVIEW - HISTORICAL LGBTQ+ - MARY, EVERYTHING (The Flapper Covenant, #1) by Cassandra Yorke #bewitchingbooktours http://ow.ly/lpaG50Fbx6i
INTERVIEW - Young Adult - BAKE BELIEVE (Bake Believe, #1) by Cori Cooper #bewitchingbooktours https://thebookjunkiereadspromos.blog...
Book Spotlight & #Giveaway ~ Guns and Smoke: The Fool’s Adventure Series, Book One by Lauren Sevier and A. Smith @LaurenSevier @abbiewritesx ~ Dystopian, Western Romance #bewitchingbooktours http://ow.ly/VbcK50Fbx4M
#WhatToRead #SummerReads #Fantasy #PNR #ParanormalRomance #YAFantasy #Giveaways #AmazonGiftCardGiveaway #WinFreeBooks
June 15, 2021
A Bewitching Tuesday
The Somewhere I See You Again by Nancy Thorne #YARomance #bewitchingbooktours http://ow.ly/YTTc50FaBid
Road to Juneau by Liam Quane #SciFi #Fantasy #bewitchingbooktours http://ow.ly/iwQw50FaBgG
Bake Believe by Cori Cooper #bewitchingbooktours http://ow.ly/gUtm50FaB8P
Mary, Everything by Cassandra Yorke Virtual Book Tour #bewitchingbooktours http://ow.ly/t9o550FaBdL
Guns and Smoke by Lauren Sevier and A. Smith
https://www.facebook.com/bookpimpette...
#GunsandSmoke #GunsandSmoke2021
INTERVIEW WITH CASSANDRA YORKE (Mary, Everything-The Flapper Covenant Series) #bewitchingbooktours http://ow.ly/umqW50F86Mf
Lauren Sevier and A. Smith Chat About Juggling Writing and Family #bewitchingbooktours http://ow.ly/3Vsq50F86KZ
#WhatToRead #SummerReads #Fantasy #PNR #ParanormalRomance #YAFantasy #Giveaways #AmazonGiftCardGiveaway #WinFreeBooks
Review of Million Dollar Demon by Kim Harrison
Million Dollar Demon by Kim HarrisonMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Harrison never disappoints.
The Hollows is my favorite series of all time and when it ended I felt like I'd lost a friend. But when the series came back...I was thrilled to have Rachel and the gang back again. Even if things are a little different now.
The church is unliveable, Jenks and Rachel are looking for a new place but having no luck. Then they realize why. The new master vamp is trying to run them out of town. She doesn't want Rachel in her way.
The new master vamp is crazy in ways Rachel hasn't dealt with before but she has to figure it out soon or leave Cinci because the city isn't big enough for both of them. Rachel either has to take on a leadership role she is very reluctant to accept or let the new master destroy the people Rachel has tried so very hard to protect.
Rachel is still on the outs with Al so he's no help, she reluctantly turns to Hodin for help.
Full of twists, turns, and unexpected alliances Million Dollar Demon puts Rachel through hell and into a role she didn't want.
You won't want to put this book down.
I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for a review.
View all my reviews
Read an Excerpt from THE WISTERIA SOCIETY OF LADY SCOUNDRELS by India Holton
Praise for The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels
“Easily the most delightfully bonkers historical fantasy of 2021!” —Jen DeLuca, author of Well Met
“It reminds me of The Princess Bride, except swoonier and more fantastical. It's an instant beloved favorite.”—Sarah Hogle, author of You Deserve Each Other
“The most charming, clever, and laugh-out-loud funny book I’ve read all year—it is impossible not to fall in love with its lady pirates, flying houses, and swoon-worthy romance.”—Martha Waters, author of To Have and to Hoax
About The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels
The Princess Bride meets Kingsman in this fantastical romance debut about a delightfully proper young Victorian lady's quest to save her kidnapped aunt while navigating magical hijinks.
Cecilia Bassingwaite is the ideal Victorian lady. She's also a thief. Like the other members of the Wisteria Society crime sorority, she flies around England drinking tea, blackmailing friends, and acquiring treasure by means far more interesting than purchase. Sure, she has a dark and traumatic past and an overbearing aunt, and no, she's not technically an official member of the Society yet, despite years of petitioning--but all things considered, it's a pretty pleasant existence. Until the men show up.
Ned Lightbourne is a sometimes assassin who is smitten with Cecilia from the moment they meet. Unfortunately, that happens to be while he's under direct orders to kill her. His employer (one of them, anyway) is Captain Morvath, who possesses a gothic abbey bristling with cannons and an unbridled hate for the world. He intends to rid England of all its presumptuous women, starting with the Wisteria Society. Ned has plans of his own. But both men have made one grave mistake: Never underestimate a woman.
When Morvath kidnaps the members of the Wisteria Society, Cecilia is forced to team up with her devilishly handsome would-be assassin (who seems quite inept indeed), face her demons, and risk her life to save the women who raised her--hopefully proving, once and for all, that she's as much of a scoundrel as the rest of them.
THE WISTERIA SOCIETY OF LADY SCOUNDRELS by India Holton
Berkley Trade Paperback Original | On Sale: June 15th, 2021
Excerpt
There was no possibility of walking to the library that day. Morning rain had blanched the air, and Miss Darlington feared that if Cecilia ventured out she would develop a cough and be dead within the week. Therefore Cecilia was at home, sitting with her aunt in a room ten degrees colder than the streets of London, and reading aloud The Song of Hiawatha by “that American rogue, Mr. Longfellow,” when the strange gentleman knocked at their door.
As the sound barged through the house, interrupting Cecilia’s recitation mid-rhyme, she looked inquiringly at her aunt. But Miss Darlington’s own gaze went to the mantel clock, which was ticking sedately toward a quarter to one. The old lady frowned.
“It is an abomination the way people these days knock at any wild, unseemly hour,” she said in much the same tone the prime minister had used in Parliament recently to decry the London rioters. “I do declare—!”
Cecilia waited, but Miss Darlington’s only declaration came in the form of sipping her tea pointedly, by which Cecilia understood that the abominable caller was to be ignored. She returned to Hiawatha and had just begun proceeding “toward the land of the Pearl-Feather” when the knocking came again with increased force, silencing her and causing Miss Darlington to set her teacup into its saucer with a clink. Tea splashed, and Cecilia hastily laid down the poetry book before things really got out of hand.
“I shall see who it is,” she said, smoothing her dress as she rose and touching the red-gold hair at her temples, although there was no crease in the muslin nor a single strand out of place in her coiffure.
“Do be careful, dear,” Miss Darlington admonished. “Anyone attempting to visit at this time of day is obviously some kind of hooligan.”
“Fear not, Aunty.” Cecilia took up a bone-handled letter opener from the small table beside her chair. “They will not trouble me.”
Miss Darlington harrumphed. “We are buying no subscriptions today,” she called out as Cecilia left the room.
In fact they had never bought subscriptions, so this was an unnecessary injunction, although typical of Miss Darlington, who persisted in seeing her ward as the reckless tomboy who had entered her care ten years before: prone to climbing trees, fashioning cloaks from tablecloths, and making unauthorized doorstep purchases whenever the fancy took her. But a decade’s proper education had wrought wonders, and now Cecilia walked the hall quite calmly, her French heels tapping against the polished marble floor, her intentions aimed in no way toward the taking of a subscription. She opened the door.
“Yes?” she asked.
“Good afternoon,” said the man on the step. “May I interest you in a brochure on the plight of the endangered North Atlantic auk?”
Cecilia blinked from his pleasant smile to the brochure he was holding out in a black-gloved hand. She noticed at once the scandalous lack of hat upon his blond hair and the embroidery trimming his black frock coat. He wore neither sideburns nor mustache, his boots were tall and buckled, and a silver hoop hung from one ear. She looked again at his smile, which quirked in response.
“No,” she said, and closed the door.
And bolted it.
Ned remained for a moment longer with the brochure extended as his brain waited for his body to catch up with events. He considered what he had seen of the woman who had stood so briefly in the shadows of the doorway, but he could not recall the exact color of the sash that waisted her soft white dress, nor whether it had been pearls or stars in her hair, nor even how deeply winter dreamed in her lovely eyes. He held only a general impression of “beauty so rare and face so fair”—and implacability so terrifying in such a young woman.
And then his body made pace, and he grinned.
Miss Darlington was pouring herself another cup of tea when Cecilia returned to the parlor. “Who was it?” she asked without looking up.
“A pirate, I believe,” Cecilia said as she sat and, taking the little book of poetry, began sliding a finger down a page to relocate the line at which she’d been interrupted.
Miss Darlington set the teapot down. With a delicate pair of tongs fashioned like a sea monster, she began loading sugar cubes into her cup. “What made you think that?”
Cecilia was quiet a moment as she recollected the man. He had been handsome in a rather dangerous way, despite the ridiculous coat. A light in his eyes had suggested he’d known his brochure would not fool her, but he’d entertained himself with the pose anyway. She predicted his hair would fall over his brow if a breeze went through it, and that the slight bulge in his trousers had been in case she was not happy to see him—a dagger, or perhaps a gun.
“Well?” her aunt prompted, and Cecilia blinked herself back into focus.
“He had a tattoo of an anchor on his wrist,” she said. “Part of it was visible from beneath his sleeve. But he did not offer me a secret handshake, nor invite himself in for tea, as anyone of decent piratic society would have done, so I took him for a rogue and shut him out.”
“A rogue pirate! At our door!” Miss Darlington made a small, disapproving noise behind pursed lips. “How reprehensible. Think of the germs he might have had. I wonder what he was after.”
Cecilia shrugged. Had Hiawatha confronted the magician yet? She could not remember. Her finger, three-quarters of the way down the page, moved up again. “The Scope diamond, perhaps,” she said. “Or Lady Askew’s necklace.”
Miss Darlington clanked a teaspoon around her cup in a manner that made Cecilia wince. “Imagine if you had been out as you planned, Cecilia dear. What would I have done, had he broken in?”
“Shot him?” Cecilia suggested.
Miss Darlington arched two vehemently plucked eyebrows toward the ringlets on her brow. “Good heavens, child, what do you take me for, a maniac? Think of the damage a ricocheting bullet would do in this room.”
“Stabbed him, then?”
“And get blood all over the rug? It’s a sixteenth-century Persian antique, you know, part of the royal collection. It took a great deal of effort to acquire.”
“Steal,” Cecilia murmured.
“Obtain by private means.”
“Well,” Cecilia said, abandoning a losing battle in favor of the original topic of conversation. “It was indeed fortunate I was here. ‘The level moon stared at him—’ ”
“The moon? Is it up already?” Miss Darlington glared at the wall as if she might see through its swarm of framed pictures, its wallpaper and wood, to the celestial orb beyond, and therefore convey her disgust at its diurnal shenanigans.
“No, it stared at Hiawatha,” Cecilia explained. “In the poem.”
“Oh. Carry on, then.”
“ ‘In his face stared pale and haggard—’ ”
“Repetitive fellow, isn’t he?”
“Poets do tend to—”
Miss Darlington waved a hand irritably. “I don’t mean the poet, girl. The pirate. Look, he’s now trying to climb in the window.”
About the Author
India Holton lives in New Zealand. She's taught creative writing classes to high school students and written nonfiction and fiction pieces for various magazines.
Learn more on her website and connect with her on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.
