This man had elevated me to a position of mild authority in a heartbeart. That he had no thought for anyone’s interests but his own was a surety. I knew of his lineage. Son of a Crusader and that father subsequently a leper. Son of a noble whose heritage was subsumed by greedier nobles and whose mother died when she should not have. A bitter man.
I washed, mended and folded not just his clothes but all those of the senior household members and at night was so exhausted, I could barely find a bed. I removed myself as far from others as I could and found a warm corner in a stall in the stables. I pilfered one of the heavy caparisons and wrapped myself in it for warmth and to protect my body from the scratching straw. But in truth I was so tired it wouldn’t have mattered if I had slept naked in a field of stubble.
With apologies etc etc etc . . . as before.
Of course, I lost my job and was cast onto the street with no back wages and had only a penny in my pocket. What does a penny buy these days? Our world is in a penny-pinching crisis, so precious little I can tell you.
I find it amazing that the Masked Ball fantasy flash-fiction, now over a month old, which used Richard Armitage’s Guy of Gisborne as the basis for the character of Niccolo de Fleury, is still getting views. For those who want to read the whole story, click on the chapters below, read and dream on!
The idea of holding a blog event would have sounded quite odd to me twelve months ago. 
That long ago I was only just coming to terms with Facebook and LinkedIn, followed by the dreaded 140 characters of Twitter. But on the lookout for ways in which to reach a readership, I came across ‘how to make a book-trailer’ on Nathan Bransford’s blog. Of course I couldn’t on my own, because technology and I don’t speak in the same language and so my brother (who runs a production house) did it to my brief. After that I felt ‘challenge’ biting at my heels and on reading all my favourite historical fiction blogs, came across the amaaaaazzzing vvb32 who seems to run brilliant events on a weekly basis.
From Rebecca.
The tapping on her window was so faint that if she hadn’t been listening for it Sarina would not have heard it. Although the term ‘listening for it’ in no way captured the anxiety and anticipation with which she had awaited Hugh’s visit. Yet, when he finally did arrive, it was unexpected. The hour had grown so late that she had given him up, retiring for the evening to read a little in an attempt to distract herself. Fortunately, she had just received from Parthenope an exquisite little book about a Masked Ball, which she was enjoying.
Just before you read the next chapter of the novella, we need to let you know that whilst almost all images have been re-instated, some have been lost. Including the one that related to the first question of the Scavenger Hunt. We have therefore introduced a new first question and ask that you go back to the list of questions to check that you have answered it. Our apologies, but it was beyond our control. We hope it won’t deter you from entering and completing the hunt. Goodluck!
THE MASKED BALL PROGRAMME:
Saturday May 1st, 10pm-midnight London time.
We suggest you use this time converter to work out the exact time in your part of the world so that you can log onto Mesmered and not miss a moment. And we also wish to say that as the evening progresses and as you all (we hope) become involved in the inevitable chat and gossip behind hands, pillars and aspidistras that happens at Balls, the timing may slow down and the event placements may even change a little. We also hope that by releasing the programme at this stage, that it gives you time to prepare the writing challenges that you have proved are within your ambit.
