Update!

 

So, apologies for the break in writing. A few words of explanation for my faithful readers:

 

The next chapter was running a few days late due to being busy all of a sudden, but luckily Chloe had sent me some art of the ‘Sleen’ character, and as he makes his appearance in the next chapter I was going to be able to use that for chapter 6 even though Chloe hadn’t seen the chapter and couldn’t do any bespoke art until she did.

Technical Issues

I have at last been able to sign on to my Blogger account tonight. I've been unable to sign on for several days this week, for some unknown reason, not only on my iMac, but also my iPhone and iPad. I've been trying various things, to no avail, but randomly succeeded tonight. :)

Beware the Savage Jaw Chapter Five

Chapter Five: Silk handkerchief

“I’m sorry, Sir, I wasn’t aware you had arrived.”

Jonathan Stane was the last of the guests, other than the legendary and mysterious ‘Sleen’ himself, who had yet to appear. But Stane had arrived without any warning. I found him sitting in one of the living rooms, in an antique upholstered leather chair, gazing out at a half open veranda window, at the rain hammering down on the plank decking outside. He was perhaps in his mid-thirties with a shock of very dark hair that he kept short but fashionably messed up with a spot of wax between his fingers. I knew he was a prominent industrialist, because Rowell had told me so, and that he sat somewhere above Moorcroft in the Kur hierarchy, at roughly, but not quite the level of Montague, and well below the Tatrix, who was the most senior Kur conspirator present. 

Beware the Savage Jaw Chapter Four

Chapter Four: The Tatrix

15.05 on the 30^th December 2024:

There were two new guests that had arrived by helicopter and if the trajectory of their flight path had been anything to go by, they had been lucky to have made it here in one piece in these high winds. The guests were a man and a woman. The woman was maybe in her late sixties/early seventies but it was difficult to tell for sure because she had that elegant look seen on ageing movie starlets who had the benefit of collagen, Botox, lift and tuck operations, an on-staff hairdresser and personal trainer. She basically looked good for her age and could best be described as 'handsome' if no longer beautiful. Although she had obviously had some face work done (the tell-tale signs were the way her mouth might move when talking, but her eyes would not crease into laughter lines, suggesting heavy use of Botox) she hadn't succumbed to vanity sufficiently to dye her hair. It remained mostly grey, cut to a shoulder length bob with a long fringe and swept back and to the side. She was dressed in a long black skirt that reached to her ankles, two and a half inch pumps that looked very expensive and a grey charcoal silk blouse and tailored jacket. The clothes looked designer, possibly Italian, and they were matched with tasteful gold jewellery, predominantly bracelets. I noticed however that she wore no jewellery around her neck and she didn't have earrings of any kind. In Gorean terms both those things were significant by their absence. She could easily be the wealthy and well born wife of a rich businessman or senator, but something about the way she moved and regarded us suggested she was not simply a woman who stood in the shadow of her husband. She did however have a wedding ring on her left hand.

Beware the Savage Jaw Chapter Three

Chapter 3: The Sun Dome

14.29 on the 30^th December 2024:

“This feels so good,” said Marcia, the red silk girl, as she swam to the side of the pool and treaded water as she reached for a glass of wine that I had placed discretely at the pool side. It was red wine of course. The white silk girl drank white wine.

Honestly, that was a thing that was expected of them.

Beware the Savage Jaw Chapter Two

Chapter Two: Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?

13.22 on the 30^th December 2024:

Her singing voice was amazing.

She played pretty good piano too.

'Tonight with words unspoken

You say that I'm the only one

But will my heart be broken

When the night meets the morning sun'

The song was by Carole King and it sent shivers down my spine for I knew it very well indeed. The album was Tapestry and I played it a lot at university when I met... when I met Kurgus. Those were the days when I was a lovesick teenager and I wrote secret confessions in a pink diary with fluffy fur glued to the outside. 'I love him,' I would write, 'but does he love me?'

Beware the Savage Jaw Chapter One

Chapter One: The Gathering

Colonel Mustard in the conservatory with the candlestick?

No.

Reverend Green with the pistol in the lounge?

No.

Or my favourite, the only I always loved as a little girl: Miss Scarlet with the dagger in the ballroom? She was my femme fatale. I liked to think with Miss Scarlet it was always a crime of passion. Mr Black was going to leave her, or had been unfaithful, or perhaps had threatened to blackmail her good name for some past scandalous indiscretion. She did him in with a stiletto – always the weapon of choice for a woman, according to crime writers.