“Hen Fever” by Olivia Waite

So, it being Pride, here’s another queer story. Fuck the bigots. Beware: death; loss; grief; the horrors of war; death of an infant; PTSD; explicit sex between consenting adults. “Hen Fever” by Olivia Waite Even though this is a short story, just over 90 pages long, it packs a punch: it’s about two women who are grieving, both for those they’ve lost, and for the people they themselves have not been allowed to be, finding themselves and their future, in each other. Set as the Crimean War was ending, it perfectly showcases the tension inherent–sometimes insurmountable–between those who have lived armed conflict, and those who are invested from afar. The book blurb sets the story thusly: Lydia Wraxhall is on her best behavior every day of the year—except one: the annual Bickerton Christmas Poultry Show. On that day she brushes her birds, sharpens her tongue, and engages in the closest thing the village knows to war. Harriet Boyne is a soldier’s widow reeling from the worst years of her…