Fires of Beltane

By Christine Malec

In 16th Century Scotland, two accomplished story tellers seduce one another with tales of innocence and experience that range from the bawdy to the downright scandalous. Lise is healing slowly from trauma and violence. She has learned that willful forgetting is not the way to peace, but she doesn’t know how to regain her sexual self, or the intimacy she once knew with Owen, her lover. In the months leading up to the celebration of the festival of Beltane, she and Owen use the safe distance provided by stories, to help her regain her sense of self. By the time of the festival, she is ready to live out the end of the most compelling story either of them has ever known. This story fills in an erotic gap left near the end of the full-length novel Beltane, which is also available on Smashwords.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christine Malec
• Release date: Mar 15, 2013
• ISBN: 9780991897520

Christine Malec

I’ve loved writing ever since I was a kid. Both as a writer and a reader, I’m drawn by the lure of escape, either into the past or the future. I like to speculate about humanity at a distance: what things about us are consistent across time and culture? I've amused myself for years writing: short stories, rhyming verse, and the occasional article. I have been a practising Massage Therapist since 1995,and I do occasional editing and transcribing work, which satisfies my love of bringing order to chaos. I play guitar, and can occasionally be spotted busking here and there around Toronto, mostly singing other people’s songs. I love to cook, do yoga regularly, and enjoy long walks in all weather. I love the variety afforded by the different types of work I do. I feel that each area helps me cultivate skills that become relevant in the others.

Book preview

FIRES OF BELTANE

CHRISTINE MALEC

Copyright © 2013 by Christine Malec

Smashwords Edition

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Other books by Christine Malec, published at Smashwords:

Beltane

Fires of Beltane

Scotland: 1559

Margarete and Lise had come to Scotland in May, so the shortness of the days approaching midwinter was a somewhat disturbing marvel. Accustom to the light and mildness of the countryside around Bordeaux, They beheld the late sunrise and early sunset with wonder and dismay.

As an active person, Lise was used to tramping around fields and hillsides, ostensibly to search out useful herbs. As attendant to Margarete, her duties were somewhat poorly defined, and the intimacy they shared gave her more latitude in such things than servants usually enjoyed. Since the injuries she had sustained to body and spirit at Lamas, these tramps had been curtailed, but as the days shortened, she felt a growing need for them.

Though used to going about alone, she did not object to the presence of Owen on such rambles. Though she wouldn’t admit it to herself,