Elin Gregory

Saturday!! Hang on, it is Saturday, isn’t it? YES! Saturday so that means another snippet. But first an explanation.

Rainbow Snippets is a Facebook GRoup set up so authors of LGBT fiction can post six [approx] sentences of a WIP or a published work on their own blog then post links to the group to make them easier to find. Then we all read each others snips, comment if we have time, and get an idea of what books to look forward to. Click the image above if you would like to join in.

I have been posting bits of my Great War historical Calon Lan. The title is a reference to the classic Welsh hymn, often sung at rugby matches, the title of which means “A Pure Heart”. It tells of a romance between Alwyn and Joseph, two injured soldiers trying to recover from the war as seen through the eyes of Bethan, Alwyn’s married sister, who is completely ignorant that such a thing as love between two men could exist.

In this excerpt the day of Joe’s arrival is here and Bethan and Alwyn are preparing.

On the day, Alwyn helped her to change his sheets. They pulled them taut, tucked the blankets in then covered all in his freshly laundered quilt.

“You should sleep snug enough,” Bethan smoothed the quilt over the pillows, smiling at the bright little squares and diamonds of cloth cut from once cherished garments. When Alwyn didn’t reply she asked, “Will you walk to meet him?”

“Nye said I could take Polly and the trap.” Alwyn, who had overseen the birth, growth and training of Polly years before either of them had set eyes on Nye, didn’t seem to mind Nye’s unnecessary permissions. It was probably why they got on. “He’ll have bags. It’s not as though he’s coming for just a few days.”

This is a trap. They were the Smart Cars of the horsedrawn age.