Late July 1916

id quod plerumque accidit

Dear Reader,

I know. I know. We will address the date in a moment.

Twice before, in For Now and The Window, I have written a scene in an unusual format—a back-and-forth dialogue, no tags, no names. This is the third Gazette to follow that format.

Now, I have a rule: Never publish a Gazette set beyond the current volume of The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion. There is one exception to this rule that is waiting in the wings. It is the only exception.

But as I began to work on the April Gazette, there was one conversation that kept coming to mind. It repeated and repeated, and St. Crispian’s would give me nothing else. Still I debated whether I should share it or not.

I know St. Crispian’s beyond the scope of the journals, so I am well aware of events that take place in the neighbourhood leading up to and during the First World War. (To say nothing of the Second. You guys…) And it was this moment in 1916, between two characters you will meet someday, that kept asking to be published.