Divine Service

Fantasy short. A young man goes from noble to cleric.

eBook cover here.

22k, rated M, pre-M/M, a god and his new cleric. Jeeves and Wooster-inspired. This work is also available as an eBook, and has a GoodReads and a StoryGraph entry.

Theodore Halloran is coming into himself; Godfrey Digbett III seems to be coming into nothing but trouble.

Perhaps one might amend the troubles of the other.

Part I

“You’ve never asked me who your father was,” said Mrs Hanni Halloran, née Halloran, for she had never been married, in truth.

Initially, her son did not answer her. He was sitting straight-backed upon a stool, blacking Lord Panatty’s shoes with quick, expert movements of his hand, coaxing the boots back to a bright shine that almost made Hanni’s eyes ache, to look right at them in the afternoon light.

It was a warm summer’s day, sun shining in from the southern window and the Vellumdry heat permeating the whole of the cottage. It was somewhat cooler upstairs, but the ceilings were really too low to accommodate her standing to pursue her work, and so she remained at her worktable in the middle of the room, her mistress’ dress laid out upon it. It was not so arduous a repair — the dress’ ruffles had torn in places, and she had only to neatly sew them…