Rainbow Snippets: Gentlemen’s Agreement

For this week’s Rainbow Snippets, I’ve chosen another few lines from my new release, Gentlemen’s Agreement, the fourth story in my Twelve Letters Regency romp series.

Authors who take part in Rainbow Snippets each weekend are encouraged to post a few lines from one of their stories on their blog and then link back to the group post on Facebook. I always enjoy joining in with Rainbow Snippets, especially to read and comment on everyone else’s choice of snippet.

I thought it would be fun to introduce the Napoleonic spy subplot in Gentlemen’s Agreement for this week’s Rainbow Snippet. Captain Ben Harding, one of my ensemble cast, has been tasked by a former senior officer to engage his socially active friends to look out for suspicious activity amongst the ton. At an evening party, Ben’s best friend Jo Everett explains the situation to another of their circle, Regency himbo Percy Havilland. Despite Ben’s reservations, as you can see, Percy grasps their remit at once!

“If I understand this correctly,” Percy said, looking suitably languid and faintly bored to denote he was being regaled with some oft-chewed-over gossip. “We’re to look out for certain persons who appear where they shouldn’t necessarily be, together with someone they wouldn’t normally be seen with?”

“Yes, something along those lines,” Jo agreed.

He was about to apologise for the vagueness of their remit when Percy nodded his head decisively as though reaching a conclusion. “So it’s a question of noticing unnatural behaviour together with a contrived interaction.”

Why didn’t I put it like that? Jo pondered as Percy’s words resonated, and their task made much more sense as a result.