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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#254: The Talk of the Ton

Dearest readers,

It has come to our attention that the conclusion of Bridgerton’s third season is nigh upon us. I, for one, can’t wait to be swept up in the latest rumors and scandals of the ton — and so, in my excitement, I am writing to you to request you share your own scandalous tales. If you're not familiar with Julia Quinn's Regency romance novels or Netflix's popular TV adaptation of them, fret not; tales of forbidden liaisons, star-crossed lovers, and gossipmongers are as old as time. Besides, who doesn’t love a bit of Austencore?

In honor of this momentous occasion, I must ask you — gentle writer — to sharpen your quills and step into a world of high society, social scandal, and regency pomp...

🥇 Winner

“Found Family” by Phoebe Barr

🏆 Winner of Contest #254

I don’t really know how to tell this story. For a start, there are some logistical difficulties – I’ll get to those later – but even without those, I don’t know how to explain it all. I guess I’ll start when we saw each other at the club after four years apart. That night, my head was pounding with noise and my heart was burning with hurt, and I’d come to the club alone – a stupid move for a girl, some part of me still said, though I hadn’t looked like a girl in public for over a year. I threw myself into the sweaty, rainbow-hued crowd prepa...

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⭐️ Shortlisted

“Whispers” by Trudy Jas

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #254

Whispers.Did you hear the latest? Oh, my! Do sit down, have a cup of tea. You have met Lady Farnsworth, have you not? Exactly! At the Wendtworth ball. Yes. Her garden is legendary. Or so I’ve heard. I don’t really know anyone who has seen it firsthand. With the exception of Lady Creason, but all she will say about it is that the garden is simply magnificent, divine.No, really, it’s almost too much. She does it herself! Can you imagine? I shudder to think … Oh, the horror! Dirtying her gloves as she digs in the soil, as if she’s a common maid...

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“Rumours” by Helen A Smith

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #254

OAKWOOD FOREST, 1350.Like any right-minded boy of nine and a half, hadn’t Tom always dismissed the rumours as unbelievable? Too good to be true.“Stuff and nonsense,” his mother said firmly. “You are to ignore them.”“But what if they are true?” He’d asked her this more than once.“They are not true.” She shook her fist to emphasise the point. “You must stop your foolish chatter, Tom. There have been no sightings and even if there were, the king has forbidden such talk. Haven’t we enough troubles, without adding to them?”“But…”“No ifs and no bu...

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“Tangled Up” by Linda Dennis

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #254

Ava had two favorite pastimes. One of them was her afternoon tea served on pure white China. The other was reading the daily gossip column in the New York Gazette. Even better when she could enjoy those cherished moments alone. “There’s a rumor going around about a girl.” She nodded a thank you to the servant who poured her tea and handed the cup to her. “I can take it from here. Thank you, Stiles.” “Ma’am.” Stiles nodded at Ava’s husband, Clarence, and left the room. The rumble and clip-clop of a horse-drawn carriage could be heard from the...

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“Messy Missives” by Christopher Cayen-Cyr

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #254

Hermes's Messy MissiveVolume XII, Issue IIITrojans and Achaeans alike, rejoice!Your boy Hermes is back at it again with another edition of his weekly newsletter. I may be a messenger to the gods, but you know my heart has always been with the hot gossip of folks down below! I'm a messy messenger who lives for drama, after all.Ever since the Aphrodite-Ares-Hephaestus love triangle drama died down eons ago, the tea has been cold up on Mount Olympus. Thankfully, Goddess of Discord Eris has finally brought us the earth-shattering pettiness us go...

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This week's prompts

Set your story at a Regency-themed fair.

Short Story – 12 stories

Write a story where a rumor starts to spread. Your protagonist is either the topic or the source.

Short Story – 54 stories

Write a story about two characters who start as mortal enemies but learn to embrace their differences.

Short Story – 37 stories

Write a story where an important conversation takes place during a dance.

Short Story – 78 stories

Write a story in the format of a gossip column.

Short Story – 37 stories

Stories

“Found Family” by Phoebe Barr

🏆 Winner of Contest #254

I don’t really know how to tell this story. For a start, there are some logistical difficulties – I’ll get to those later – but even without those, I don’t know how to explain it all. I guess I’ll start when we saw each other at the club after four years apart. That night, my head was pounding with noise and my heart was burning with hurt, and I’d come to the club alone – a stupid move for a girl, some part of me still said, though I hadn’t looked like a girl in public for over a year. I threw myself into the sweaty, rainbow-hued crowd prepa...

Read story

“Whispers” by Trudy Jas

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #254

Whispers.Did you hear the latest? Oh, my! Do sit down, have a cup of tea. You have met Lady Farnsworth, have you not? Exactly! At the Wendtworth ball. Yes. Her garden is legendary. Or so I’ve heard. I don’t really know anyone who has seen it firsthand. With the exception of Lady Creason, but all she will say about it is that the garden is simply magnificent, divine.No, really, it’s almost too much. She does it herself! Can you imagine? I shudder to think … Oh, the horror! Dirtying her gloves as she digs in the soil, as if she’s a common maid...

Read story

“A Need to Dance” by Alexis Araneta

Submitted to Contest #254

“I need to dance to this with you,” you demanded, your chartreuse eyes an inextinguishable flame that bored into my soul and burnt through my defences.Need! That’s not a need. A need is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as something requisite or necessary. Dancing to “I’ll Be Around” by The Detroit Spinners is certainly not something that one requires to live…Zoe, I can’t dance.My brain spun and sputtered out all its reasons as if they were drops falling down a plastic tube. However, even it knew that it was helpless in the face of yo...

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“Rumours” by Helen A Smith

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #254

OAKWOOD FOREST, 1350.Like any right-minded boy of nine and a half, hadn’t Tom always dismissed the rumours as unbelievable? Too good to be true.“Stuff and nonsense,” his mother said firmly. “You are to ignore them.”“But what if they are true?” He’d asked her this more than once.“They are not true.” She shook her fist to emphasise the point. “You must stop your foolish chatter, Tom. There have been no sightings and even if there were, the king has forbidden such talk. Haven’t we enough troubles, without adding to them?”“But…”“No ifs and no bu...

Read story

“My Fair Lady” by Mary Bendickson

Submitted to Contest #254

My Fair LadyIt happened at the fair. Our eyes locked, our hearts entwined and our lives tumbled.Sir Carlton Winslow, my good chum from university and myself, Sir Riley Fenwick, decided to take in the ever popular local market fair to delve into delectable street fare hawked out by costermongers and imbibe in some hardy ale dispensed by wanton wrenches. The bawdy sights and cacophony of sounds would provide a good diversion from our unending pressures of the late season of concerts, ballroom galas and afternoon teas we young blades were expec...

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“To Have and To Hold” by Howard Halsall

Submitted to Contest #254

Madam Pearl De Vere wanted me to look eye-catching on the night of the ball and provided a new gown for the occasion. Its hand-embroidered satin and plunging neckline flattered my slim waist and hips, without drawing excessive attention to my cleavage. I had no reason to advertise my wares. “Tighter, Eliza!” I said, as she strained behind me. “Pull with all your might!” “That’s as tight as tight can be, Miss Teresa.” By the time Eliza had secured all the laces and buttons, and powdered my tresses, it wa...

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“ Dancing from Winter into Spring on the Mystical Coast ” by Kristi Gott

Submitted to Contest #254

Part I. Dance of the Mystical Coast He would always remember the week in 1898, when his whole world changed, and he felt as if the personality of the Mystical Coast, herself, reached out and flowed through him.“SSSShhh…” The late evening breeze rustled through the Douglas Fir boughs.In the river sleek seals glided and spun in the water near the boats at the rustic wharf.The whole world was dancing from Winter into Spring on the Mystical Coast. It was like poetry coming to life.These were the thoughts of the young man sitting high on a mounta...

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“The Aroma of Really Good Cooking” by Daniel Rogers

Submitted to Contest #254

“So, have you heard?” Splinter asked in hushed tones. The magical stump with a stylish carved beard and a small crack in the middle of his forehead was too gleeful. The kind of glee that only comes from gossip or a joke involving a pulled finger. “I hear lots of things,” Oakaford answered. The captain of the Stumper Guard thought it was a ridiculously easy question, but he was pleased with himself for knowing the correct answer. He nodded, then turned to leave. “Wait! That’s not all.” Splinter grabbed Oakaford’s shoulder. “I mean, have you h...

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“Tangled Up” by Linda Dennis

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #254

Ava had two favorite pastimes. One of them was her afternoon tea served on pure white China. The other was reading the daily gossip column in the New York Gazette. Even better when she could enjoy those cherished moments alone. “There’s a rumor going around about a girl.” She nodded a thank you to the servant who poured her tea and handed the cup to her. “I can take it from here. Thank you, Stiles.” “Ma’am.” Stiles nodded at Ava’s husband, Clarence, and left the room. The rumble and clip-clop of a horse-drawn carriage could be heard from the...

Read story

“Dancing With Her Daughter” by Hannah Lynn

Submitted to Contest #254

The gentle waves lapped against the ship as it slowly pulled away from the port of Livorno. Holding the stem of her delicate wineglass, she watched the sunlight’s reflection shimmer and swirl on the surface of the wine and the sea simultaneously.She reminded herself to be grateful for their recent harvest. The years of hard work had finally restored their vineyard back to the successful business it had been for generations. That knowledge made her first sip of the fruity wine that much sweeter. Looking out ove...

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“The Scandal of the Regency Fair” by Charity Cummings

Submitted to Contest #254

Betrayal and infidelity, emotional distress, confrontation and breakup. These elements might be sensitive for some readers. Dearest readers, It is with the utmost urgency that I relay the latest and most titillating gossip from our recent Regency-themed fair, a gathering that promised romance, revelry, and inevitably, scandal. Let us dive into a tale that rivals even the most dramatic of Bridgerton episodes, for what transpired at this fair shall not be forgotten anytime soon. The fair was a splendid affair, awash with pastel-colored tents, ...

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“Hat Trick: A Professor Deshpande Mystery” by Martin Ross

Submitted to Contest #254

NOTE: JUNETEENTH WAS A LANDMARK EVENT IN U.S. HISTORY AND HOPE. THIS IS FOR FRIENDS AND NEIGHBORS AND FAMILY WHO EMBRACE THAT HOPE.“I am asked -- in fact, asked often enough frankly to annoy the living shit out of me -- if the arts, and in particular the textile arts, were the best and highest use of my powers as a woman, as a black woman, as an educator and a civil rights advocate and activist. Most of the time, it comes up at family suppers and reunions.”Appreciative laughter rustles through the still Central Illinois Wednesday afternoon a...

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“Little Lies and Big Truths” by Ty Warmbrodt

Submitted to Contest #254

It was almost the end of the school year, my senior year in 1990 at St. Andrew’s, when I walked into school and the hallway went silent. I knew it was because of me. You know how noisy high school hallways get. So, when they suddenly go quiet when you walk in, and everyone starts staring and whispering, you know something is up. It’s an eerie feeling not being in on the gossip that has everyone so tightlipped and gawking. I put my head down and made my way to my locker, occasionally stealing glances through the corners of my eyes. I get half...

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“Sadie Hawkins” by Story Time

Submitted to Contest #254

I have played this entirely wrong. Entirely wrong, Mrs. Trent. I thought if I showed up at the Sadie Hawkins Dance without a date, it wouldn’t matter, because there’d be extra girls looking for one. You know how there are always extras? I mean, I’ve never been to a Sadie Hawkins Dance before, but I know that there are always extras of just about anything, so I figured there would be extra girls standing around in case a guy wanted to go to the dance, but nobody asked him out in time for the dance, you know? Frankly, I was shocked none of the...

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“You Think You Can Handle The Truth” by Trudy Jas

Submitted to Contest #254

You Think You Can Handle The Truth?You know the story, right?The maiden, downtrodden by a stepmother and stepsisters. The maiden who somehow makes it to the ball. You know that one. Of course you do. The maiden, beautiful beyond belief, sorely abused after her father’s disappearance. The maiden who gets help from none other than a fairy god mother. Can you hear the snark in my voice? Down here in the kitchen we don’t take stock in magic, I tell you. We don’t have any pennies to lose on wagers like that.So, you get it. The story isn’t quite l...

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$250

Prize money

218

Contest entries

88

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Jun 14, 2024 EST

Won by Phoebe Barr 🏆

Title: Found Family

Submissions must be between 1,000 - 3,000 words and will be approved and published on Reedsy Prompts within 7 days of the contest closing.

Read the full terms & conditions or check out the FAQ if you have any questions!

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