Summer's Lease by Scot D. Ryersson

Summary:

Calcutta, West Bengal, May 1891—Mair Calloway, Major Willoughby’s grandson, is arriving at Barrackpore for one night, en route to England for his first year at university. Captain Charles Blackthorne has been ordered to meet Mair at the train and take him under his wing for twenty-four hours. “No girls!” the Major orders. “Take care of his every need—personally!” Blackthorne, with an impeccable record in twelve years of military service would seem to be the perfect chaperone…

Summer’s Lease, an original short story from acclaimed author Scot D. Ryersson, brings the sights, smells, and tastes of colonial India to life. With a sensual undercurrent and simmering eroticism present throughout, the reader is transported to another world for a visit, that, like Mair’s stay at the Viceregal Lodge, is all too short and will leave you wanting more.

Reviewer: BlackTulip
I was simply blown away by this story! I don't remember ever having been so overwhelmed by so much feelings at the same time. It felt both so good and so weird. After so much emotions and such a compelling story, I don't know how I will be able to express myself and do the author justice.

Scot D. Ryersson has to be some sort of magician with words at least. He was able to take me there with Charles and Mair and make me share what they were seeing, what they were hearing, and what they were feeling. I was there with them in my little time capsule, in India!

It is a snapshot of a very brief and very passionate fling. As hot and spicy as this country.

The story takes place in India in 1891. The author takes his time describing the surroundings, the characters, their feelings and he does it beautifully and craftily. We learn a lot about Charles, not so much about young Mair, but I think it's understandable.

I felt so sorry for Captain Charles Blackthorne. He is a lonely man who spent more than ten years in India and who feels old even if he is not that old. I don't know how he managed to hide his inclination for so long in this microcosm but he did it. But immutably each year he gets older and each year the new recruits get younger. So Mair is like the last opportunity for him to be happy if only for a short time.

At the end of that story I felt both excited and melancholic and I wanted to give him a big hug. Of course it was too short, and I would like to know what will happened to Captain Charles Blackthorne next. It is such a wonderful tale, I give 5/5.

Publisher: Bristlecone Pine Press