The all-clear sounds before lunch, so Flavia and Frank are no longer confined to her suite.
You’d think that bathing and changing for a luncheon, even a royal luncheon, would be no great trick, but Flavia’s polio-weakened legs and her immensely deep claw-footed bathtub present a challenge.
Under normal circumstances, her maid would have assisted her, but Miss Parmalee turned out to be a traitor and is now dead. For obvious reasons, Flavia doesn’t want Frank as her bath attendant, so she attempts the necessary acrobatics alone.
The king leaves after breakfast, warning Frank and Flavia to remain in her rooms until he gives the all-clear. Wait, does that mean the danger isn’t over yet? Find out in Episode 6: Ticklish Situation.
In Silver Buckshot, Episode 5: Room Service, Flavia awakens to find three new letters she doesn’t remember writing: one to Frank, one to the king, and one to herself. It’s been hours since anyone tried to kill or kidnap them, so this episode is going to be uneventful, right? Don’t bet on it.
The action-packed initial episodes of my serial fantasy adventure/romance novel Silver Buckshot are available online. A new episode is added every Sunday.
This uses the new Kindle Vella platform, which is specially designed for episodic stories. The first three episodes of every story are free. After that, you pay, but they hand you 50,000 words worth of “tokens” just for showing up, so it’ll be a while.
I leverage my own experiences in this book for that extra realism in spite of the fantasy elements. Flavia’s polio is based on my father’s, for instance.
Silver Buckshot: Magic, Mystery, and a Most Aggravating Boyfriend
Thirteen-year-old Princess Flavia has endured a lot recently. Polio crippled her legs and killed her mother, her father is sunk in grief, and her servants veer between negligence and cruelty. She takes refuge in her books and never complains. But she draws the line at being murdered. She enlists fourteen-year-old Frank Barron, fresh from the California side of the gateway and the world’s most aggravating boy, to conceal her when the coup attempt begins. Things get interesting after that…
Partial Episode List (Episodes with links are available now):