House of Secrets

By Stephanie Burgis

Raised in hiding in the country and knowing nothing of her mother, Lily has been taught from birth that her existence can only bring shame to her wealthy father. But when she nears her seventeenth birthday, she is finally summoned to her father's house in town...and discovers that everything she thought about herself was wrong.

And now she is a prisoner.

Locked among all the other mysteries in her father’s grand house - including one young man who could be an ally or an enemy - she may finally discover the truth about her own nature...and exactly why her father considers her so valuable after all.

House of Secrets is a Victorian Gothic fantasy novelette of approximately 12,000 words. It's full of mystery, magic, and just a touch of romance.

"An atmospheric tale of family, dark magic, and the thirst of one girl to determine her own destiny."
- Aliette de Bodard, author of The House of Shattered Wings

"A romance fit for fantasy and Gothic lovers both! Chilling, suspenseful, and extremely satisfying!"
- Tiffany Trent, author of The Unnaturalists

"A perfect gem of Gothic fantasy."
- Beth Bernobich, author of The Ghost Dragon's Daughter

"With its slowly unfolding mystery and atmospheric magic, House of Secrets kept me entranced until the final page. I loved the moody setting, the dark, unexpected turns in Lily’s story, and Stephanie’s rich and straightforward prose. It’s like a delicious slice of Gothic pie!"
- Page Morgan, author of The Beautiful and the Cursed

• Language: English
• Publisher: Stephanie Burgis
• Release date: Jul 13, 2016
• ISBN: 9781311223913

Stephanie Burgis

Stephanie Burgis grew up in East Lansing, Michigan, but now she lives in Wales with her husband (fellow writer and ebook cover designer Patrick Samphire), their two sons, and their very vocal tabby cat, Pebbles (who basically owns Steph's Instagram account). She writes wildly romantic historical fantasy for adults (most recently, Scales and Sensibility, Good Neighbors, and the Harwood Spellbook series) and fun, funny MG fantasy adventures for kids (most recently, The Raven Heir and the Dragon with a Chocolate Heart trilogy).

Book preview

House of Secrets

By Stephanie Burgis

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2016 Stephanie Burgis Samphire. All rights reserved.

www.stephanieburgis.com

Cover design by Another World Designs.

Table of Contents

House of Secrets

Acknowledgments

Masks and Shadows

Courting Magic

About the Author

House of Secrets

By Stephanie Burgis

My father’s house is full of secrets. They cling to the thick, dusty curtains that he keeps tightly drawn all day and night, muffling the sound of his friends’ low, intent whispers and blocking out the sunlight. I can hear the dull echoes of carriages outside, rattling past at all hours, but I never see them. Since I arrived here eight days ago, I’ve become a creature of shadow, as dim and hidden from the outside world as everything else in this house.

Back home in the country, where I lived with my nurse, the sunshine poured in all day long. Bessie’s cottage might have been a tiny, insignificant thing compared to my father’s great house in town, but hers led out onto fields and woods where I could wander to my heart’s content. The local girls were forbidden to talk to me, but the wind brushed against my skin like a caress whenever I stepped into the meadows, and distant bells always seemed to ring in the air whenever I walked in the woods, although Bessie claimed she couldn’t hear them. In the summers, I spent nearly every day outside, coming home only for required meals, or when Bessie managed to pin me down to study my letters.

You’re the daughter of gentryfolk, she always told me, no matter who your poor mother might have been. I’ll not have your father disappointed when he finally summons you to live with him.

Back then, of course, my father was only a name, scrawled hastily at the bottom of his brief, infrequent letters: William Norton, Esq.

William Norton, Esq., hoped that my health was well and that I was behaving for my nurse. William Norton, Esq., would summon me to town when I was older, for my coming of age.

I always tried to think of that as a promise rather than a threat. Bessie certainly presented it that way, spinning me stories of glamorous society balls and handsome, eligible young men. I might not be invited to the dances in our local village or courted by any respectable young men here, but things would be very different in town, she promised me.

He’ll want to marry you off proper, she said, pretty thing that you are. A fat enough dowry will excuse almost anything with those folk. And he obviously cares for you, or he wouldn’t have sent such lovely cheques all these years, only chucked you into an orphanage like the gentry do when they want to forget their own misdeeds. You, he’s remembered.

And remember he did, for just eight days before my seventeenth birthday, his dark, polished carriage appeared in front of Bessie’s door. When I first spotted it, on my way back from the woods for our mid-day meal, I actually stopped breathing for a moment.

I was finally going to meet William Norton, Esq.

I hadn’t brushed my hair since I’d first woken that morning, and I hadn’t taken the time to pin it up properly even then. Why would I? There was no one in our village to impress, for I was shunned by everyone respectable and Bessie never allowed me to mix with the rest. I’d ventured alone, as usual, into the woods…and of course my hair had slipped loose of its plaits in a dozen different places by midday, falling in messy brown strands across