CHAPTER 58
I was back to the state of mouth Dad had commented on in the bell tower. Blake was sitting opposite me, rather than kneeling, and rather than a square box he had a little paper bag from the shop by the campsite gates, which I remembered included a jeweller’s. Apart from that, and the fact that my parents were sitting with us, it was as traditional as all hell.

My mouth, very simply, would not move in any organised way. Police, professional wasn’t working, but my mind was. From the way they were sitting, Mam and Dad must have been in on the proposal from an early stage, and I wondered if Blake had engineered the whole holiday so that it would be Venice, and therefore officially As Romantic As A Romantic Thing, before I clamped down on my racing thoughts.

Was he serious? Yes, clearly. Did I want this? My mouth took over, for it knew the answer before my mind did.

The muscle-torturing journey continues with unexpected happenings appearing often

 
Julina of Blackstone
Her Chronicles, Book 3

by Julia Phillips

086 – Say Hello to Haligo

Time on My Hands
Chapter 10: 199-200 CE: The Trip to Alexandria

With that Fiach reached over to pull her knives from the belts of the shocked guards. Once more she showed the knives were sheathed. “I can be quite deadly. However, like my husband Raben I’m a healer. I don’t like killing but some people can’t be talked out of being stupid.”

With that she did a back flip off the table kicking the leg of the tipped chair spinning it into the air, catching it, putting it upright before the table and sitting down... all in one fluid motion. The guards were clearly unnerved, stepping back from the little wildcat. The captain shivered knowing he and his men could have been easily killed by Fiach. The fantastical story the witnesses had told of the deadly whirlwind that engulfed the six much larger thugs was suddenly believable.