Stories tagged “victorian”
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Gates & Shadows
She stood before the gates, looking up at the aged iron and hesitating to touch them. It was close to eleven o’clock at night, and here she was, standing outside the Diviny manor, cowering like a mouse before its yawning gates. It was safe to say...
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Nightly Constitutional
She hadn’t the courage to call out. She had a feeling she’d be disturbing something if she would. Even so, Elinor lowered her voice to barely-recognizable rasp and called out for her lost companion. “Lisha! Li – sha! Here, girl....
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The Not So Secret Garden
Elinor felt stupid and scared as she squeezed herself into a narrow passage and walked towards the fresh breeze blowing in her face. She didn’t have the heart to walk into the manor itself through the doors, even though she knew the place had bee...
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Inside May Be Worse Than Outside
Necessity sometimes strained one’s logic and twisted common sense. What she was doing, standing in the foyer of Diviny Manor, she would never know. Get out of the rain, perhaps? It was a possibility. She was dripping, and so was Lisha. There was ...
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Floriography
Edward’s tea, not even half finished, had gone cold. So had Edward. Elizabeth picked up a crisp, white napkin and dabbed at the corners of her mouth. She had grown fond of him and his confident, though chaste, advances. In fact, of all her suitor...
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Violet
She hated her name as much as the cliché for which it stood. Violet had to be coaxed and cajoled out of her shell by those who found her pretty. When her father had arranged her to marry a jeweler from Oxford she thought it a blessing. But on their we...
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Tardy
Marcus Billows paced back and forth several times, checking his pocket watch every eleventh step. He had ceased to read the time, but nerves forced his shaking hand to depress the button atop the silently ticking device and reveal the stolid numbers in...
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Mirror
Lucielle puffed her hair with both gloved hands while scrutinizing her reflection in the ornate mirror which Marcus had purchased for her from a Chinaman in the Market. She had plead at his arm for hours until he, as is his way, relented and pulled the...
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Mysteries From the Past (homophone challenge)
They’re all afraid of the old rickety Victorian mansion up the hill behind the iron gate and weedy cemetery. They have good reason to be; it has a mysterious history. But no one will admit they are scared, nor tell me anything about it. I found a...
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When the Clock Stopped
Walters picked up the clock by its base and turned it over in his hands. There was a coating of brown dust on it; the face was smashed. The hands read 10:45. “Well,” his assistant Percival said, “at least we know when the burglar brok...
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Tired Providences
It was raining outside, a cold and heavy rain marching in offbeat steps. Lura rubbed at her wrinkles in the mirror, making sure they were all deep and prominent. Lines like mazes, winding, proud… Sandren’s voice pulled her out of her rapture. &...
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The will which says to them: "Hold on"
When they heard the fire from inside sputter and fade, the natives rushed forward. Shouting Zulus swarmed through the brush, their spears clattering from the walls of the mission and sticking in the mealie bags reinforcing the perimeter. Inside the wal...
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Footsteps
The woman burst into another room, which was actually a long, white hallway. Sterility and a lack of personality filled the air;the woman more sensed that than felt or smelled. Fluorescent lights flickered overhead, the white light leaving no shadows a...