Chapter 27 – Caught

Hastily I threw the keys into their place in the desk drawer and slammed it shut. I had just time to retrieve my tray and restore the smoky glass to its position on top of the paper when the office door was flung open to herald the entrance of one formidable woman. More than ever, I needed to have my wits about me and all the luck in the world if I was to get myself and the intelligence I’d gleaned away in one piece.

“What on earth… what are you doing here?” she vociferated.

Wychwood - The Return

One

Much later, Sandy would wonder whether the scream she heard had been hers or someone else’s. But that would only come after she woke in Lady Eleanor’s bedroom in Wychwood. ‘Am I dead?’ was her first thought. The second was that if this was heaven, she could cope with it. 

It still being before 2 PM the Expo seemed to be closing up at this point and there were not a lot of people still heading for the parking lot. I took my time walking to the car and then let the car air out before I got in it. As I got in, I received a text from Cindy asking me if I would consider meeting her for a glass of wine at a lounge adjacent to the mall where I was now parked.

Chapter 9

The transport wagon appears one morning with Luthan, who has a request to attend an accident victim. Ursula returns with it to Foti Lane, where the patient is found with several broken bones. After taking the victim back to the Clinic and doing what she can, Luthan has some surprising news for Ursula.

The Voyage of the Visund

A tale of Anmar by Penny Lane

110 - Emergency Call

January means performance reviews. The forms have been in everyone's inboxes since the second week of the month - self-evaluations, peer feedback requests, the annual accounting of what you did and what it was worth. I've been filling mine out in the gaps between client work, in the gaps between other things.

Dave stares too long over the cubicle partition at nine-fifteen.

A Marvel of Womankind

“She hasn’t said anything interesting on her mobile since we started listening in. Why would she try to use it at the most critical juncture in the operation?”

The Technical Sergeant had a point. Either Nadya was totally innocent of being involved in nefarious activity, or she and her compatriots were real professionals.

“Well, if I can give her sufficient reason to need to contact her friends, she might just be tempted to break the rules. And we don’t want that; we need her to bring your guys to them.”

“OK, we can block her mobile.”

CHAPTER 54
I looked to my right, and Maz simply conformed to habit, her smaller binoculars already out of her handbag to be slung round her neck, and a quiet litany of bird names commencing. Susie laughingly said, “Didn’t realise you were a twitcher, Maz”

“I’m not. Welcome swallow”

Wychwood Venice - The Doge’s Ball

One

Sandy woke to the aroma of coffee, and it took a few seconds of sleepy confusion before she realised where she was. She opened her eyes to see Ricci making coffee in the kitchen, wearing Sandy’s Ramones T-shirt and a pair of knickers. She watched Ricci for a couple of minutes as memories of the previous night returned, bringing a sudden warmth to her face. It hadn’t been a dream after all, she thought, squirming with pleasure.

“You look so sweet in that,” Sandy said, making Ricci jump.

A simple shopping trip gives Samantha a life beyond borrowed clothes—and Samuel discovers that every new piece of her identity comes with a price.

Split Victory

© 2026 Zoe Taylor

“No, Amanda, doofus,” Tiffani laughed. “You don’t mean Amanda Miller, do you?”

Chapter 24 – Seduction

For several days, my employment at the Golden Touch continued without any incident that was worth remarking on. I had become part of the scenery; well, almost! Whatever secrets the place might contain, they were not ‘writ large’ upon the walls of that establishment. I would have to try my hardest to winkle them out whatever they were.

Sent By Sophia

Chapter 13: Hope and Starry

A Transgender Coming of Age Adventure

A Story from THE ONE

Ariel Montine Strickland

*

The call comes from Marcus at seven-thirty on Saturday morning.

I'm already awake — I've been awake since five, the mesh's activity elevated since the failed protocol, a low-level hum in the background of everything that is different from the ambient warmth of before. More insistent. Less ambient. ARIA pressing on the edges of things, or testing them. I've been lying in the dark noticing it and finding my own words when it tries to give me some.