Tempest

'I know this is hard for you. But the ability to hold a normal conversation isn't lost in you, my love.' He isn't prepared be swept off his feet. It's a test of how far he has progressed since he began to heal from the trauma of his near death: a journey with his love-mate to a beach hotel, in order to stay with the family of a fellow guard from the Eternal Dungeon. All that is asked of Barrett Boyd, it seems, is to be polite. But a stormy past has led to a fractured present. As Barrett begins to realize the implications of his own past and the past of others, he finds he will have to call upon all his strengths to confront what lies ahead . . . and all his weaknesses as well. This suspenseful novella (short novel) can be read on its own or as the fourth story in the first volume of Dungeon Guards, an alternate history series about nineteenth-century prison workers who seek love and companionship as they fight together against danger. Dungeon Guards is part of Turn-of-the-Century Toughs, a cycle of alternate history series (The Eternal Dungeon, Dungeon Guards, Michael's House, Life Prison, Waterman, and Dark Light) about adults and youths on the margins of society, and the people who love them. Set in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the novels and stories take place in an alternative version of America that was settled by inhabitants of the Old World in ancient times. As a result, the New World retains certain classical and medieval customs.