This excerpt from my Daily Lines is taken from my new novella, “A Fugitive Green,”, which will make its publishing debut in SEVEN STONES TO STAND OR FALL in April, 2017:
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Minnie was perspiring, in spite of the cool morning, and the pin thrust through her straw hat had loosened. She paused, took off the hat, and was dabbing her face with a handkerchief when a male voice spoke in her ear.
“So here ye are!” it said triumphantly. “Jaysus God!” This last was the result of her having whipped the eight-inch hatpin from its moorings and aimed it at his breast.
“Who the blood helly are you, and what do you mean by following me?” Minnie demanded, glaring at him. Then she saw his eyes lift, seeing something over her shoulder, and the words,“,,, two body-guards…” dropped into her mind like pebbles dropped in water. Merde!
“Two,” she said flatly, and lowered the hatpin. “Mister O’Higgins, I presume? And… Mr. O’Higgins, as well?” she added, turning toward the other young man who had come up behind her. He grinned at her and bowed extravagantly, sweeping off his cap.
“Raphael Thomas O’Higgins, me lady,” he said. “Blood helly? Would that be a French expression, at all?”
“If you like,” she said, still annoyed. “And you?” She swung back to face the first pursuer, who was also grinning from ear to ear.
“Michael Seamas O’Higgins, Miss,” he said, with a bob of the head. “Mick, to my friends, and me brother there is Rafe. Ye were expecting us, I see?”
“Hmph. How long have you been following me?”
“Since ye left the house, sure,” Rafe said easily. “What was it spooked ye, would ye tell me? I thought we’d kept well back.”
“To be honest, I don’t know,” she said. The rush of fright and flight was fading from her blood, and her annoyance with it. “I just suddenly had a… feeling. Just something at the back of my neck. But I didn’t know someone was following me until I ran into the park and you—” nodding at Mick, “—ran in after me.“
The brothers O’Higgins exchanged a glance with lifted brows, but seemed to take this at face value.
“Aye, then,” Rafe said. “Well, we were to introjuice ourselves to ye at eleven o’ the clock, and I hear the bells sayin’ that’s just what it is now….so, Miss, is there anything we can be doin’ for you today? Any errands to be run, parcels picked up, perhaps the little small quiet murder on the side…?”
“How much is my father paying you?” she asked, beginning to be amused. “I doubt it extends to procuring murder.”
“Oh, we come cheap,” Mick assured her, straight-faced. “Though if it was to be anything of a fancy nature, beheading, say, or hiding multiple bodies, well, I won’t say but what that might not run into money.”
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This excerpt of the novella, titled “A Fugitive Green,” was posted by Diana on January 8, 2017 on her official Facebook page.
This page was last updated on Tuesday, January 17, 2017 at 1:00 p.m. (PT) by Diana’s Webmistress.