by C. E. Murphy
"And your père?" he asked as the lemon flavored treat stung my tongue.
I laughed with a bitterness I had not known I contained. "Maman and Papa think I don't know, but I have deduced it on my own. No one wants Papa, you see, because he is American, and the Americans have not joined the war. It is their way of punishing a whole country, though it is only we who suffer. He comes from a banking family and knows a great deal about finance. I can think of no other reason he should not be successful, than his nationality is held against him."
I did not tell the Benefactor the rest, that Papa could not return to his banking family in America because he had been disowned long before my birth. Papa, broad-shouldered with thick gold hair and intelligent green eyes, had been sent to Europe to finish his education and to find a wealthy Parisian wife. Instead he had found my mother, an Ethiopian lounge singer, and not even my birth a few years later had softened his father's heart toward him.
"You may be right," the Benefactor murmured thoughtfully, "but you are not entirely right, Miss Stone. You forget who holds Montmartre in his hand."
"Le Monstre?" The sweet ice made me bold, and I scoffed. "Le Monstre is a fairy tale, monsieur. He is a name given to the injustice of wealth and poverty and to the barons who do anything in the name of profit with no care for the lives of the less fortunate. He is a shadow used by crime lords to demand tithes from the poor as a pretense of providing their safety. He does not lurk around dance halls and opera houses refusing singers jobs any more than la bête holds la belle in a castle in the woods. My parents have nothing to fear from stories, monsieur, and if you were the benefactor they call you, they would not have poverty to fear, either."
Vivid amusement danced in the Benefactor's direct gaze as he looked down upon me. "You are opinionated, Miss Stone. Where did you learn to speak such radical thoughts?"
I gaped at him, struck dumb in search of an answer. La vie de bohème was the world in which I was raised. Revolution and social justice were topics for passionate discussion amongst my parents' friends; they feared little, being hardly divorced themselves from the criminal underworld, so close in hand did artists and darkness run. They proclaimed allegiance to truth and beauty and named le Monstre aux Yeux Verts—the Green-Eyed Monster—as the very antithesis of all they loved. He was the very soul of jealousy and loathing, of pride and profit. He was the world we lived in personified, a cruel master who held these artistes' throats in his hands, and their defiance to that cold world was to pursue song and dance and art as if they did not fear it.
"My thoughts are not radical," I finally said, "to the poor. Which you would know, monsieur, if you had ever been poor. If you are our benefactor, I beg you to act as one. Speak to the opera house on Maman's behalf; perhaps they will listen to you where they would not listen to me. You are wealthy and must have influence; find a position for Papa at a bank. Otherwise you are no good to us, and should leave my parents in peace."
Amusement sparked in his eyes again, glittering through the most intense gaze I had ever encountered. "I will think on what you have to say, Miss Stone. I confess I have found this to be a most enlightening discussion, and I hope to continue it one day soon. For now..." His smile was as striking as his eyes. "For now, enjoy your ice. I shall visit your parents at the usual time next week."
Stone's Throe is available now!
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Also by C.E. Murphy
The Border Kingdom
Roses in Amber, a Beauty and the Beast story
Wintergate, a Snow Queen story
Stories of the Rising
Siryn,a retelling of The Little Mermaid
Keys,a retelling of Bluebeard
Them Shoes, a retelling of The Red Shoes
The Strongbox Chronicles
The Cardinal Rule * The Firebird Deception * The Phoenix Law
The Walker Papers
Urban Shaman * Banshee Cries * Thunderbird Falls * Coyote Dreams * Walking Dead * Demon Hunts * Spirit Dances * Raven Calls * No Dominion * Mountain Echoes * Shaman Rises
& with Faith Hunter
Easy Pickings
A Walker Papers/Skinwalker crossover novella
The Old Races Universe
Heart of Stone * House of Cards * Hands of Flame
Baba Yaga's Daughter * Year of Miracles * Kiss of Angels
The Worldwalker Duology
Truthseeker * Wayfinder
The Guildmaster Saga
Seamaster * Stonemaster * Skymaster (coming soon)
The Heartstrike Chronicles
Atlantis Fallen
From Coffin to Grave, a Heartstrike short story
Coming to America, a Heartstrike Grudge
Bewitching Benedict
a Regency romance
Redeemer
a book of the Redeemer Wars
Magic & Manners
an Austen Chronicle
Stone's Throe
a 1930s pulp novel
Take A Chance
a graphic novel
The Inheritors' Cycle
The Queen's Bastard * The Pretender's Crown
Content Warning: The Inheritors' Cycle is very good, but much darker than the rest of my books
writing cozy mysteries as Catie Murphy
The Dublin Driver Mysteries
Dead in Dublin * Death on the Green * Death of an Irish Mummy (pre-order)
& writing paranormal romance as Murphy Lawless
Alaskan Totem Shifters
Raven Heart (a stand-alone HEA)
Gladiator Shifters
Gladiator Bear * Gladiator Cheetah * Gladiator Hawk * Gladiator Wolf (pre-order)
About the Author
According to her friends, CE Murphy makes such amazing fudge that it should be mentioned first in any biography. It's true that she makes extraordinarily good fudge, but she's somewhat surprised that it features so highly in biographical relevance.
Other people said she began her writing career when she ran away from home at age five to write copy for the circus that had come to town. Some claimed she's a crowdsourcing pioneer, which she rather likes the sound of, but nobody actually got around to pointing out she's written a best-selling urban fantasy series (The Walker Papers), or that she dabbles in writing graphic novels (Take A Chance) and periodically dips her toes into writing short stories (the Old Races collections).
Still, it's clear to her that she should let her friends write all of her biographies, because they're much more interesting that way.
More prosaically, she was born and raised in Alaska, and now lives with her family in her ancestral homeland of Ireland, which is a magical place where it rains a lot but nothing one could seriously regard as winter ever actually arrives.
She can be found online at mizkit.com, @ce_murphy, fb.com/cemurphywriter, and at her newsletter, which you should definitely sign up for because it's by far the best way to hear what's out next!
Acknowledgements
First and foremost, clearly, all thanks are due to Catherine Sharp, who bought me this wonderful cover, and to Skyla Dawn Cameron, who both made the cover and inadvertently provided me with a title to work from. :) Thanks also to thank K.B. Spangler, the editor for this project, as well as various early readers, including Elizabeth, Rachel Gollub, Carol Guess, and Hugh Shannon Myers, who helped catch the typos and other errors in the book.
And lastly, of course, but obviously not leastly, all my love is due to Dad, and Ted, and Henry!
-Catie
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