Speak Its Name is out today!

[erastes]

Expectations riding on young Englishmen are immense; for those who've something to hide, those expectations could prove overwhelming.

Speak Its Name is a "Trilogy" from Linden Bay Romance - three novellas in one volume by three writers of Gay Historical Romance. It will be available as an ebook at first, followed in a few weeks by a print version. Buy here

Aftermath - by Charlie Cochrane (1920's Oxford)

Gentleman's Gentleman - by Lee Rowan (Victorian)

Hard and Fast - by Erastes (Regency)

CHAPTER ONE

In which I meet the young lady my father has meant for me and I deflect my father from spoiling his own endeavors.

There are certain things expected of a third son. That one will not put oneself forward, that one will join the army, or the church, or the bar. That one will not, in an attempt to inherit and whatever the provocation, murder one’s elder brothers and that one will, if at all possible in the circumstances of being a third son, marry well.

This is particularly important if one’s family is wealthy, (but not titled), and one’s brothers have married ladies who have increased the financial aspects of the line, but who have disappointed one’s father in being, like him, rich but ignobly born. One is taught that one does not talk of the origin of such income. One’s ancestors may have their portraits on painted walls and may well have been forced by circumstances to work for their subsistence but that same shameful toil enables their grandsons and further scions to live in comfort without ever having to mention such endeavors.

One is taught, from the nursery and all through one’s schooldays, that one should be a gentleman above all things. To be a good shot, to honor one’s parents, to do well for the school and to be gallant to the fairer sex. One is schooled to deal kindly with staff, and otherwise with bullies and cads. One is equipped for life.
But I have never been taught what I should do if I fell in love with someone of a sex that was not, as I expected it would be, opposite to my own.

To say that I was shaken to discover this about myself, would be an understatement in the same vein as were I to airily state that the Taj Mahal was an attractive mausoleum or that Switzerland was a trifle undulating. The sight of a curving cheek, a chestnut curl, a well turned ankle and a trim waist, these are all things that I expected to wake the first stirrings of Eros, and indeed they did; it is just that I did not think they would come from such a wholly unexpected direction.

You might, were I so injudicious to write this account down, raise an eyebrow, your quizzing glass and your voice. You might order me out of the club—blacken my name and drive me out of England and on to the continent—or you might ask me how this came to be. But would I answer you?

I might.

Comments

[clarelondon.livejournal.com]

Hurrah! at last! LOL
I'm off to buy...
Congratulations to you all!
^___^

[erastes.livejournal.com]

*Beams*

Thanks!

[katjak.livejournal.com]

Yay. Now to buy.

[buachaill-dubh.livejournal.com]

Hard and Fast

Hard and fast ?? er... have you considered applying your talents to the adult film industry? because you have the title thing down pat

[buachaill-dubh.livejournal.com]

... and then you could do a sequel called Harder and Faster...

[erastes.livejournal.com]

No, adult films don't interest me! It is supposed to be a spoof on the P&P type of title. I am doing a sort of sequel, but it will only have one of the characters in it.

[buachaill-dubh.livejournal.com]

it was just a wee joke mistress... then again having no sense of humor is a valuable quality in a maker of skin flicks... give it some thought as a fallback

[erastes.livejournal.com]

No, I understood it was a wee joke! :D