The Merest Loss by Steven Neil - Book Tour
The Merest
Loss
A story of love
and political intrigue, set against the backdrop of the English
hunting shires and the streets of Victorian London and post-revolutionary Paris.
hunting shires and the streets of Victorian London and post-revolutionary Paris.
When Harriet Howard becomes Louis Napoleon’s mistress and financial backer and appears at his side in Paris in 1848, it is as if she has emerged from nowhere. How did the English daughter of a Norfolk boot-maker meet the future Emperor? Who is the mysterious Nicholas Sly and what is his hold over Harriet?
Can Harriet meet her obligations and return to her former life and the man she left behind? What is her involvement with British Government secret services? Can Harriet’s friend, jockey Tom Olliver, help her son Martin solve his own mystery: the identity of his father?
The central character is Harriet Howard and the action takes place between 1836 and 1873. The plot centres on Harriet’s relationships with Louis Napoleon and famous Grand National winning jockey, Jem Mason. The backdrop to the action includes significant characters from the age, including Lord Palmerston, Queen Victoria and the Duke of Grafton, as well as Emperor Napoleon III. The worlds of horse racing, hunting and government provide the scope for rural settings to contrast with the city scenes of London and Paris and for racing skulduggery to vie with political chicanery.
The Merest Loss is historical fiction with a twist. It’s pacy and exciting with captivating characters and a distinctive narrative voice.
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Excerpt
From Steven Neil,
the author of THE MEREST LOSS
A story of love and
political intrigue, set against the backdrop of the English hunting shires and
the streets of Victorian London and post-revolutionary Paris.
A Hint of Things to Come
No
doubt the reader is looking for some clue as to which way the story will go, at
this point in the novel. No certainty yet, but in chapter thirty of The Merest Loss a strong hint is
delivered.
Chapter Thirty
Last Chance
Wroughton, England
Paris and La Celle-Saint-Cloud,
France
1863
And so it is that at noon, on Friday the fifth of June 1863, Harriet
Howard, Melliora Findon, Lavinia Lampard
and Princess Mathilde present themselves at Vefour restaurant on the rue de
Beaujolais, beside the Palais Royal in Paris and order a jeroboam of champagne.
They are all attractive women, around their fortieth year, but there the
similarity ends. Mathilde wears the most extraordinary purple and white
striped, half-domed, crinoline dress, with a French lace shawl. It is an
awkward construction and it takes the assistance of two waiters to arrange her
at the table. Beside her, Lavinia’s black, mourning dress in the style of Queen Victoria, and Mellie’s beige, tunic
dress, merge quietly into the plum-velvet banquette. Harriet’s fuchsia-pink,
crinoline dress, in other circumstances strikingly bright, looks a model of
restraint beside Mathilde. Suffice to say that the four women make an
impression. Even Vefour, all gilded mirrors, chandeliers, inlaid carvings, gold
ceilings and painted neo-classical panels, seems muted in comparison. It is
fair to say that the afternoon goes downhill rather swiftly and four hours and
three more jeroboams later, the ladies, now the only diners - if that is the
right word - left in the restaurant, are in philosophical
mood.
The conversation moves through various subjects, but the condition
of the male of the human species is the one to which they return. Mathilde, who
betrays a certain disdain for the men in her life, of which there have been
many, is moved to announce that ‘men can never be trusted.’
‘I think that may be too sweeping,’ says Lavinia. ‘My dear husband
was always as good as his word. He possessed many positive qualities.’
‘I am happy to hear it. What would you say was his best quality?’
‘He was a very kind man. I think that is a characteristic often
overlooked.’
‘Indeed, but what about passion? Surely a relationship cannot
survive on kindness.’
‘I think it survives very well. Passion is fleeting and capricious.
I would never trust passion if that was
all there was between a man and a woman.’
‘Perhaps that is where I am going wrong. What about you Harriet:
kindness or passion. What would you have?’
‘I aspire to both.’
‘Nicely said. And you Mellie. You are quiet on the matter.’
‘I speak little because I know so little. Men are not my specialist
subject. I am happy to listen and learn.’
Melliora’s reply
slows Mathilde for a while: she is not sure what to make of it. However, she is soon back on track.
‘Harriet, let us not skirt around the subject any longer. Is it true
you will be reconciled with Jem Mason at last?’
Lavinia and Mellie sit forward and rest their chins on their forearms as if choreographed by an unseen
director, their eyes fixed on Harriet.
‘And what does Jem Mason have to commend him, after all these years?’ adds Mathilde.
‘He was the first man I cared about and that emotion never left me.
He was always his own man. I admired his independence. He put into words what I
felt, about making my own way in life, when I was a young girl. That stayed
with me.’
‘When will the great romance be reinstated?’
‘There are some small obstacles to be overcome. I will tell you all
about it when I can. I think it really will be our last chance, but we are
determined not to fail this time.’
‘How marvellous. I can hardly wait.’
© Steven Neil
Author Bio
– Steven Neil has a BSc in Economics
from the London School of Economics, a BA in English Literature and Creative
Writing from the Open University and an MA in Creative Writing from Oxford
Brookes University. In his working life he has been a bookmaker’s clerk,
management tutor, management consultant, bloodstock agent and racehorse
breeder. He is married and lives in rural Northamptonshire.
Social
Media Links – https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100016617465298
and https://twitter.com/stevenneil12
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