Men and Lads [original fiction by Dusk Peterson]

[duskpeterson]

Title: Men and Lads.
Author: Dusk Peterson.
Where to find me: Website, Dreamwidth blog, InsaneJournal mirror blog, LiveJournal mirror blog, duskpetersonbooks (e-mail list with announcements of my fiction).
Series: Life Prison, a historical fantasy series about male desire and determination in Victorian prisons. You don't need to have read the other stories in the series to understand this one, but this story does contain major spoilers for the first story in the series.
Categories: Original fiction. Male/male platonic feelings and male/male attraction. Friendship fiction, mentor fiction, prisoner fiction, race/ethnicity themes, spirituality themes. Plus, trains and tramps. Time: 1892.
Note: This is my 2010 holiday gift story. At my blog, I've posted an entry with links to maps, period illustrations, and notes on my research of this story. None of these are necessary to understand the story.
Contains:References to attraction of an adult to a 17-year-old boy (but no sex). References to offscreen rape and physical punishment of adult prisoners. Brief, onscreen threats of violence. The story centers primarily on nonviolent, nonsexual encounters. Boilerplate warning for all my stories. Warnings for this series.
Length: 16,000 words.
Feedback: Yes, please.
Story summary: Two guards. Two prisoners. A multitude of problems.

He knew what his prisoner's expression would be before he saw it: a mixture of apprehension, wary hope, and the expression he had come to fear most of all – determination.