As You Wish – Helen Harper

The sensation of being trapped wouldn’t go away. I needed to distract myself. Jasper shuffled closer to me, the heat of his body pressing against mine. I put my hand out. Was that a bicep? I let my fingers trail down it, enjoying his sharp intake of breath. I moved my fingers. Mmm. Man chest. The guard was pausing at every cell to peer inside. I kept an eye on his approach, while my fingers danced lightly across Jasper’s body. When the guard was merely metres away, Jasper’s hand covered mine.

I could feel his heart pounding. There was something satisfying about knowing that I affected him in the same way that he affected me. Unless, of course, Jasper was feeling the same weight of claustrophobia as me. There was a clank as the guard reached the cell nearest to us and slid open the viewing pane to peer inside. I remained as still as possible, watching as he gave a satisfied nod and closed it again. Whistling, he turned and strode past us.

He was older than I’d have expected, with a kindly face. I hoped that matched his personality. Whether the inmates of Belmarsh Prison deserved to be there or not, seeing the place with my own eyes made me fully appreciate the term ‘stir crazy’. There was little kindness to be found in our surroundings. The guard walked past, oblivious to our presence. I breathed out, just as his steps faltered and he came to a stop. He turned round, frowning, his eyes scanning the seemingly empty hallway.

Then he pursed his lips and continued, his footsteps echoing eerily. Once the guard had disappeared, Jasper pushed himself away from the wall. ‘That was closer than I liked,’ he said. Tell me about it.

‘I wasn’t…’ I grimaced and took a deep breath. I needed her on my side. Desperately. ‘I didn’t mean to make demands. And I’m not trying to take advantage of you. I just want to help this little guy.’ She saw right through me. ‘There’s nothing wrong with him. He needs to lose some weight so you should stop over-feeding him.

Other than that, he’s perfectly healthy. There’s nothing for me to do.’ Pumpkin waddled over and nudged her hand. She reached down absent- mindedly, allowing the little Jack Russell terrier to give her a delicate lick with his pink tongue. Compared to the looks of hatred and quiet growls I normally received from him, this was effusive enthusiasm indeed.

The animal faery patted his head. ‘He’s very friendly. I don’t know what you’re worrying about.’ ‘He hasn’t let me touch him for two weeks!’ ‘Maybe he doesn’t like your shampoo. Try using something different.’ I threw my hands up in frustration. ‘He pees on everything.’ She shrugged. ‘He’s nervous and is merely marking his territory.

He’ll get over it.’ ‘I have to request a new magic wand on Monday because he chewed mine last night and left splinters all over the carpet. I’m still picking them out of the soles of my feet.’ ‘You shouldn’t have left it lying around. And perhaps,’ she added pointedly, ‘you should invest in a vacuum cleaner.’ I sighed. ‘He hates me. He blames me for the death of his previous owner, and he spends every minute of every day plotting revenge.’ It was true. His owner, an elderly woman called Rose Blairmont, had been my client.

When I’d first met her, she was being hunted down by a crooked politician called Art Adwell because she possessed evidence that he’d employed her to assassinate another Member of Parliament. Adwell had almost succeeded in killing both of us but it was actually an accidental shot from Ethan, the leader of the trolls, that had ended Rose’s life.

The only bright side in any of this was that I’d managed to get hold of the evidence needed to put Adwell away. I’d passed it on to a tabloid newspaper and now he was behind bars and awaiting trial. It couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy. Tragically, Rose hadn’t lived long enough to witness his fall from grace.

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

Book Information

• Unique ID: 07267afe74a6433f
• File Extension: .pdf
• File Size: 1,094,160 bytes (1.043 MB)
• Title: –
• Author: Unknown
• Pages: 214
• Language: English (en)

Reading & Word Statistics

• Estimated Reading Time: 367.39 minutes
• Total Words: 73,479
• Total Characters: 402,975
• Average Words per Page: 343.36
• Average Characters per Page: 1883.06

Most Frequent Words

said (382), i’d (240), i’m (239), didn’t (234), jasper (231), faery (213), one (204), it’s (198), back (187), don’t (181), pumpkin (181), wand (170), magic (167), vincent (166), get (161), know (154), now (149), eyes (149), time (148), wasn’t (144), saffron (144), adwell (140), like (139), you’re (137), going (125), head (124), still (124), office (119), ethan (115), director (113), away (107), right (106), looked (102), way (99), face (97), want (94), think (93), got (92), good (92), myself (89), see (88), tell (87), he’d (86), i’ll (86), hand (84), made (84), he’s (81), couldn’t (81), look (81), godmothers (81), figgy (81), make (80), take (79), hands (79), anything (78), trolls (78), told (78), already (78), much (76), godmother (75), even (75), well (74), round (74), i’ve (74), enough (73), far (73), something (71), thing (71), gave (70), work (70), man (70), two (69), door (68), wouldn’t (68), thought (68), let (67), around (66), knew (66), devil’s (66), first (64), advocate (64), asked (64), turned (64), need (64), towards (64), nothing (61), last (61), voice (61), won’t (60), took (60), can’t (60), long (59), better (59), dog (59), against (59), help (58), come (58), nodded (58), put (57), little (55).

PDF Download