Dark Valley: Uncollected Anthology, #32

By Dayle A. Dermatis

Mia Jones accepts her dream job of exploring and mapping out the acres of gardens at Dyffryn Tywyll historic estate in Snowdonia, Wales, decades-long-neglected and overgrown.

 

She doesn't know about its history.

 

She doesn't know what lurked beneath the tangled bramble and ivy.

 

So much she doesn't know when she took the job…

 

From the spellbinding author of Ghosted and Beautiful Beast, gripping short story "Dark Valley" won't be easily forgotten.

 

"Dark Valley" is part of Uncollected Anthology Issue 32: Mystical Maps.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Soul's Road Press
• Release date: Nov 26, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223716563

Dayle A. Dermatis

Dayle A. Dermatis is the author or coauthor of many novels (including snarky urban fantasies Ghosted and the forthcoming Shaded and Spectered) and more than a hundred short stories in multiple genres, appearing in such venues as Fiction River, Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, and DAW Books.Called the mastermind behind the Uncollected Anthology project, she also guest edits anthologies for Fiction River, and her own short fiction has been lauded in many year's best anthologies in erotica, mystery, and horror.She lives in a book- and cat-filled historic English-style cottage in the wild greenscapes of the Pacific Northwest. In her spare time she follows Styx around the country and travels the world, which inspires her writing.To find out where she’s wandered off to (and to get free fiction!), check out DayleDermatis.com and sign up for her newsletter or support her on Patreon.* * *I value honest feedback, and would love to hear your opinion in a review, if you’re so inclined, on your favorite book retailer’s site.* * *For more information:www.dayledermatis.com

Book preview

Dark Valley

DARK VALLEY

UNCOLLECTED ANTHOLOGY 32: MYSTICAL MAPS

DAYLE A. DERMATIS

Soul’s Road Press

CONTENTS

About This Book

Dark Valley

Uncollected Anthology

Ghosted

Chapter 1

About the Author

Also by Dayle A. Dermatis

Be the First to Know!

ABOUT THIS BOOK

Mia Jones accepts her dream job of exploring and mapping out the acres of gardens at Dyffryn Tywyll historic estate in Snowdonia, Wales, decades-long-neglected and overgrown.

She doesn’t know about its history.

She doesn’t know what lurked beneath the tangled bramble and ivy.

So much she doesn’t know when she takes the job…

From the spellbinding author of Ghosted and Beautiful Beast, gripping short story Dark Valley won’t be easily forgotten.

Praise for Dayle A. Dermatis

Dermatis has a love of lush language….

– Tangent Online

DARK VALLEY

Okay.

If you live in England, or you’re a hardcore Anglophile, or you’re interested in gardening, especially if overgrown and reclaimed gardens are your thing, then you’ve heard about—possibly visited—the Lost Gardens of Heligan in Cornwall.

If you haven’t, here are the basic facts: the estate gardens date back to the 1700s and were glorious, but World War I reduced the number of gardeners from twenty-two to eight. The thousand acres of gardens—greenhouses, lakes, Italian garden, fruit orchards and vegetable beds, and subtropical ferns—were lost until the 1990s, when someone with enough money financed their restoration. And by lost, I mean the gardens were just a nearly impenetrable tangle of bramble and ivy choking out the original plantings.

They’re a tourist destination now, and they’re stunning.

The gardens at the Dyffryn Tywyll estate in Wales had the potential to be just as majestic, or so I thought when I was offered the dream job of restoring them.

I wish I hadn’t been.

I hope you haven’t heard of them.

If you have, please stay away.

When you’re a petite blond just out of uni, potential employers dismiss you. Oh, they murmur respect at your degrees in landscape architecture, conservation management, and British history with a focus on estate gardens, but you don’t get a callback. They don’t have