Welcoming Center:
A black, blackout window minibus comes driving up the long driveway leading to the vineyard. It stops in front of adobe style building where several people are outside waiting for it. The black minibus stops in front of the building and the door opens as a Native American woman knocks gently on the doors.

“Can I sit down?” asked Casey.

“Please do. I’m finished here, and I have a team to brief. In case you have not noticed, the show opens in…?”
I looked at my watch.

CHAPTER 49
Sunlight was bright through the curtains, and my head was a little muzzy. I stretched to full length, and realised I wasn’t alone, and my T-shirt was gone. What… Oh. Right.

She started to stir as I moved, and then turned her head to look at me.

“Morning, you”

Rose covers up a yawn as she drives back home. The banquet was boring and the entertainment Ciarán did later was mildly entertaining. The other high rollers that were there might have been impressed with his act, but she noticed Sasha wasn’t amused or entertained. At some point during his act, she thought she saw Sasha cover up a yawn.

A smile forms on Rose’s face as she enjoys the drive back to her place. Tonight, she wasn’t going to bother with going on patrol. Most of the gangs, weapon traffickers, and drug dealers knew to stay out of her area.

Title

The New Girl at Uskweirs Manor

a pastoral romance by Miriam Robern

Girl Talk

Monmouthshire, May 1812

Ashbourne rapped on the bedroom door and gave Amelia the ghost of a smile. “It is the ungodly hour of… well, nearly noon, so there is a slight question as to whether my daughter is even out of bed.”

Title

The New Girl at Uskweirs Manor

a pastoral romance

by Miriam Robern

A Fateful House Party

Monmouthshire, May 1812

Miss Amelia Wright gained access to Uskweirs Manor by supplying a false name.  The attendant at the door dipped his head, murmured, “Of course, sir,” and gestured her within.

CHAPTER 47
I let her walk in before me, and not so I could get another view of her rear end. This was all going too quick, or so one of the Greek chorus of voices in my head was proclaiming, while another was insisting that going at any speed at all, over any period whatsoever, would remain too quick. Did I not love my wife? How could I even think of heading down that path?

“You’ve led kind of a sheltered existence,” she said, “being Jennifer only in relatively safe places at safe times. Most girls are in danger of that kind of thing at least a few times a year, if not every day — it depends on their circumstances. But it’s still worth it, being a girl.”

A disabled cargo ship deep in the Marris Wormhole leads to some unexpected changes for that ships captain.

This story will unfold in 7-10 chapters and be released on Fridays. Thank you for tagging along.

R

The sun was up, work was in thirty minutes, and her bladder was close to bursting. But Natalie did not get up from the bed. Mentally, she was just too exhausted, from Astian, from Kira, from Nathan, and from herself. She was tired of life.

CHAPTER 45
I had no answer to that, none that seemed adequate, so I simply reached across and squeezed the back of her hand, just as her mobile chirped from the glove box. I opened the cover and passed the phone across to her. A quick glance, then a shy smile, rather than the beam I was used to, or the brittle near-grimace I feared.

“Kul, Mike. They have all plumped for fish and chips, and he says not to bother with the bottle shop. His words: ‘Me real man, haz gotz booze’, and yes, all zeds, no esses”

She checked her face in the rear view mirror.

Being Samantha Masters

an homage-prequel to Being Christina Chase

The Simple Version

Sammy followed Rowan inside, creeping after her as quietly as possible.  She made no such allowance for the late hour (or, rather, the early hour) and clomped up the stairs to her room.  She weaved slightly as she went, and Sammy wondered if the cause was inebriation or exhaustion; the girl had ample cause for both.

As promised, another chapter of this, and none of you had to wait years this time! I'm improving!

Please enjoy.

Blake Medical Recovery Center, Napa Valley, Northern California:
Sara and Cindy look down at all the women and some men who have been brought to the center for help and recovery. Both of them couldn’t understand why anyone would forcibly turn innocent males and some women into the opposite sex.

“Mom and sis weren’t joking when they said that there would be days when this job would get to you.” Cindy looks at her twin sister standing next to her.

Boys can dream, can’t they?.

Bryce and Paul were boyhood friends. Many Saturday afternoons had been spent horizontal on sofas watching sports on the TV. As the years went by the cans of cola were replaced by beer, razors were in each bathroom and their voices had broken, of course. Commercial breaks were now occupied by discussions of the attractiveness (or otherwise) of various girls of their mutual acquaintance and the ruses needed to get them wearing as little as possible, as quickly as possible.