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Well, here it is, a week late and over 5,000 words, Chapter 12 of 14, chock full of what passes for action in a Robinski tale. I appreciate your patience and hope that you have the time to read it. All comments very much welcomed. (At least at 5,629 words it’s shorter than Mandamon’s submission from 6th July ;op

Here is the last part of The Mathematical Bridge, the epilogue. Don’t be mad now, I'm just the author. Comments gratefully accepted. Cheers, Robinski

Welcome, those still reading, to the penultimate submission of The Mathematical Bridge. All that remains is the epilogue, hopefully next week. I trust that it is worth sticking around for, but here Blacklake, having somehow defeated Tarquin, continues his frantic search for Judith who Sabine has abducted. Comments very much appreciated. Cheers, Robinski

Here is Chapter 11 of 14 of The Mathematical Bridge. In the previous chapter, we saw the first perspective of Tarquin’s arrival in Cambridge, before he went to visit Sabine in her rooms at Queens’ College. Blacklake, sitting in Fitzbillie’s Tea Room while Judith was working, recalled a walk with her by the river in which he revealed something of his true nature to her and she was accepting of it, if not able really to comprehend that nature. Thanks for reading! Cheers, Robinski

Here is Chapter 10 (of 14) of The Mathematical Bridge. Previously, Judith pondered the attack on her by the woman standing on the bridge. Blacklake came to a decision and acted on it, finding Judith at him and meeting her brother. After a somewhat uncomfortable discussion between the three, Judith and Blacklake were left alone. He finally made a declaration of his feelings for her, although she had to prompt him to do it. They ended in an embrace, with Blacklake making an apology that Judith did not understand. Thanks for reading. Cheers, Robinski

Chapter 9 of 14, Unbeknown to Blacklake, Judith had an episode while out on her lunch break that she believe was an attack by a mysterious blonde woman. It is put down as a fainting spell and she is sent home to recover. Meanwhile, Blacklake had reluctantly agreed to meet with Judith to try and wind out her motives. He joined her at a reception in Queens College and met an engineering lecturer called Malcolm Watt before an exchange with Sabine that lead to him agreeing to spend the night with her. Comments much appreciated. Thank you for reading on.

Chapter 8 of 14, the second half of the story begins. I hope there is still something here of interest, and that it’s not all becoming a bit too esoteric. Blacklake had begun to prepare for the exhibition of his paintings at Fitzbillies Tea Room at the suggestion of Judith Carmichael, who works there. He has discovered that he has feelings for her, and she has come to symbolise his escape from the horror of his association with Tarquin and Sabine, who he has manage to elude for some few years by hiding away in Cambridge. The reality of his situation however, is that the two appear to have decided to reel him back into back into their cabal. Sabine has arrived in Cambridge and Tarquin purports to be on his way, to what end Rutland Blacklake does not dare surmise. Blacklake has tried and failed to hide Judith from Sabine, to the extent that Judith suffered an attack as she stood sketching on one of the bridges over the River Cam. The presumption is that Sabine was the attacker. At the end of the last chapter, Rutland reluctantly agreed to meet Sabine at Queens College, where she is lodging. Comments much appreciated. Thank you!

Hi there, Here is Chapter 7 of The Mathematical Bridge. The last submission encompassed the scene introducing Tarquin and showing his fatal rendezvous with a young couple in Paris. Now we return to Cambridge, where Blacklake has met with Judith, who has gained an opportunity for him to exhibit in her place of work. Meanwhile, Sabine has arrived in Cambridge, and Tarquin has said he is coming there. Blacklake knows from bitter past experience that they pose a real threat to him, but more so to Judith. With this submission, we are half way through the story. I’d like to keep submitting. What do you think? There don’t seem to be a lot of people commenting at this point, so the alternative is that I put the rest of the story up on the Alpha Readers’ thread for anyone who wants to read the rest. Thoughts? Cheers, Robinski

Thank you for reading my latest submission from The Mathematical Bridge, which is the culmination of Chapter 6 ‘Bad Pennies’. Previously, after meeting Judith to look at her pictures, then following her out of fear for her safety (but not finding her), Rutland had his first encounter for a long time with the Sabine creature. This submission is in a different POV. There are some obvious challenges in here, which I presume will provoke a reaction. I very much look forward to hearing your comments, which will be much appreciated. Cheers, Robinski

Here is the beginning of Chapter 6 of The Mathematical Bridge. The chapter is about 7,200 words. Although my edits of this section have dropped 272 words (from this section) – I still need to split it in two. I very much look forward to your comments. Cheers, Robinski

Here is Chapter 5 of ‘The Mathematical Bridge’. Thank you for sticking with it. The more I go through trying to touch-up each submission before emailing, the more flaws I find. The POV in this chapter is a bit scatter-gun, apologies for that. I didn’t really have much appreciation of POV when I wrote this 3 years ago, certainly not at the level I have now from Writing Excuses and critiquing etc. Hope you can get past that. Blacklake agreed to meet Judith to look at her art and give her a critique. Going to meet her, he was waylaid by an encounter with Tarquin in his mind. The monster-in-chief has promised to visit Blacklake in Cambridge. Blacklake had a minor breakdown of sorts following the encounter. As ever, comments very much welcomed.

A rather long section, apologies, this is the remainder of Chapter 5. I wasn’t quite sure how to rate it, so I marked it ‘S’ for some unpleasantness and impropriety. There is some more vagueness and probably lack of clarity in some places and I’ll have to beg your forgiveness for that. I feel as if I’ve learned a lot in the more than two years since NaNo 2012 when I wrote this, and it shows. I haven’t attempted to fix the larger things that are wrong, which would take more time than I have right now. Comments greatly welcomed.

This is the final part of Chapter 3 and the beginning of Chapter 4 – comprising the end of Blacklake’s recalling the past and then events in the present which I trust move things forward a bit! Comments greatly appreciated.

Sorry this is late, my apologies. This is the first part of Chapter 3 – split in two because it totals 6,000 words odd. You’re going to laugh, but it’s another flashback. In a series of 6 stories, this is very much Rutland Blacklake’s origin. I hope you can forgive the indulgence, comments greatly appreciated.

Chapter 2 comes with a content warning, one scene of what could be described as torture. I guess I should have described this as Gothic horror – would that be accurate. I never felt that it was horrific enough, but I don’t read horror, so I wouldn’t know! Comments welcomed as ever, but please don’t feel that you need to track changes, observations are great. Cheers, Robinski

So, you might encounter some tracked changes. I’ll apologise that I haven’t edited this since the first draft was finished, so you’ll likely encounter some typos too – sorry. Also, I’ll apologise for the style – in case you find yourself in need of an apology to accept once you get into it. It’s deliberately a bit flowery, with the intention of evoking something of the setting, but also because I like that shtick. I hope you find something to enjoy in the story. All comments gratefully accepted. Please don’t feel obliged to highlight the typos, but if you do, all to the good. If you want to track comments and suggestions in this Word file and email it back to me, then have at it, but I will be more than happy with any observations that you care to put up on RE. Thanks for reading. Cheers, Robinski