The Spice of Life

By Ellie Thomas

At twenty years of age, Gregory Fletcher is content with his life, biding his time as a serving lad for kindly, wealthy relatives in Elizabethan London. Sometimes he wishes for a spark of excitement in his staid existence. The occasional glimpse of Jehan Zanini, the handsome apprentice of a local merchant, adds spice to his dreams.

Out of the blue, Jehan is accused of stealing from an aristocratic customer. Gregory fears he may never see him again and is concerned for Jehan’s liberty and even his life. When Gregory gets the chance to help Jehan escape his fate, he grasps the opportunity without hesitation.

Can Gregory engineer Jehan’s flight from London and the authorities? Might he even clear Jehan’s name? And will their adventure draw them closer or fling them apart forever?

• Language: English
• Publisher: JMS Books LLC
• Release date: Feb 6, 2022
• ISBN: 9781685500559

Book preview

The Spice of Life

By Ellie Thomas

Published by JMS Books LLC at Smashwords

Visit jms-books.com for more information.

Copyright 2022 Ellie Thomas

ISBN 9781685500559

* * * *

Cover Design: Written Ink Designs | written-ink.com

Image(s) used under a Standard Royalty-Free License.

All rights reserved.

WARNING: This book is not transferable. It is for your own personal use. If it is sold, shared, or given away, it is an infringement of the copyright of this work and violators will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

No portion of this book may be transmitted or reproduced in any form, or by any means, without permission in writing from the publisher, with the exception of brief excerpts used for the purposes of review.

This book is for ADULT AUDIENCES ONLY. It may contain sexually explicit scenes and graphic language which might be considered offensive by some readers. Please store your files where they cannot be accessed by minors.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are solely the product of the author’s imagination and/or are used fictitiously, though reference may be made to actual historical events or existing locations. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Published in the United States of America.

* * * *

The Spice of Life

By Ellie Thomas

Chapter 1

London 1572

As soon as Gregory entered the shop, he was transported to another world. The stink and noise of the city receded, and his senses were replete with the scent of heady cinnamon, underscored with cloves and sharpened by a hint of pepper. Beneath those exotic flavors were the astringent, familiar herbs; rosemary, lavender and thyme, their medicinal qualities mellowed by the aroma of sweet rose petals. After the foul miasma clinging to the overcrowded streets outside, the contrast was pleasantly overwhelming.

Master Crossley, the merchant, came bustling forward from the back room, a sycophantic expression on his narrow face. But when he saw his customer was youthful and a serving man at that, his smile dropped and with a haughty nod, he directed Gregory toward his apprentice who was expertly grinding spices at a worktable.

Gregory didn’t mind the rebuff. After all, he knew his place, was not full of his importance and also, the comely assistant was as much as an attraction for him as the aromatic contents of the shop.

The young man’s greeting was so cordial that Gregory wished such affability was for him alone. The assistant’s teeth gleamed white against his tanned complexion as he smiled, although, from the few words he uttered to Gregory during their regular transactions, he sounded London-born. But his olive-toned skin and the set of his eyes with those long dark eyelashes hinted at a Mediterranean heritage. To Gregory, with his stolid, plowshare Kentish background, tow haired, gray-eyed, and ordinary, the spice merchant’s apprentice seemed enticingly glamorous.

Gregory requested the mace and pepper the cook had asked for, plus his main order from the mistress of the house, some scented resin designed to fill a pomander, a specialty of Master Crossley. This mixture of wax and scented oils, together with health-giving herbs and spices was not only believed to ward off the risk of pestilence in the overcrowded streets but was also a necessity for a lady to traverse the noise some reek of the great city. Gregory would be glad of it to sweeten his journey