Leisure and Little Luxuries

Leisure and Little Luxuries by Kit Miller first appeared in issue Issue 116 in 2025.

Summary

A lazy Saturday in Mayfair. Oh, and some long-distance theft.

Connections

David and Jonathan also appear in Nothing But An Unassuming Valet and An Unexpected Mole.

Author's Notes

The Victorian era, especially the latter portion of it, was an explosion of new technologies and advancements and discoveries. I chose to centre telegraphy, with a secondary focus on photography. My knowledge of photography, especially vintage photography, is very akin to Jonathan’s, though – it appears a bit like witchcraft to me. As such, the camera David uses is sort of kind of based on contemporary models – I looked at so many digital museum archives – but it is not based on any one specific model. Every feature of the camera was available in 1890, but I cannot say that there existed a camera like the one David uses that combines them all.

Cable codes were unofficial phrase books used as both a cost-saving measure as well as to ensure privacy and discretion between correspondents. Single words could stand in for whole phrases (as “Cadmium” in this very story stands for “message received, and acting on it). Mass produced cable codes were available, but individuals may also use private codes between each other. Here’s a really good article on the subject, including a scan of two pages of an actual cable code!

Akan goldweights were used to measure/weigh gold dust, the most common currency in West Africa before colonisation. Early ones were geometric or non-pictoral (probably because of Muslim/Arabic traders) but later ones were rather elaborate, and often alluded to Adinkra symbols (like the two-headed crocodile Funtumfunefu Denkyemfunefu) or proverbs. The one I mention in the text about a gazelle with overly long horns is based on a real weight (if you have access to JSTOR, I found it in this article. It’s figure 23). There’s also good, freely accessible (if brief) articles by The Met and Moma.

Writing historical fiction is really fun, because I get to learn so many things during research :)

External Links

This story is also available on Archive of Our Own (AO3).