Synopsis
London, 1865
Vera Sorokina loves reading the Penny Dreadfuls and immersing herself in tales of adventure, mystery, and romance. Her own days are filled with the often-mundane work of running the book and print shop she owns with her father. The shop offers her the freedom and income to employ and protect the poverty-stricken Londoners she's come to care about, and it gives her father something to do other than long for their hometown of St. Petersburg. She is grateful for the stability in their lives, but she often feels lonely.
Brogan Donnelly was born and raised in Ireland, but has lived in London for several years, where he's built a career as a Penny Dreadful writer. He has dedicated himself to the plight of the poor with the help of his sister. His membership in the secretive Dread Penny Society allows him to feel he isn't entirely wasting his life, yet he feels dissatisfied. With no one to share his life with but his sister, he fears London will never truly feel like home.
Brogan and Vera's paths cross, and the attraction is both immediate and ill-advised. Vera knows from experience that writers are never to be trusted, and Brogan has reason to suspect not everything at her print shop is aboveboard. When the growing criminal enterprise run by the elusive and violent Mastiff begins targeting their area of London, Brogan and Vera must work together to protect the community they've both grown to love. But that means they'll need to learn to trust each other with dangerous secrets that have followed both of them from their home countries.
Excerpt
After an hour or so, the first wave of readers arrived, eager for a copy of the popular tales and the chance to lark about in made-up worlds, far from the heavy lives they lived. Men,
boys, women, girls, all clamored around the penny serials. If the shop was bigger, it likely would’ve seemed less successful. As it was, looking like they had a crowd was good for business.
“Miss Vera?” Olly called her over. He was eight years old, always a bit filthy, and as keen as mustard to be part of anything and everything. He was always knocking about the
shop when new tales arrived, though he seldom had money to spend. “This one’s new, i’n’t it?” He held up a copy of Brogan Donnelly’s latest.
“It is, yeah.” She crossed over to him. “Have you read this author before?”
“I ain’t, no.”
Vera had suspected as much. She addressed the gathered boys as a whole. “His stories ain’t about children like Fletcher Walker’s or Lafayette Jones’s. Might be you’ll not like ’em as well.”
“We ain’t weak as water,” Burnt Ricky objected.
“And we ain’t babies,” added Bob’s Your Knuckle.
The street children often had odd names.
“You’re a regular pride of lions, I don’t doubt,” Vera said. “And you might well like it, but it’s different from what you usually pick. I only want to make certain you know that.”
“Is it gruesome?” Olly asked, a bit of doubt tugging at his soot-smudged brow.
“Not yet.”
“Have you read it?” None of the boys posed that question, but rather a man standing nearby who sounded as though he hailed from Ireland.
She turned to look at him. He wasn’t dressed fine and fancy, but neither did he look like he was a breath away from poverty. His hair was a startling shade of red. He watched her expectantly.
“I have. And I am eager for the next installment. Of his, and Mr. King’s, and Fletcher Walker’s, and Lafayette Jones’s.”
“’Twould seem you’ve read a great many of the penny dreadfuls.” A grin blossomed on the man’s face, and blimey if it didn’t fully upend her. Ginger men were often dismissed as less handsome, less striking, but bless him if he didn’t prove that utterly and entirely false with a simple upward tip of his mouth.
“I read them all if I get the chance. Pays to know the inventory, don’t it?”
“I imagine.” He eyed Brogan Donnelly’s latest, the one they’d been talking of mere moments earlier. “Are you enjoying the tale?” He motioned to it.
She nodded. “Donnelly’s quality at weaving a surprising story. And this one’s set in Ireland, which I’d wager will appeal to you.”
“Sorted that about me, did you?”
She tugged her ear. “These ain’t just for holding up spectacles.”
He gave her a sweeping glance. “You don’t wear spectacles.”
“All the more reason to put my ears to other uses.”
“Put your ear to listening to my question, Miss Vera,” Olly said, uncharacteristically impatient.
She motioned to Olly with her head and, to the ginger stranger, she said, “Right nutty little fella, this one.”
“Miss Vera.” Olly whined out her name.
She took pity on him. “What’s your burning question?”
“Would we like ‘The Dead Zoo’?” He flicked his thumb toward himself and his urchin chums.
She gave the boys her full attention once more. They were being patient, bless ’em. “Mr. Donnelly’s other stories usually have dying and sometimes murder.”
“Fletcher Walker writes that too, Miss Vera,” Burnt Ricky tossed back.
“And everyone’s dead in Lafayette Jones’s tales,” Olly said.
Vera lowered her voice to a dramatic whisper. “Not everyone.”
Grins appeared on all the children’s faces.
“Gab amongst yourselves. Let me know what you decide.”
The children put their heads together, yammering low and eager. She adored the little ones who came into her shop. Too many hadn’t families to look after them. She didn’t fancy herself a replacement for their missing mothers, but she hoped she gave them some feeling of the safety of home.
The ginger-haired man crossed her path again as she saw to her other customers. “Are you meaning to refuse to sell Donnelly’s latest to the lads?”
“Not if they fancy it.” She straightened a stack of Mr. King’s latest offering; the green cover was quite striking. “Once they’ve made their pick, I let ’em crack on with it.”
“Then why go to such lengths warning them?”
An easy enough question. “It’s tough times. Their pennies are hard-earned. If they mean to spend their coppers here, I fully mean to give them the best I can for their money.”
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About the Author
Sarah M. Eden is the author of critically acclaimed and award-winning Proper Romance series novels including The Lady and the Highwayman and Ashes on the Moor. Combining her passion for history and an affinity for love stories, Sarah crafts smart, witty characters and heartfelt romances. She happily spends hours perusing the reference shelves of her local library and dreams of one day traveling to all the places she reads about.
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