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    Ashes
    Ashes
    Ashes
    Ebook33 pages26 minutes

    Ashes

    By Alexandra Benedict

    5/5

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    About this ebook

    "Castles in the Sky" is a series of bedtime stories based on classic fairy tales; each short tale ranges in heat from sensual to kisses so there is something for every romance lover. A perfect, quick read for a night of sweet dreams!

    First up is "Ashes" - a spicy short story based on the fairy tale "The Little Match Seller" - where one widow's broken heart leads her to seek earthly pleasures as a courtesan ... until her long lost husband returns home.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAlexandra Benedict
    Release dateFeb 14, 2018
    ISBN9781370910076
    Ashes
    Author

    Alexandra Benedict

    Alexandra (AK) Benedict is a bestselling, award-winning writer of short stories, novels and scripts. Educated at Cambridge, Sussex and Clown School, Alexandra has been an indie-rock singer, an actor, an RLF Fellow and a composer for film and TV, as well as teaching and running the prestigious MA in Crime Thrillers at City University. She is now a full-time writer and creative coach.   As AK Benedict, she writes acclaimed short stories, high-concept novels and award-winning audio drama for Big Finish, Audible UK, Audible US and BBC Sounds among others. She won the Scribe Award for her Doctor Who radio drama, The Calendar Man, and was shortlisted for the eDunnit Novel Award for The Beauty of Murder and the BBC Audio Drama Podcast Award for Children of the Stones. Her Christmas mysteries, The Christmas Murder Game and Murder on the Christmas Express, were both bestsellers, and The Christmas Murder Game was longlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger. Alexandra lives on the south coast of England with writer Guy Adams, their daughter, Verity, and dog, Dame Margaret Rutherford.

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      Book preview

      Ashes - Alexandra Benedict

      ASHES

      BY ALEXANDRA BENEDICT

      COPYRIGHT

      This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination and are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

      SMASHWORDS EDITION

      ASHES

      Copyright © February 2018 Alexandra Benedikt

      Cover Photo Copyright © Black_Blood/Bigstock.com

      All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law.

      www.AlexandraBenedict.ca

      ASHES

      Once upon a time . . .

      Lady Elizabeth watched the clock strike midnight. As the timepiece chimed, she shut her eyes and whispered, Goodbye Ash.

      After a year of mourning, today was her first day as a woman of society again. She beckoned her maid to unfasten the laces of her black dress. She would never wear black again. She would never marry again. She would never mourn again.

      As the last chime echoed throughout the dressing room, Elizabeth opened her eyes. Her heart fluttered as she gazed upon the bejewelled gown made from gold satin, hanging in the wardrobe.

      A soft smile touched her lips.

      ~ * ~

      London, 1816

      Elizabeth knocked the young man’s arm with her elbow. Like her other courtiers, he always wanted intimacy after sex, but she shunned such affection. She lived for earthly pleasure: a life of the senses, not the heart. She would never again offer her soul … just her body.

      She traced the bauble in her hand: a gold necklace with emeralds, so striking it shimmered even in the dim light of the bedroom.

      Very pretty, she murmured, then tossed the choker aside and wrapped her naked body in the white linen bedsheet. She left the bed and sauntered toward the vanity, picked up a horse hair brush, the handle studded with pearls, and weaved the bristles through her shiny blonde hair.

      "Thank you

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