QuenbyOlson
Lady Griffith's Second Chance

Lady Griffith's Second Chance

129,359 8,682 24

Seven years have passed since Regan lost the love of her life. During that time, she found solace raising her three children, sequestering herself in the country and away from the talk and bustle of society. But now her eldest daughter is beginning her own search for a husband, and Regan finds herself drawn back into the public eye after so many - too many - years away.She meets Thomas Cranmer, a young - too young - and handsome gentleman who should have his attentions focused on other women, women lacking the age and grief she earned as a widow and mother. Yet he seeks her out, winning her over with his smiles and wit, reminding her of what it is to be a woman, and a desirable one at that.But when secrets are revealed and her respectability threatened, Regan discovers there is life beyond grief, and that perhaps it is possible to find love a second time...…

An Only Pawn

An Only Pawn

602 35 1

A man with a past he cannot escape, Callum Muir must make the choice to kill, or risk the monster inside him revealed to all...(5947 words)…

In Silence and Tears: A Short Story

In Silence and Tears: A Short Story

1,064 59 1

Callum Muir is brought face to face with the woman who stripped him of his humanity and his former life. But can he resist the pull that still exists between himself and his maker?…

Daughters of Men

Daughters of Men

1,161 93 3

Brother and sister, they were raised in fear, told to keep to the shadows cast by the walls slowly crumbling down around them.Kai and Isak Vadra have lived their entire lives in London, scratching out a living between the walls of the city's filthy slums. While their mother struggles to keep them safe from the everyday threats of hunger and crime, a new danger presents itself, one beyond the reaches of everyday politics and police. Their mother does everything within her power to prevent this new shadow from tearing their world apart. But instead of safety, it threatens to bring to light her worst fear, that a secret their family has kept for generations will finally be revealed.…

Upon the Brink

Upon the Brink

344 28 1

A short story that ties in with the Dust and Silver collection which includes Dust and Silver, Pale for Weariness, Sleet and Shadow, and Music in its Roar.What happens when a body is dragged out of the Thames on a foggy night? Is it an accident? Murder? And what if the victim is still alive?…

Music in its Roar

Music in its Roar

436 25 1

Callum Muir wakes up to find himself a survivor of a horrific attack, though he fears the worst may be yet to come...This story is a prequel to three other shorts I've set in this world. Read the others here on Wattpad.Dust and Silver: https://www.wattpad.com/story/99529621-dust-and-silverSleet and Shadow: https://www.wattpad.com/story/100175184-sleet-and-shadowPale for Weariness: https://www.wattpad.com/story/101532010-pale-for-weariness…

Mark & Seal

Mark & Seal

242 20 1

A short story set in the world of The Half Killed...A snowy morning in London, and the blood of several victims soaks into the ground. One man traces the footsteps of the killer, but must decide if he can abandon those left in his wake."Death has set his mark and seal On all we are and all we feel,On all we know and all we fear..." - Percy Bysshe Shelley…

Pale for Weariness

Pale for Weariness

942 63 1

Lady Ariadne Drummond is woken from her sleep by a strange noise. But when she goes to investigate, she finds more than a simple intruder...…

Sleet and Shadow

Sleet and Shadow

807 64 1

A woman, alone, against a creature she is not fully prepared to encounter. But then, when is one ever ready if death is a possibility?…

Dust and Silver

Dust and Silver

786 57 1

When a killer is on the loose in London, Lady Ariadne Drummond must decide if she should save the one believed to be behind the murders.…

An Unpracticed Heart

An Unpracticed Heart

406,958 23,255 20

Charlotte Claridge lives a life dictated by her stepmother's whims. Sent to live with one family member after another, she finally arrives in Scotland, on the doorstep of a crumbling estate abandoned by its owner. With her aunt, she spends her days mending curtains and peeling potatoes, a quiet existence that changes with the appearance of a carriage bearing a coat of arms.From out of the carriage falls Lord Hartley Cowden, Baron Aldburgh. Drunk, unconscious, and bleeding, Charlotte and her aunt carry him into his ancestral home. As he recovers in Charlotte's care, Hartley confesses to a crime that nearly sent him spiralling towards his grave. But can she entrust him with her own secrets while coaxing him back from the dead?…

The Crimson Gown

The Crimson Gown

100,840 3,370 14

Lydia Hunt is familiar with the concept of sin. Reared beneath the strictures of religious zealotry and abuse, she has heard again and again that her nature is wicked and her soul bound for eternal damnation. But when she is sent to work at Mowbray Hall, ancestral home of the enigmatic Lord Cailvairt, Lydia begins to fear just how wicked she might be. For although Cailvairt makes no effort to hide his pursuit of her, his insistence on challenging the ideals imposed upon her as a child―even while speaking to her as an equal―leaves it difficult for Lydia to resist his attentions. As her inhibitions crumble away and the foundation of her beliefs threatens to falter, she must determine if giving into temptation will destroy her... or be the act that saves her.~The first three full chapters are available here on Wattpad. For the complete story, please check it out on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Crimson-Gown-Quenby-Olson-ebook/dp/B01MG6TVN6…

The Veil

The Veil

312 26 1

A prequel - of sorts - to The Half Killed, this short story delves into a moment in the life of a young medium in the Victorian era, Miss Dorothea Hawes.…

First Position

First Position

24,404 1,424 6

Therese has a problem. Everyone at the ballet academy where she teaches is thrilled to have Luca Durante, the reigning star of the ballet world, as their guest artist for the school's performance of The Nutcracker. There's one difficulty: Therese has a history with Luca, and though she hasn't seen him for seven years, she still remembers every moment from when they danced with each other. Will Therese be able to maintain a professional distance until the season is over? Or will Luca remind her why they moved so well together all those years before?…

The Bride Price

The Bride Price

581,697 33,697 24

To save her family from scandal, Emily Collicott must marry.Ruined in her first season in London, she is given no choice but to wed her father's pick for a husband, or be cast out from her home. Emily agrees to marry William Hazlitt, a man she hardly knows. But William remembers her. Growing up as a tenant on her father's estate, he admired her from afar, their lives kept separate first by class, and then by loss. Emily seeks to begin a new life with this quiet man to whom she finds herself wedded. But the scandal she escaped in London soon finds her again, the very man who destroyed her reputation threatening to tear down the happiness she's found with her new husband. To keep from losing everything, she must either make a deal with a devil... or learn how to destroy one.…

The Firstborn

The Firstborn

1,565,949 77,752 24

Sophia has sacrificed everything for her younger sister, Lucy. She has removed them from the only home they ever knew, taken on the care of Lucy's illegitimate son, George, and even assumed the role of a widow and mother in order to erase all hint of scandal from the boy's birth. But rumor continues to follow them like the darkest of clouds, and Sophia must adapt to her new existence as a false widow with no prospects beyond the doors of her small cottage.Lord Haughton - "Finn" to those close to him - will stop at nothing to prevent the slightest whiff of disgrace from tainting his family's name. When he learns of his younger brother's latest indiscretion-one that leaves a bastard child in his wake-Haughton rushes across the country to offer the boy's mother a comfortable living in exchange for her silence about the child's true parentage. But he arrives only to have his generous offer thrown back in his face by Sophia Brixton, a sharp-tongued and sharper-witted woman who proceeds to toss him out of her house. But just because he is banished from her home does not mean he is so easily banished from her life.…

The Half Killed

The Half Killed

6,001 252 8

Dorothea Hawes has no wish to renew contact with what lies beyond the veil. After an attempt to take her own life, she has retired into seclusion, but as the wounds on her body heal, she is drawn back into a world she wants nothing more than to avoid.She is sought out by Julian Chissick, a former man of God who wants her help in discovering who is behind the gruesome murder of a young woman. But the manner of death is all too familiar to Dorothea, and she begins to fear that something even more terrible is about to unleash itself on London. And so Dorothea risks her life and her sanity in order to save people who are oblivious to the threat that hovers over them. It is a task that forces her into a confrontation with her own lurid past, and tests her ability to shape events frighteningly beyond her control.…