Snippet: THE PAINTED HEART

Weekend Writing Warriors #8sunday

The Weekend Writing Warriors share 8-10 sentences over the weekend. Here are mine from the start of a historical novel set in Victorian London called THE PAINTED HEART.

This is in the beginning of the book when Miss Elzpeth James, governess to the Hurley twin’s collection of girls, has her first outing with Mr Blackburn as he attempts to win her over to become his Painted Sister.

Audio File ( seems to work best with google chrome)

London, 1898.

Mr. Blackburn pulled off his glove and picked up a piece caramel.
“I think this is the one. Open up, Miss James.”
Color flooded her face at his unexpected request, yet her mouth was open before she knew it.
She snapped it shut and pulled herself up.
“No thank you.”
He looked at her with his usual stoic regard and popped the caramel in his mouth. A subtle and mesmerizing change washed over his features. A softening in the usual hard lines around his eyes and mouth, a relaxing of his whole face. The changes were so intimate heat rippled through her chest as she watched how pleasure affected him. Her breath deepened, became a little irregular, somewhat awkward.
Could it really taste so wonderful?
Elspeth pulled her glove off and picked up one of those seductive caramels, brought it close to her nose and breathed it it.
His dark unreadable gaze followed her movements as she raised the caramel and put it in her mouth.
The impact was immediate.
The muscles in her face took on a will of their own, moving and showing things she didn’t want to show. Her heart beat faster and her throat tightened as the exquisite flavors flooded her mouth, her eyes welled up as her tongue danced with the taste of unleashed memories; of sun through a small cottage window, her mother so young laughing as her father spun her mother around grabbing the caramel out of her hands. The warmth of the kitchen, the smell of fresh baked sweets and a cat on her lap as she laughed at them and let the sugar of the caramel dissolve on her tongue.
That taste was the taste of happiness, of a time free of the pressures of the the world and all its realities. They were evicted a month later, she hadn’t eaten a caramel since. Hadn’t wanted to be reminded of what pleasure felt like, until today.