Blackmail
~ Book#1 in the Dangerous Letters Trilogy

Summary:

Surely young Mr Frederick Whyatt could never had imagined that he would manage to get himself all tangled up with a flamboyant rake and a pretty prostitute during his first trip to London? All he wanted was to see the wonders of the crown jewel of the British Empire while accompanying his parents and sister.

Naive and innocent, he instead finds himself in love with a young gentleman, and then makes a terrible mistake: He writes love letters.
However, love letters can easily be used for blackmail, and soon he asks himself what he is willing to do to get the letters back.


Product details:

Format: ebook
Category: Gay Victorian Romance and Erotica
Written: 2012
Length: 32pages, 18o00 words
File size: 300KB
Publisher: Independently published by
My Secret Quill


About this story

The idea to the novella “Blackmail” was inspired by the wonderful scene between the footman Thomas and his lover in Downton Abbey. (All hail BBC for having a gay character in a historical drama series!)

The story was also partly influenced by the footnotes in the Penguin classic edition of “The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde” by the Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson, where homosexual blackmail is hinted. I was also inspired by the novel “The Picture of Dorian Gray” by Oscar Wilde where Dorian in one scene blackmails a former male friend to get rid of the dead body upstairs.

I did quite a lot of background research for the story, which always takes me in all kind of research historical detours. I did, of course, investigate homosexual blackmail during the Victorian era, and the laws around male homosexuality from The Buggery Act 1533 to the passing of the Offences against the Person Act in 1861. Other research included Victorian fashion, the railway system, and marriage proposal during the Victorian era.

Any French spelling mistakes are mine and mine alone, and should not be blamed on Vincent or Micah.

First 100 words:

“I write because I must! If I do not, I think I shall go completely mad! My quill pen shivers and its steel nib threatens to destroy the pages as I write down these lines. How could it ever come to this?

The section in my journal was written late at night in London in the end of April, almost six months ago. The handwriting which filled the vellum pages of the leather-bound notebook was unsteady and marred with numerous ink blotches covering the papers. I acutely remember the pure desperation and the agony from that time.”

Tags: London, first love, persuasion, voyeurism, threesome (MMM)

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~ OTHER BOOKS ~

Stolen Letters
~ Book#2 in the Dangerous Letters Trilogy

Mr Frederick Whyatt is returning to London to attend his sister, Emma’s wedding. However, before his family leave Devon, Frederick is forced to promise that he will behave like a proper gentleman–if he does not, his cold-hearted father threatens to cancel the wedding and disinherit Frederick.

Tempted to continue?

The Secret Diary
~ Book#3 in the Dangerous Letters Trilogy

Young Mr Frederick Whyatt is joining his family to spend the Christmas season in London. However, Frederick sneaks out together one late night together with Vincent D’amonte, a flamboyant rake, to search for Micah who has disappeared. But Frederick gets caught–and one little, white lie swiftly leads to disastrous consequences.

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