Miss Preston's Predicament

Book 2: Hesitant Mediums

by Belinda Kroll

Genres: Fantasy action & adventure; Gaslamp; Historical Fantasy; Humorous Fantasy; Ghost; sweet romance; short story; Cozy fantasy; ghost cozy

Synopsis

It was a truth universally ignored, most principally by the dowager Dame Hartwell, that ghosts and gatherings did not mix.

 

For fans of Olivia Atwater, Tilly Wallace, and Charlie N. Holmberg

In this short story (approx 5,500 words), the fashionable and eccentric dowager Dame Hartwell has lured the reclusive Miss Tessa Preston to attend her drawing room séance. If Dame Hartwell can't convince Miss Preston, her former protégé, to return as her medium-in-residence, she doesn't know how she will protect her son and his new fiancé from the brewing storm of malcontent spirits surrounding them.

"Miss Preston's Predicament" is a short story between novels by Belinda Kroll. This story can be read as a standalone, but it includes characters and references events from Haunting Miss Trentwood, the first book in the Hesitant Mediums series.

Release date: June 26, 2021

Publisher: Bright Bird Press

Print pages: 38

Sample

Tessa imagined all the ways in which she could reveal Sylvia’s ineptitude. She let her gaze sweep over the room, playing along for now. “What do the spirits want of me?” When Madam Sylvia did not respond, Tessa turned to her, ready to witness more inane dramatics. What she saw instead gave her a start.

Madam Sylvia bolted upright, her spine rod straight. She threw her head back so that her careful auburn coiffure fell to her shoulders. Her hands clawed at her neck in a gentle, hypnotic manner.

The audience held their breath after a collective, horrified gasp.