If you’re on summer holidays, or you wish you were, put your feet up and read! I’ve got fresh historical fiction for you, here. However, the public version cuts off after a teaser. Subscribe to read the whole thing.
My fellow writer, and much-appreciated critique partner Leonie, said it’s ‘a lovely story with strong imagery, sad and hopeful at the same time.’ No AI went into the writing of it. The words are handstitched by me.
As to what it’s about — maybe you read my post on historical men’s shoes two months back? I did some research on women’s shoes at the same time. I might do a full newsletter on the topic later. Meanwhile, I listened to a local historian talk about superstitions on the nineteenth-century Australian goldfields. The mention of hidden shoes caught my ear. (Figuratively 😜 You wouldn’t want to catch the hefty boot below on your ear or anywhere else.)
The women’s shoes in the story were inspired by these:
And here’s the short story:
Big Shoes to Fill
by Alison Lloyd
My Mamma’s shoes – yellow satin. The first time I held them, with the rosettes blooming in my hands, I could hardly breathe. I wanted those shoes very badly. They were Cinderella shoes – shoes that turned you into a lady.
Mamma was somewhere else in the house. She had left her clothes out after a ball held for the Great Exhibition of 1851. The shoes matched the material of her dress, which spread casually over the bedroom chair, spilling a field of gold flowers. I knelt on the carpet and held the silk to my face.
Then I put my hands in the shoes. They were silky inside, a bit slippery. The cloth warmed to my hands. It seemed to me the shoes were alive.
I stood the right shoe up. It bowed to the left shoe. ‘May I have this dance?’
The left shoe dipped her pointy toe and the rosette bobbed. ‘Certainly, sir.’
I skipped them around me, tippety tap. Dum-te-dah, dum-te-dah – the shoes pressed against each other and waltzed over the carpet pattern. The toes touched together in a kiss.
They looked and felt like a fairytale. Like magic! What if I wore them?
…If you would like to read the rest of this unpublished story, subscribe to this newsletter below. You’ll get monthly reads of history and historical fiction like this.
Until next month, blessings and best wishes. If you liked the story, I’d love to hear back from you.