Loved by the Dark Lady by Allyson Jeleyne

Author:Allyson Jeleyne
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: 0
Published: 2018-05-02T23:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

Six and a half months later…

Fleet Street was strung with bunting. Streamers of red and blue waved from every window, draped from lamp post to lamp post, criss-crossing half the City. The street smelled of flowers rather than manure, and everywhere Howland walked, he was greeted with a cheerful, “God save the Queen!”

He’d dragged his camera from St. Paul’s Cathedral, where a grandstand had been erected along the parade route, nearly to the Mall, where so many Union Jacks flapped in the breeze that they threatened to block out the morning sun.

Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee was a spectacle unlike anything anyone had ever seen before, or would likely ever witness again.

The newspaper still had not come ‘round on the idea of photography, but Howland had taken enough snaps of London in all her glory to supplement his income for the next six months.

Truthfully, after the disastrous reception of his Franz Ferdinand article, he was soured on the paper business altogether. As punishment for cocking up the assignment, he’d been demoted to covering the police beat for six months, and then only Jubilee stories no one else had time to write.

Lately, Howland found himself gravitating more toward his camera—and happier for it.

If only photography paid the bills, he could devote himself to his art completely. But newspaper work was steady, and with the Empire celebrating Victoria’s sixty years on the throne, there was no shortage of material to report on.

London saw an influx of foreign royalty, colonial regiments, and tourists to witness the pageantry. A lot of traffic, a lot of gossip, a lot of crime…and nobody could get enough of the stuff. It was, to put it lightly, a reporter’s dream.

Howland elbowed his way down Fleet Street, eager to turn in his latest story. He’d stayed up late last night, camped out near Buckingham Palace, scribbling in his notebook and passing cakes and whiskeys to his credible sources—the police beat did have it’s advantages, after all—monitoring the comings and goings of carriages through the Palace gates.

He’d even got his hands on some ‘inside’ information that just might redeem him in the eyes of his editor. Perhaps his sympathetic spin on the Franz Ferdinand situation was not such a cock-up after all.

After finishing his article, he’d taken out his camera and caught London before the bunting sagged, flowers wilted, and the shine wore off. He’d be back out again for the parade, but, by then, Fleet Street would be littered and trampled.

Like all things, not even the festive beauty of Jubilee Year could last.

He ducked down Whitefriars Street, feeling more than a little weary. He’d been going at full tilt all Season—really, since he’d returned from Bohemia, if he were honest. He did not want time to think about her.

Howland worked himself to exhaustion so that he would collapse into his bed every night. He rose early so that he did not lay idle beneath the sheets and recall the way she felt in his arms.

He drank twice as much

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.