{"product_id":"2940150228634","title":"The Golden Horse","description":"When horse dealer’s son Shem falls foul of the local squire, he’s forced to repay his debt. But what he finds in his lordship’s stables is far from ordinary.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe golden horse—an animal of rare value and mystical properties—holds an astonishing secret, which sets Shem on the way to a journey that will take him a distant land, and to the very heart of what is means to be human, and to be loved.  \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe Golden Horse  was previously published by loveyoudivine Alterotica.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eExcerpt: \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“So,” said the squire, that voice cutting through Shem’s throbbing head with the ease of a hot blade. “This is the thieving little blighter, is it?”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eShem wasn’t sure what to say. He cleared his throat. “If’n please you, sir, I’m very grateful for your hospitality, but I—”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“The doctor said there’d be no lasting damage, so don’t think you can pull the wool over my eyes, boy. Your father might have had it away faster than we could catch him, but we have his horse, and naturally you were an accomplice to the crime.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eShem looked down at his feet. All these books, pressing in around him, intimidating and heavy with the smell of dust and ages. Da had got away, then. That was something. And Cinderella was all right. And yet…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHe glanced up. The squire leaned back in his chair, laying his palms flat to the desk as he studied Shem consideringly.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Naturally, I should call the constable at once. I could have you subjected to the fullest extent of the law.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eShem dropped his gaze, fixing it on the dusty toes of his boots. That was it, then. He’d be for the gaol, and that would be that. He’d die there, for he couldn’t live in a cage.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe squire’s terse sigh disrupted Shem’s visions of his grim, early death. “However, there is an alternative. Should you care to hear it?”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eShem twisted his fingers into the hem of his jacket and bit his lip. “Y’s, sir.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“You will work off your debt in my yard. I shall keep you, and the mare, until the foal is born—if she indeed produces one. Then, I shall keep the foal. It would legally be my property, after all. You will then have license to return to your people, and you can tell them precisely what happens to thieves upon my land. I do not think that is unmerciful. Do you?”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eShem had only heard the barest shapes of what the man said, his head woolly and sounds swooping around him, unclear and yet so dreadful. Almost a year, to be caught and held here, away from his family, his home? Dizziness shook his knees, but he knew it was mercy, however much like cruelty it seemed. He opened his mouth, but he couldn’t form a reply, his thoughts on his da, his mother…what would they do? How would they know where he was?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“I will, naturally, allow you to contact your family. You may write to them,” the squire said, steepling his fat fingers and regarding Shem coolly. “Or, perhaps, dictate a letter. I’m sure they’ll be able to find someone to read it to them.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnger boiled in Shem, but he knew better than to speak out of turn. He bit his teeth together and said nothing.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGraves, ever his master’s faithful bulldog, cleared his throat. “Well? Say thank you, ungrateful boy!”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eShem looked between the two men, the air stifling with the smell of old, dusty pages. “’nk you, y’honor,” he mumbled.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e* * * * \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd so it was that Shem found himself bound to a new job, his days filled with the comforting scents of straw and manure, his billet a prickly sackcloth bed in one of the spare looseboxes. He got to know the stable staff—Graves, of course, and Mason, the trainer who saw to Royal Sharna and his jockeys, and Oldham, whose concern was the brood mares with which the squire hoped to perpetuate Sharna’s legacy.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"LYDIAN PRESS","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47172219994352,"sku":"2940150228634","price":2.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940150228634_p0.jpg?v=1763741216","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940150228634","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}