This week, we have a picture prompt for Tuesday Tales. I have started a new story as the one I’ve been sharing is ready to get a second –or is it third?– round of edits and work toward a release day. This week, this is the opening scene of my new WIP- which is nameless at the moment.
Check out the other tales here. Each post is limited to 300 words this week.
Despite the noise in the ale house, Jane Millbrook found herself in a trance as she watched the bar man pour the golden liquid into several steins. She pictures bubbles, not a head of beer. Her mind took her back to the days before. Before her brothers went to war. Before her mother died. When they used to drink champagne before dinner when there was something to celebrate. Before she ran away into the night. Before her life changed irrevocably due to that man. When her name was still Jane.
“Hey, Brandy, you going to bring us that round tonight or what?” A customer yelled across the packed room.
The bar man shoved the tray at her. “Wake up. Dream on your own time or you will have plenty of time to do so as you won’t be working here. We don’t have time for lazy wenches. Get moving.”
Jane plastered a false smile on her face and picked up the tray. She turned with a swish of her skirts and pretended she was happy and gay. The stench of spilled beer and the vomit still drying on the floor near the table of drunken young men from the posh set—the set she used to belong to but had no idea those kinds of boys existed—caused her stomach to roil. Will I ever get used to it?
Taking the tray to the corner table with several regulars, she set a stein in front of each of the men. The one who called across the room earlier said, “Tell me mate here how you got such an odd name. I mean, really, who in the year of our Lord 1814 names their daughter Brandy?”
One of the men at the table she had not seen before said, “A drinking man?”
Jillian Chantal 
Love that first paragraph. Great scene.
By: Susanne Matthews on March 15, 2022
at 5:56 am
Thanks Susanne. I mulled the beginning over for over a week and then that champagne photo helped it gel in my head. Picture prompt was inspiring this time around for sure.
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By: Author on March 15, 2022
at 6:58 am
Oh, my heart goes out to Jane. I look forward to finding out how she became Brandy and what happens to her.
By: Flossie Benton Rogers on March 15, 2022
at 8:33 am
Thanks Flossie. I hope this one gels together like I am picturing it.
By: Author on March 15, 2022
at 8:41 am
Oh my gosh what a snippet! Well done.
By: Vicki Locey on March 16, 2022
at 4:43 am
Thanks!
By: Author on March 16, 2022
at 7:06 am
Wow, gotta love that last line! So she’s time-traveling? Should be so interesting to return to earlier times with a present day mentality. Happy to be a fly on the wall, listening in.
By: Jean C. Joachim on March 16, 2022
at 6:56 am
I need to work on that line. This is not a time travel story. Lol. Although that makes me think…..
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By: Author on March 16, 2022
at 7:05 am
What a great scene. I could feel her pain from here. Feeling for her in her delimma.
By: trishafaye on March 20, 2022
at 12:21 pm
Thanks TrishaFaye!
By: Author on March 21, 2022
at 9:27 am
When I read this, it made me think of the song. I loved it! Great job!
By: Tricia on March 21, 2022
at 8:37 pm
The song was the inspiration for the story! Well done spotting that. LOL
By: Author on March 22, 2022
at 8:57 am