A Bow Street Runner in WIP Wednesday
Some of the Bluestocking Belles’ more complicated box sets have had not just a common setting or event, but a bit of a puzzle – Who is sending gossip to the Teatime Tattler? (Storm and Shelter) Whose baby is the orphan with the amulet belonging in the village, delivered by a travelling couple who found him in France. (Under the Harvest Moon) And the one coming up, Love’s Perilous Road, in which the overarching question is, who is the highwayman?
Of course, that sets up a question about how to order the stories so we don’t let the cat out of the bag too soon! I hope, when you read our ten stories, that you’ll agree with the order we have chosen.
Of course, people in our stories were also asking that question, and one of them was Principal Officer Robert Pierce, sent by the Office of the Magistrate’s Court, Bow Street, London. My Bow Street runner’s case book forms a little vignette between each story, as he writes his thoughts about the events of the day, consigning his frustrations and sometimes his successes to paper, for his own eyes only. And yours, dear reader. Here is Casebook entry number 4.
The Casebook of Principal Officer Robert Pierce
The Office of the Magistrates’ Court, Bow Street, London
The clue of the trousers on the church steeple led nowhere. No one knows who put the trousers up there, and the curate swears he was the only man with a key. The locals are protective of “their” Captain Moonlight, but there will be a break soon. I am certain of it. Everyone makes a mistake sometime.
The second highwayman robbed another coach. Had ladies not been present, I am certain the man would have been shot, for the ladies were accompanied by some very competent gentlemen. It is a risky business, being a highwayman without a gang.
I am getting closer to Larcenous Lucy! Word has it she has been active in Brighton itself, so I am heading there in the morning.
If you’d like to know more about Robert, the trousers on the steeple, the two highwaymen (and possibly a third), Larcenous Lucy, smugglers, a ghost, a blackmailer, Fennians, and more – not to mention ten delightful romances, read Love’s Perilous Road, now on preorder, and published October 31st.
