Mercutio by J.I. Davenport
Release date: November 25, 2019
Genre: Historical, Queer/LGBTQ+ Literary Fiction
Synopsis for Mercutio:
Return to the sensuous world of Romeo and Juliet to discover the story of Mercutio, Verona’s most flamboyant citizen!
Prancing on the sidelines of the bitter feud between the House of Montecchi and Capuleti, Mercutio harbours his own secret conflict: he is hopelessly in love with his best friend, Romeo Montecchi. When he spies true love blossoming between Romeo and a young Capuleti girl one fateful summer’s eve, Mercutio fears he has finally lost the man he loves, forever.
Turning to drink, drugs and ever wilder escapades in an effort to ease his aching heart, Mercutio starts to come off the rails, hurtling towards his own spectacular fate …
#1
The moon shone high above the streets of Verona, yellow as a gold ducat. Along the dark and cobbled streets, those cowardly minions of the night that we call shadows trembled at the coming of flames and a riot of voices. The stroll to the Palazzo Capuleti was all mirth and merriment, and Mercutio seemed gay as ever as he regaled his company of friends, maskers and torch-bearers with tales of fairies and talk of dreams; but, behind his filigree eye-mask adorned with silver wings, Mercutio was afraid.
The fear had come with the setting of the sun. He had been dressing in his newest silk and velvet when he’d noticed a tightness in his shoulders, a brittleness to his fingers. He’d fumbled with his cap and broken a feather. Then, he’d dropped a bottle of ambergris tonic. Since when had he become a nervous person? What did he think was watching him that could see through walls, through roofs, through flesh and bone? When he was little, his alchemist father had explained to him the power and influence of the stars. If it was so, then Mercutio was certain some fateful star had appeared that night to set grave events in motion: a great cataclysm from which he would not be spared. Searching the dusky sky from his casement window, he’d seen nothing but moon and clouds; but apprehension continued to roil in the pit of his stomach, and two cups of wine had not settled it.
As he’d sat waiting for the knock on his front door, he’d begun to fear that his dread would give way to mania, as it had sometimes before. What if he lost control, and on so star-crossed a night? Surely, he would wake tomorrow in his grave.
#2
As boys, there had been a time when Mercutio and Romeo were inseparable. They ate together, played together, slept together. In summer, Romeo had stayed overnight at the Palazzo Marchesino in central Verona. It was that time of year when the nights were as warm as the days, and they had stripped off their nightclothes before bedding down together. There was nothing unusual about it — hundreds of boys across the Northern Hemisphere were surely doing the very same — and Mercutio had had a blissful night’s sleep.
It was not until Anselma entered his bedchamber the next morning, bringing some shirts that his mother had stitched for him, that he had cause to worry. It was the look on her face when she saw them together: as if she had walked in on him humping Romeo’s leg like a mongrel! Romeo, too, had reacted suddenly and with obvious guilt: as though he could see what she saw, through her clouded eyes.
Once Romeo had gone home, Mercutio had received a little talk from his mother. Romeo Montecchi was a nice enough boy, she had said, from a perfectly decent family, and she was sure they would be lifelong friends. But they were getting a little too old, now, to be sharing a bed — or bathing together — things of that sort. It wasn’t quite seemly, any more.
Mercutio could not take her meaning, so she had elaborated:
‘Romeo and you need to make sure that you do not take your friendship too far. Particularly in the heat of puberty. Of course, God would forgive you, but it is better to avoid the sin in the first place than to beg His pardon, after.’
Still, Mercutio could not imagine what she meant; so, no more was said about it. But he knew who was to blame. Before Anselma, he and Romeo had lived together in their own little Eden. Then she had crept in, like a sneaking snake, and with her had come knowledge and talk of sin and a shame that had polluted their pure world.
J.I. Davenport has a B.A. in English literature and creative writing from the University of Greenwich. He lives in London with his family and a tomcat named after Cesare Borgia, who he is forever trying to persuade not to invade Naples!
Author links:
Twitter: http://twitter.com/JIDavenport5
Instagram: http://instagram.com/j.i.davenport
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/19749759.J_I_Davenport
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