Tuesday's Tales - Flower

Welcome to Tuesday's Tales 

 

Today's word prompt is Flower and I've shifted to another WIP. My heroine takes off on Christmas day in an attempt to outrun the festivities. She has no destination in mind and ends up calling at a fully book B&B for directions to the nearest petrol station.

 

Thank you for coming by - and feel free to leave a comment.

Please don't forget to click the link below to go back to the main Tuesday Tale site for more stories by very talented authors.

 

 

The gravelled surface of the driveway glowed golden and silver. A welcoming contrast to more of the high dark, stark hedging she’d driven past for the last ten miles. The drive curved round to her right before the hedge ended and revealed a large colonnaded house. It reminded her more of an ancestral home than a commonal-garden B&B. Pity it was fully booked.

The charm of the place called to her.

She pulled the car to a stop in front of the stone steps and cut the engine and looked about her. A large sweep of lawn ended in another high hedge. No doubt edging the road she’d just left.

The sunshine reflected off the grey stonework, and glistening windows twinkled like diamonds. Whoever ran the place loved it. Even from where she still sat behind the steering wheel and peered up at the building an aura of warmth and love reached out to her.

To the right of the house trees, enough of them to describe them as a small wood ran way beyond the back of the building. Was it all part of the property, or did it run out into what she assumed would be more of the fields she’d glimpsed in the gaps and opening in the hedges? She picked up her bag and slid out from behind the wheel and looked behind her. The drive narrowed again from the semi-circle in front of the house, and rhododendrons already showing the promise of a full head of flowers next spring bowed to the lane that separated them. Too dark for her liking.

If she had a place like this she’d cut such large bushes back and create a sense of space. Not that the place needed it. It looked massive, and the grounds promised to be much the same. Did it have the proverbial fishing lake at the back of the property, or perhaps somewhere beyond the trees. Did the farmland she’d been passing belong to this place? How the other half lived. She’d have liked to spend at least one night here. Pity about the full booking. But she still needed to know how far until she found a petrol station that would be open today, so she slipped the strap of her bag onto her shoulder, pushed the wisp of hair the breeze had blown into her face back behind her ear and headed for the massive wood panelled door.

 

Thank you for reading this week's offering,
there are lots more amazing reads at Tuesday's Tales

Tuesday's Tales ~ Ghostly

Welcome to Tuesday's Tales 

This week's snippet returns to where we left off a couple of weeks ago.

 

Thank you for coming by - and feel free to leave a comment.

Please don't forget to click the link below to go back to the main Tuesday Tale site for more stories by very talented authors.

 

The put-put sound of the boat’s motor drew closer, seemed to Ludo to idle and then, slowly, faded away. Until he gasped for much needed air he hadn’t realised he’d been holding his breath. He looked back at his companion and noted the deep furrows between her eyes.

“Not disappointed are you?” Where the hell had that brainless line come from? He was, he knew that, but it didn’t mean she felt the same tug of— what? Attraction? Definitely.

Lust? Hell, yes, just say it as it was. It was one more crazy in twenty-four hours of crazy, the likes of which he’d never experienced before, and he’d experienced plenty of crazy in this lifetime.

The stare she directed at him should have douched the heat burning up inside him. It failed. He liked a challenge and unwittingly she’d sent out a challenge he’d take great pleasure in accepting.

The ghostly image of a dark-haired woman, her hair blowing in the warm breeze, her smile challenging the sun, snuck into his mind. He pushed it away. It was the past.

Gone. Dead and buried, along with his son, Jerrard. But this was another woman, no smile, for sure. But what a look, and he’d fall into those eyes anytime, dream or no dream. And this was no dream. The sound of the ignition whirring into life killed the distant memories and he looked at her then clung on as the car inched forward over the rutted track and headed for the main road.

Did she have a destination in mind? It seemed so as she didn’t hesitate to turn right and ease into the busy flow of traffic.

Thank you for reading this week's offering,
there are lots more amazing reads at Tuesday's Tales

Tuesday's tales ~Picture prompt

 

Welcome to Tuesday's Tales 

 

This week is Picture prompt week when we are constricted to 300 words inspired by the picture.

 

Thank you for coming by - and feel free to leave a comment.

Please don't forget to click the link below to go back to the main Tuesday Tale site for more stories by very talented authors.

 

 While this week's snippet is from the same WIP and is further on in the story, but may - or may not- be used in the final story. :-)

 

Ludo prowled round his sitting room ignoring the astronomically priced paintings on the walls. The only image in his mind was Kate’s face when he’d placed a fancy coloured drink on the table in front of her. Ashen, not pale, not white, but a deathly grey. What possessed him to assume that because every other female he knew had plumped for the fancy option that Kate would do too?

Not even the slap of his palm across his forehead banished her stricken look, her race for the door and her frantic dash across the car park, in the wrong direction. His hand shifted to the scratches she’d raked down his cheek when he’d caught up with her. Wherever the sight of the drink had taken her, she’d no longer been with him, hadn’t recognised him and fought him with a strength bourn of terror. It still astounded him nearly a week later, that no one had called the police to report a man attacking a woman in the car park. After all it had taken more than ten minutes to calm her down enough to persuade Kate to return to his car.

Her silence on the journey back concerned him nearly as much as her earlier reactions and convinced him not to leave her alone and to take her to his place. The silence continued when he showed her into his spare room, and minutes later returned with one of his t-shirts.

Should he leave her, offer to stay? He wanted to wrap his arms round the desolate figure standing in the middle of the room her arms wrapped round her waist in what looked like a death grip.  “Do you want to talk?”

The tears spilling down her cheeks wrecked him, and he swept her into his arms.

Thank you for reading this week's offering,
there are lots more amazing reads at Tuesday's Tales 

Tuesday's Tales ~ Letter(s)

 

Welcome to Tuesday's Tales  

Thanks for coming by.

This week our prompt word is Letter(s). My snippet continues from last week.

Enjoy - and feel free to leave a comment. And don't forget to click the link below to go back to the main Tuesday Tale site for more stories by very talented authors.

 

“What are you doing?” She’d slowed to a stop and cut the engine. “I thought you said we need to get out of here.”

“We do.” Her gaze rested on the plastic carrier bag on the floor at his feet. The second size choice clothes he’d stuffed back into the container.

“So what are we waiting for?”

She glanced up at him then beyond him, out the window. “For the boat to pass by.”

“And if they don’t?” He fought the urge to twist round and check of the vessel’s progress. “If they decide to pull in here and stay awhile, what do we do then?”

The wry smile that tipped her lips in a half-curve heated his blood and had him resorting to studying the bag of clothes at his feet. The pink and purple print of the letters morphed into the wry smile he’d been trying to evade. The thought of kissing his rescuer may not be sensible but it sure chased the chill out his bones. Those lips, still tantalizingly curved...

“Are you suggesting we make out in the car?” He swallowed the taste of his rising desire, turned his head to look out of the window in an effort not to inhale the scent of her. “We’re strangers, or do you come on to anyone in trousers?”

Bitterness swamped him. Did she expect a sexual reward for rescuing him?

“Of course not.” Her outraged denial brought his attention back to the woman.

“What?”

“I neither want nor expect any favours, sexual or otherwise, for rescuing you from the boot of my car. But—” she looked beyond him, “—if they come across a kissing couple in a car, hopefully they’ll do nothing more than thump on the roof, and exchange a few ribald comments on their way past.”

Damn but his ‘new’ jeans felt tight, his throat parched and his hands clammy. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d been so nervous at the thought of kissing a girl. Not that his companion was a girl. No indeed, the woman sitting beside him reeked of sensuality.

 

Thank you for reading this week's offering,
there are lots more amazing reads at Tuesday's Tales 

Tuesday's Tales - Short

Welcome to Tuesday's Tales  

This week our prompt word is SHORT. My snippet continues from last week.

Without waiting for his reply she stood, headed for the car and returned with a plastic carrier bag.

“The choice is limited but I tired to get something in more than one size.” She thrust the bag at him and pointed to the derelict barn. He looked at the ring of nettles, down at his bare feet, and back at his companion.

“There are sandals and slippers in the bag. I thought they may be easier to get on if the size is completely wrong.”

“Thank you.” Not knowing what else to say, he headed for the barn.

Somehow she’d guessed pretty well. He chose the slippers. They would keep his feet dry but they’d be more effective than being stung through the sandals.

He ignored the dust motes dancing in the sunbeams that slotted between the twisted slats and riffled through the contents of the bag. He pulled on the boxer shorts sporting a pink frog. No wonder they were in a charity shop. She’d guessed his size surprisingly well. The vest, he didn’t normally wear one, but slipped it over his head and revelled in the warmth. The brushed cotton chequered shirt had seen better days, but again, either she’d put some thought into her choices or been exceptionally lucky. It fit snugly across his broad shoulders. Okay the sleeves were a tad short, but normally he had his shirts made to order. She’d chosen jeans and he swore he could hear his goose-bumps sigh in relief and the warmth of the denim wrapped round them. No socks, but the comb more than compensated for that small oversight.

He stilled when he heard a rustling outside.

“We have to get out of here.” The woman’s voice, though low, reached him clearly. “There’s a boat just coming round the corner of the river, and it won’t be long before they’re close enough to see the car.”

Relief warred with concern. Careful to leave not traces of his intrusion Ludo pushed the door open wide enough to slide outside, pushed it shut behind him and followed her back to the car, which she’d turned round while she waited.

Without a pause in her stride she indicated the passenger door, and slid into the driving seat and had the car moving before he’d managed to shut his door. Once more she surprised him by not making a dash for cover. Instead she eased the vehicle forward keeping it in a low gear until they reached the short line of trees that lined a deeply rutted track.

 

Thank you for reading this week's offering,
there are lots more amazing reads at Tuesday's Tales 

Tuesday's Tales - Pretty

Welcome to Tuesday's Tales  

This week our prompt word is PRETTY and my snippet continues from last week. Having escaped their pursuers, Kate's now wondering how stupid she's been to help a stranger evade his attackers, and what possible retribution will fall on her head for her well-meaning but possible stupid actions. 

His deep voice resonated deep within her. Geeze how could she notice something like that in such a situation? Gathering her scattered wits Kate leaned in and helped the man to a kneeling position.

“No, it wasn’t me, and no, I don’t know who attacked you and bundled you into my car,” she said at the same time wondering how her voice came out so steadily when her insides were melting. “Who are you and why were you trussed up like a chicken and bundled into my car?”

Under the circumstances she shouldn’t notice his powerful build. Her hands should itch to release his bonds so they could skim over his torso, and further, not want to stroke all over that glistening skin.

Before he could respond she held up the scissors. “I’m sorry I only have these. I never thought to buy a knife to cut the cords.” She smacked her hand to her forehead and rushed to get a bottle of water out of the shopping bag on the back seat.

“Here, drink this.” She uncapped the bottle, held it to his lips and gradually tipped it up until he drained the contents dry. He held his hands out and watched her attempt to cut, and then saw through the nylon. The moment his hands were free the man tried to climb out of his prison.

“Wait.” Holding her hand up like a traffic cop Kate went back for the jersey she’d bought. “I had to guess your size,” she explained, “but put this on before you do anything else.” Not sure whether relief or disappointment roared through her system when the sweater fell below his hips, Kate moved closer to allow him to use her shoulder as a prop while he struggled to manoeuvre into a position to swing his legs over the sill of the car to allow her to release those bonds too.

“Who are you,” she asked again. “And why…”

“I don’t know why for sure, and although I have an idea of who, I’m not certain enough to name names.”

Dropping to her knees, Kate began cutting through the nylon cord. And wondered whether she was out of her mind to release a stranger who refused share his name or explain who had dumped him in her car and why. Anger nudged her concern to one side. Had she been mad to drive away knowing he was in her boot? And to do so knowing a bunch of strangers were now after her as well as the man waiting for her to free his legs? Upon reflection it seemed pretty stupid.

“I won’t hurt you.”

His voice snapped her out of her contemplation and she realised she’d sat back on her heals, her hands, still holding the scissors, resting in her lap.

 

Thank you for reading this week's offering,
there are lots more amazing reads at Tuesday's Tales 

Tuesday's Tales ~ Picture Prompt

Tuesday's Tales - Curly

Welcome to Tuesday's Tales  

 

 

This week is our picture prompt  and my snippet moves on a bit from last week My heroine has found a deserted place where she can safely release her unwanted passenger from the boot/trunk of her car.

Quarter of an hour later she spotted a turnoff that appeared to head in the general direction of a wood.

“Turning off,” she sang out.  “Hopefully I’ll be able to let you out if there’s no one around. Just hang in there.”

Encouraged by the bumpy track Kate slowed right down and came to a stop beside row of overgrown bushes. Not a known public recreation area, more likely private property, she thought as she slid from the car and raced round to lift the boot lid. Light bounced off nearby water. A lake? A pond? Did that mean she had stopped near someone’s house? She hoped not.

Sweat shone slick and damp on the man’s skin. His eyes remained closed and he didn’t shift when she struggled to remove the case she’d wedged behind his back.

“Damn.” Her curse echoed on the humid air. She’d forgotten to get a knife to cut his ropes. Dashing to passenger door Kate delved into her bag and came up with her nail scissors. The nylon cords binding the victim may not be very thick, but she expected her small pair of scissor would struggle to cut through them. Not sure what she was looking for Kate searched her surroundings for something that might cut through the bonds more easily. A long dilapidated shed, its wooden doors all hanging off the hinges, and the corrugated tin sheeting on the roof looked as though it my dissolve into dust if something touched it. It looked too lonely and neglected to be part of someone’s home.

With a sigh she cast another assessing glance at the man and found herself under observation.

“I sincerely hope you were not the person who knocked me senseless this morning. At least I presume it was this morning.”

 

Thank you for reading this week's offering,
there are lots more amazing reads at Tuesday's Tales 

Tuesday's Tales - Curly

Welcome to Tuesday's Tales  

This week our prompt word is CURLY and my snippet moves on a bit from last week and is from the third chapter. My heroine has one chance of evading her pursuers. Will she succeed? Find out more...

She had to make a choice. And do it now. Right or left? 

She inhaled a deep slow breath and waited for the calm to flow over her.  She guided the car into the left lane.  Five cars separated her from her pursuers.  If traffic jammed the road beyond the corner, she'd lose her one good chance of losing her tail.

The lights turned green, and the cars ahead edged forwards.  Crowds waiting to cross shuffled for position; a mother grabbed a toddler who'd stepped out in front of her.  Kate hit the break, swept a glance in her rear-view mirror, smiled when she saw a bright red sports car swerve in front of her followers, then she lifted her foot from the break, released the clutch and eased her car round the bend, and prayed..

Immediately she turned left again into a narrow alleyway. Someone upstairs had heard her prayers.  She slipped low in her seat and kept a vigilant watch on the mirror above her.  The sporty red car zoomed past, followed more sedately by a silver estate car, and a dark saloon she couldn't identify, and there!  Everything shifted into slow motion as the black four-by-four passed the end of the alleyway.

She beat back the urge to back out and race off in the opposite direction.  She forced herself to open her door and step out from the car.  She gagged at the stench of rotting garbage.  Her legs shook so much she had to grab the car door to remain upright.  Traffic noise engulfed her.  Petrol fumes mingled with stale food and rotting garbage spilling out of commercial refuse skips lining the alley walls.  She inhaled it all without a thought, gasping for air to fill lungs starved of oxygen while she half expected the black car to return.  Keeping to the shadowed side of the alley, Kate reached the street in time to see her pursuers disappearing round the corner. What of the second car? Had it gone straight ahead?

She didn't have much time before they realised they'd lost her, which meant she had to leave of the alley and away from the area.

Ten minutes later she followed the road signs to the south coast.  She needed money.  Cash!  And she needed it now, before she travelled far enough to allow her enemies to discover her destination.  She had some urgent shopping to attend to.  Within moments she pulled into a car park.  She parked in a central, easily observed spot, and, without a backward glance, headed for the shopping mall.

Families with loaded baskets passed her on their way to their cars.  Laughter and childish squeals of delight warred with fractious voices, demanding partners and offspring do the owner’s bidding.

Cheap female scent and car fumes created a heady mix she longed to escape from.  She entered the fist shop in the Mall and walked through to an alternative exit.  Within moments she found a bank and using her business account, withdrew enough cash to last her for a couple of weeks.  She hoped no one would wonder at a large cash withdrawal from her business account.  Lazily she glanced at her surroundings.  Grey-pink chairs sat on deep blue carpet, electronically controlled doors swished open and shut as people approached them.  The sound of the tellers’ voices, muffled by the security glass, hummed behind her.  A young mother with two children clinging to the handles of a pushchair entered. 

"’Excuse me.” Kate smiled at the young woman.  “I’m looking for a nearby charity shop.”

The woman hesitated, a boy with curly, ebony hair, and a girl with a blonde fall of hair to her waist, moved to cling to her legs, and they all looked as though they hadn’t eaten in a week. “Turn right, out the door, and two doors down.”

Before Kate could thank her, the little family pushed past her and joined the queue waiting for attention.

 

Thank you for reading this week's offering,
there are lots more amazing reads at Tuesday's Tales 

Tuesday's Tales ~ Ribbon

Welcome to Tuesday's Tales  

Way-Hay! Tuesday's Tales is back, after a short summer break. This week our prompt word is RIBBON and my snippet is from the opening scene in the 2nd chapter. My hero is in for a nasty surprise when he regains consciousness....

Pain and bitter cold threatened to spin him back into the blackness. His head ached and his face throbbed. Something hard, wedged behind his back, pinned him down against the freezing metal floor of his prison. He tried moving and groaned. Ropes cut into his wrists and ankles and noise seeped into his woozy brain. A whooshing sound that overrode the pounding of his blood in his ears.

Movement. Judging by the blackness around him, and the constant sound of an engine, he was trussed up like a chicken and in the boot of a vehicle. The blast of a nearby horn warred with the pain in his head and he swallowed another groan. Better whoever was driving thought him still senseless. How long had been out? Hard to say because the last thing he could remember was going to bed. Last night? Was it still night time, or later?

He vaguely remembered seeing a ribbon of light seeping between the crack in the curtains. So, not night time.  Fighting against the pain he tried to marshal his thoughts. He’d been asleep when something woke him, but before he could try and work it out, the blow to his head knocked him senseless. Had the intruder attacked him? If so why? And what about the female voice that filtered into his semi-consciousness? Where did she fit in, if she fitted in at all?

The muffled sound of a female singing along to the radio reached him. Good lard, was his attacker a female? His cousin’s mother was a formidable woman but even she wouldn’t stoop to physical violence on her nephew. Unless of course, she was part of…

He tensed when he heard the engine change pitch. Were they stopping would someone come and let him out? No, the engine was idling. Lights? God knew he didn’t want to remain incarcerated in the vehicle but until he could mentally prepare himself he’s take however more minutes he could get to sort out his thoughts and to try and make sense of what was happening to him.

Thank you for reading this week's offering,
there are lots more amazing reads at Tuesday's Tales 

Tuesday's Tales ~ Free

Welcome to Tuesday's Tales

 

This week's prompt word is free, and so I have picked a new scene in my wip Born Again.

 

literatecomments.com

It seemed to be a happy town. They had some kind of festivities going on in the park today that spilled over into the streets, with stalls, their gaily coloured awnings blowing in the breeze. Children ran up and down, carefree in the no-car zone street, which yesterday had been packed with vehicles. Adults strolled along some alone, others, couples holding hands. Behind the scenes Amanda assumed there’d be stress, but looking out of her bedroom window everything looked like one big celebration.

The weather, too, was offering support with the sun climbing in the sky, and pretty little white clouds floating past, some more speedily than others. Music, all jumbled up, blared from the fairground set up on the edge of the park, which was enjoying a busy trade. A group of three adults passed beneath her window and she watched them head for the park. Due to the number of friends who stopped their progress she didn’t think they’d make it anytime soon. It warmed her heart to see the man, taller than his grey-haired companions, sling a careless arm round the woman’s shoulders, while with the other, he cuffed the other man on the arm and they all laughed.

A pang of loss shot straight o her heart. This time last year she and her grandmother used to go everywhere together. Now she was on her own. The woman left a gaping hole in her heart and she still didn’t know what to do to fill it. She shrugged it away. No point feeling sorrow for herself on this gorgeous morning. Better, by far, to go out there and join the crowds.

It didn’t matter that she’d originally intended simply to stay the one night and move on, as she had since selling her grandmother’s house. Perhaps her friends were right and she’d made decisions to soon after the funeral, but Amanda needed to find herself. To discover her true self. So she’d cut ties with her past and been moving ever since.

 

Thanks for reading this week's offering,
there are lots more amazing reads at 

 Tuesday's Tales 

Tuesday's tales - Lemon

Welcome to Tuesday's Tales
This week I'm returning to my WIP Born Again. Amanda has returned to her bed & breakfast accommodation after rushing away from the fairground...  

 

The scent of lemon furniture polish assailed her the moment she opened the bedroom door, ousting recent events at the fair ground allowing loss and guilt to fill the vacuum.   How come she hadn’t noticed the scent when she was first shown into the room earlier in the day?

The night she’d learned of her origins. The night that weird happenings in her late grandfather’s room sent her scuttling back to her grandmother.

The night her life changed forever.

She pushed the door closed behind her, looked round the bed and breakfast accommodation and wondered whether she should cancel her second night’s booking and leave first thing in the morning.

What was she doing here anyway? It was just another destination in her self-imposed ‘time-out’ to try and find herself. But that would never happen while she aimlessly wandered from one end of the country to the other.

Running.

Where had that thought come from, and was it true? Was she running from her past, too afraid to face a future without the solid foundations she’d grown up with?

They hadn’t gone anywhere, had they?

Yes!  They had. However much she tried to hang onto the love lavished on her all her life, the lies, like a smoke screen, kept blurring the reality.

Shock kept her where she stood, her back to the door, the queen sized bed in front of her, and moonlight drifting in through the window to her left.

Was she running? She thought, if anything, she was working up the courage to start a search for her true family. But… There was that hateful three-letter word again. The one that knocked the props out from beneath all her good intentions.

Should she try?  Was it fair to the people to dredge up the past again? They probably moved on and not want to revisit the era of what surely must be their greatest pain.

But… The not knowing. If it was her, she knew the not knowing would eventually destroy her. If not physically…

On legs threatening to give way she staggered to the bed and dropped down.

A blast of music from the fair ground filtered through her window.

Something about the two men bothered her. If she stayed and tried to find out—what? What was is about them that stirred her psyche? Within all the metal confusion buzzing around in her brain, the one certainty that she’d never set eyes on either of them before remained steadfast. So why did they refuse to budge out of her head?

She looked at her travelling clock on the bedside table. Ten-thirty. Not dark, but dark enough for the moon to spread her light around the room.

The knock when it came didn’t surprise her.

 

 

Thank you for reading this week's offering, 

there are lots more amazing reads at  

Tuesday's Tales