Category: Fantasy

It soon became obvious that the underlying philosophy of the home was that the women who ended up there deserved their fate. Deserved to be punished. It was not a place of joy. But Maddie did her best to spread cheerfulness among her fellow inmates. She’d taken to thinking of herself and those around her

She followed the matron up the sweeping, majestic staircase. It must once have been impressive, the gilding on it glistening in the light from many fancy candelabras hanging from the high ceiling. Maddie only imagined the candelabras. There were none, and the gilding had worn off in most places. But it would have been a

BE BRAVE FOR ME by ELAINE JOHNS Free Novel Chapter 22 ‘’Tis a friendly place, St Agnes,’ the man sitting next to her on the train had told her. He’d gone on to tell her about how people pulled together, helped neighbours out with the harvest and stuff. Brought vegetables to those who needed them

It hadn’t taken Maddie long to remove all traces of herself from the bedroom that she and Molly had shared. They’d laughed in this room, cried, sung the most ridiculous songs and talked about love and romance. The thought of returning to Cornwall again sent a small shiver of expectation through her. Surely it was

Factories, roads, railway lines, people’s homes. And 300 civilians. They all vanished in a single night in London: the night Maddie lost her best friend. The final goodbye to Molly Peters had been sad and brutal, and surreal. One mass funeral with hundreds of coffins laid side by side, in hastily dug trenches. It didn’t

It was strange, how things turned out, especially when you seemed to have no control over them. When you made no contribution to their outcome. Luck, he supposed. And Rudi didn’t argue with it. He’d been in the compound for almost a week now, watching the new airfield take shape. He’d got to know the

The mental anguish of leaving her was far worse than the physical pain in his leg as Rudi thrashed through the brambles and undergrowth. He’d watched her drive off, had been sheltering behind a rocky outcrop, hadn’t wanted to get too close in case she’d picked him out in her headlights and stopped to say

It was hard to believe that over two months had gone by since she’d been to Cornwall. Since the seismic shift in the universe that had turned her from a girl into a woman. Maddie had weaned herself off staring at his photograph every day now, like a dewy-eyed teenager. She was rationing herself to

In the morning, things had changed. Maddie could feel it in the air around her: it was heavy and depressive, and she felt it press down on her; the lightness held yesterday, gone. The rainbow that had wrapped its arms around her had fled as well. It wasn’t her imagination. She had called him a