by Ian Ironwood
Chapter One: The Blind Lady Of Tudley House

Edward did not like the looks of the old country manor, no matter which angle he saw it. It was dark and dreary, and it had been years—decades!—since anyone had maintained the place. A Tudor style, two-story affair, the decrepit pile of bricks was covered in vines and dirt. The lawn had not been tended, the windows were caked with coal soot from the Bloomfeld plant a mile away, and the once-stately slate roof looked like the hide of a dragon after a particularly rowdy fight with a vengeful knight. There was an air of misfortune and misery that hung over the place, as if great misdeeds and missed opportunities had accumulated over the years in layers as thick as the dust.

     Edward should have had a home like this himself, he thought with a sigh. Only not so dreary. His college friends, the cream of the realm’s aristocracy, had such places to spare: the accumulated inheritance of generations. This home could have been magnificent under his care, he knew, a worthy estate for a country gentleman or industrious peer. It was precisely the sort of thing he aspired to—had aspired to for years, actually. Only Edward Lane was without inheritance of any significance.

by Elizabeth McKay
“Alright, Mags, it looks like the last of them have left. I think it’s time, hmm?” Cora’s petticoats whispered as she moved across the room to Maggie’s desk. It was the first night of summer recess, and the halls of Cape June Ladies’ Academy still echoed with the bustle of students moving out, and giving emotional farewells to their classmates. The only light in the whole building was in the workshop, where the two had hidden themselves.
     Maggie sat up and blinked a few times, setting her pen down. She yawned and arched her body into a luxurious stretch, leaning back onto Cora. “I didn’t think it would ever end. I finished the last of the adjustments to the device a week ago and I’ve been dying to try it out!” Cora ran her hands over Maggie’s hips and rubbed her cheek on her black curls, breathing in her lavender perfume.