For this week’s Rainbow Snippets, I thought I’d choose another few lines from The Long Game, my newly released 18th-century novella. This story is available at all outlets, including Amazon, but as part of the JMS Books Advent Calendar event, it will be a free download for one day only on Friday, December 16th. It’s worth checking out the JMS Books website throughout the month until December 24th as there will be a recently published story available for free each day. I’ve been loading up with wonderful books for my TBR!
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.
This snippet is taken from the middle of The Long Game, set in London, about the love affair between Joshua Jones, an aspiring artist and young man of colour and Frank Bartlett, an older man and seasoned diplomat, at home amongst the highest political circles.
After ignoring his health and causing a bout of serious illness, Frank has been persuaded to recover at his country house in Berkshire. He’s accompanied by Joshua, who quickly realises the place is a source of stress for Frank, in particular his appalling and expensive brother Robert, who is the first speaker in this snippet.
Above that was the contempt that marred his handsome face as he remarked, “I assume this is another of your catamites, Francis? And a mulatto for the sake of variety.”
Frank snapped in an icy tone, “Mr. Jones is my confidential secretary and will be treated with nothing less than respect in my house.”
“Secretary, eh? Is that what you call ‘em these days?” Robert sneered, but his bravado subsided at Frank’s forbidding glare.
“Did you require any assistance, sir?” Joshua asked with perfect courtesy, rewarded by a gleam of humour on Frank’s face, as though he suspected Joshua was offering to assist his brother’s hasty exit.
It’s always exciting to share a Rainbow Snippet from a new release. The Long Game, my new 18th-century story set in the artistic salons, gaming hells and political turmoil of London is out this weekend, so I had to pick a snippet from it!
This story is available at all outlets and is currently in the 20% off new release sale at JMS Books. As part of the JMS Books Advent Calendar event, it will be a free download for one day only on Friday, December 16th. It’s worth checking out the JMS Books website throughout the month until December 24th as there will be a recently published story available for free each day. Free books, what’s not to love!
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.
This snippet is taken from the middle of The Long Game, about the love affair between Joshua Jones, an aspiring artist and young man of colour and Frank Bartlett, an older man and seasoned diplomat, at home amongst the highest political circles.
After trying to carry on with his diplomatic tasks during an illness, Frank collapsed, and his loyal servant, John together with Joshua, nursed him through the fever crisis. Once Frank regains consciousness, Joshua has to think fast in order to deal with the impatient patient…
Joshua walked into the bedroom with the bowl and placed it on the side table. The heartfelt joy of seeing Frank wide awake and fully conscious was tempered by his lover’s obstinate expression.
Frank rasped, “Where is John with the hot water to shave me? And where the hell are my clothes? I have to go out!”
Joshua perched on the edge of the bed. “And good afternoon to you, too, Frank. How pleasant to see that you have finally decided to live. John, being a man of good sense, has taken the precaution of concealing your linen. And if you don’t remain in bed, I’ll personally supervise your clothes to be burned.”
During the autumn of 1765 in London, Joshua Jones, a young working man of colour and aspiring artist, is grafting hard at his studies while earning his keep as a waiter in an exclusive St. James’ gambling club managed by his uncle.
The only cloud on Joshua’s horizon is the progress of his love affair with Frank Bartlett, an older man and unofficial diplomat who met and seduced Joshua the year before.
After an idyllic summer in Italy together, reality bites when they return to London, and Frank plunges into dealing with the disastrous political fallout from the proposed Stamp Act. Joshua understands his lover’s preoccupation but worries he is being pushed aside as Frank becomes so involved in diplomatic wrangling that he risks injuring his health. During tough times, Joshua is determined to stick with Frank. But will Frank take notice? And how can Joshua convince his true love that he is there for the long haul?
Excerpt:
As he left the table, his conversation concluded, Frank caught Joshua’s eye and gave him a nod as if to ask him to follow. With a glance around the room, checking that no guest needed his immediate attention, Joshua followed Frank into the service corridor.
Despite Frank’s pleasant expression, Joshua thought he resembled a death’s head in the murky lamplight.
“I don’t want to delay you,” he said, a worrying rasp in his voice. “But I wanted to tell you that I have to liaise with a select party of influential merchants this evening, then I must report to Burke after that, so God knows what time I’ll be free. So you needn’t bother coming to my rooms tonight.”
“Why not?” Joshua asked, reasonably enough. “I can simply go to bed and sleep.”
Frank looked uneasy at being contradicted.
“Well,” he said with an attempted smile that did not reach his tired grey eyes. “I’ll be out all night, and you’ll probably sleep more soundly in your own bed. It seems pointless to inconvenience you further, as there can be no sport in this for you.”
“Sport?” Joshua echoed. But in his haste to finish the discussion and move on to an urgent conference, Frank did not heed the warning edge in Joshua’s voice.
“It can’t be very entertaining for you to wait around for me endlessly,” Frank clarified.
Joshua looked steadily at Frank, his doubts and anxieties crystallising in a surge of anger.
“Sport? Entertainment? Do you assume they are my sole reasons for choosing to be with you?”
Frank’s diplomatic poise deserted him, and he looked taken aback. “Well, no, of course not,” he said, adopting a more conciliatory tone. “But it’s unfair of me to expect so much from you this past while, when I can give so little in return.”
Although these arguments had crossed Joshua’s mind as this dreary month had dragged on, it was like a slap in the face to hear Frank voice such reservations.
He raised his chin, his eyes meeting Frank’s in a blaze of indignation. “How timely to learn that after eighteen months or more, you regard me as so superficial,” he said coldly.
Frank was speechless, as if the brief discourse he had planned had unexpectedly veered into disastrous territory. Under normal circumstances, with Frank looking so worn and ill, Joshua might have compromised. But abruptly, he felt that the limit of his patience, stretched thin over the past weeks, had finally snapped.
He looked at Frank as he gathered himself to smooth over the sudden gaping impasse. “You know that’s far from true,” Frank began. “It occurred to me that our current situation was unsatisfactory and that you deserve far more consideration than I can lend you presently. I’m only trying to let you off lightly.”
“I wait for you in your rooms night after night by choice. I don’t need your damned consideration, thank you kindly. As for letting me off lightly? I’m not some giddy fly-by-night whore who will flit to the next man if you can’t spare me your attention. How dare you!” With a final furious glare, Joshua turned on his heel and stalked down the corridor towards the public rooms.
“Joshua!” Frank called after him, but Joshua paid no heed, even when Frank attempted to call his name again, and his voice cracked, prompting that awful tearing cough.
Ellie Thomas Romance 