Katie woke sluggishly, unable to pinpoint what felt different. Outside, it was still dark and she guessed it was a couple of hours before the tropical dawn. Already the heat was oppressive and sweat dotted her body, the bed linen a crumpled tangle on the floor. She usually awoke with a jolt, fearful of what the day might bring and uncertain if she’d be alive to see tomorrow’s dawn. But today she felt alive. Even her body felt different, sort of enjoyable lassitude, but with a few puzzling tender areas.
She flinched and barely smothered her scream when a heavily muscled arm draped across her bare waist and languidly pulled her backwards. Memory flooded her. Alex was tugging her, gently but persistently, towards him again. Her inner struggle between mind and body lasted only a fleeting minute as she permitted her naked body to be lifted and draped across his, breast to breast, thighs meeting and his aroused flesh, hot and hard, enticing her once more.
‘Alex…’
Gentle fingers against her lips silenced her. ‘Shush, Katie. Shush!’
‘But we have an agreement.’
‘I promise to abide by your ridiculous rules, but we still have many hours before full tide and I want to love you, again and again. I need this! We both do. This may be all the time we have to be together for a long while.’
Listening to McLeish extol his own greatness nearly had Lord Alexander St. John at screaming point, but he fixed an interested look on his face while he let his mind wander to Lady Katharine, his thoughts touching over her like a caress. He wanted to kiss her, to taste her sweetness, to allow his tongue to sweep the inside of her soft mouth while his hands explored her body. Oh, God. He had to pull his thoughts back from the direction they were heading before McLeish noticed that his groin was suddenly hard and hot from just thinking of Katie.
Feigning a large yawn, he apologized to McLeish as he excused himself. ‘I thank you for a delightful evening, Robert, but I find I am extraordinarily tired and if I am to discuss business with you tomorrow in any sort of reasonable fashion, I will retire now to my bed.’
‘Yes, yes, Alexander. I understand perfectly. I will meet you at nine at the warehouse.’
‘Ah, Robert. A little later would be better. I will need to arrange things on board my ship first.’
‘Of course, of course. Whatever suits. Until tomorrow.’ He turned to scream for the Chinese houseman, who Alex could see was already waiting in the shadows. ‘Tong! Show Earl St. John out and bring me another whiskey. Quickly!’
Alex started to correct McLeish about promoting him to Earl while his father still lived, but even another minute spent in the company of this appalling man would be too much.
1890-1920 ca. Sterling Silver Chatelaine, England. Center Medallion With Portraits, three drops of monogrammed mesh purse, globe-shaped watch and book-shaped case. Via Augusta Auctions – augusta-auction.com
Definition
The word Chatelaine is French and means the keeper of the keys
Chatelaine” derives from the Latin word for castle
In Medieval times, the chatelaine was in charge of the day-to-day running of the castle.
What did a chatelaine do?
Most important task was keeper of the keys.
Also ordered supplies, did bookkeeping, supervised servants, taught castle children, and organized guests.
Santa Claus The origin of Santa Claus begins in the 4th century with Saint Nicholas, Bishop of Myra, an area in present day Turkey. By all accounts St. Nicholas was a generous man, particularly devoted to children. In the Western world, where Christmas is characterized by the exchange of gifts among friends and family members, some of the gifts are attributed to a character called Santa Claus. He is also known as Father Christmas, Saint Nicholas, St. Nikolaus, Sinterklaas, Kris Kringle, Joulupukki, Weihnachtsmann, Saint Basil and Father Frost.
In the 4th century, Saint Nicholas, Bishop of Myra, Turkey, was a kind and generous man who was particularly devoted to children. His kindness and reputation for generosity gave rise to claims he that he could perform miracles and devotion to him increased. Thousands of churches across Europe were dedicated to him and some time around the 12th century an official church holiday was created in his honor. The Feast of St. Nicholas was celebrated December 6 and the day was marked by gift-giving and charity.
Father Christmas, who predates Santa Claus, was first recorded in the 15th century and then associated with holiday merrymaking and drunkenness. In Victorian Britain, his image was remade to match that of Santa and France’s Père Noël (Papa Noël) evolved the same way and eventually began using the same Santa image.
Today’s version of Santa Claus was created by the German-American cartoonist Thomas Nast (1840-1902), who drew a new image of the character annually, beginning in 1863. By the 1880s, Nast’s Santa had become the one now know and in the 1920s, this image was used in most advertising. But it was the early to mid Coca Cola advertising that cemented the idea of Santa Claus as a jolly man with a white beard and wearing a red suit. He was portrayed as drinking a coke and smiling happily. Many famous artists started doing yearly illustrations of Santa Claus that were used for magazine covers and Christmas postcards.
Belatedly recalling that he was speaking to a British peer, McLeish pulled himself together and shrugged off his outburst. ‘Never mind that sordid story, my lord. How about another shot of my fine whiskey?’
Nearly choking on rising bile, Lord Alexander St. John forced himself to take his leave as politely as he would have from a London drawing room. ‘I thank you, sir, but as I sail on the morning tide so I must bid you farewell.’
He wanted to punch the bastard in his smug face after witnessing the disrespect he’d shown his daughter. He’d heard the stories of the man’s abuse of his daughter and his cruelty when dealing with his plantation laborers. If he’d remained in the same room as that vile man for another minute, he would not have been able to contain his rage. The only thing holding him back was knowing that McLeish’s moods were mercurial. Tonight, he had wanted his daughter to appear enticing but Alex feared the aftermath if he’d shown Lady Katharine any special attention. McLeish would do anything to leave these islands and return to London and becoming part of the St. John family would ensure he would be accepted back into London society, despite the cloud he departed under previously.
Relieved to escape the house without further conflict, he strode down the garden path lit by flares and walked away from the house. Once out of McLeish’s view, he turned into the gardens. When a soundless lips in a gesture of silence and beckoned Alex to follow. Wordlessly, they descended to the small cove where Tong Lee stopped and pointed. Alex could make out a huddled figure on the beach, staring fixedly out to the ocean. Not wanting to scare her, he cleared his throat softly to announce his approach. Nevertheless, she started in fright and fear.
‘It is only I, Alexander. Please do not fear me. I didn’t wish to alarm you, but I needed to be assured of your well-being before I sailed.’
Our modern Christmas tree tradition probably began in Germany in the 18th century, though some argue that Martin Luther began the tradition in the 16th century. An evergreen fir tree was used to celebrate winter festivals (pagan and Christian) for thousands of years. Nobody is really sure when Fir trees were first used as Christmas trees but it probably began 1000 years ago in Northern Europe. Many early Christmas Trees seem to have been hung upside down from the ceiling using chains.
The English phrase “Christmas tree”, first recorded in 1835, came from the German words Tannenbaum (fir tree) or Weinachtenbaum (Christmas tree). The Christmas tree is often explained as a Christianization of pagan tradition and ritual surrounding the Winter Solstice, which included the use of evergreen boughs, and an adaptation of pagan tree worship. At first, a figure of the Baby Jesus was put on the top of the tree. Over time it changed to an angel or fairy that told the shepherds about Jesus, or a star like the Wisemen saw.
Christian tradition associates the holly tree with the crown of thorns, and says that its leaves were white until stained red by the blood of Christ. Along with a Christmas tree, the interior of homes were decorated with plants, garlands, and evergreen foliage and in Victorian times, Christmas trees were decorated with candles to represent stars.
The early Germans conceived of the world as a great tree whose roots were hidden deep under the earth, but whose top, flourishing in the midst of Walhalla, the old German paradise, nourished the she-goat upon whose milk fallen heroes restored themselves. Yggdnafil was the name of this tree, and its memory was still green long after Christianity had been introduced into Germany, when much of its symbolic character was transferred to the Christmas-tree. At first fitted up during the Twelve Nights in honor of Berchta, the goddess of spring, it was subsequently transferred to the birthday of Christ, who, as the God-man, is become the “resurrection and the life.”
Queen Victoria saw a Christmas tree as a girl in 1832. The little princess wrote excitedly in her diary that her Aunt Sophia had set up two “trees hung with lights and sugar ornaments. All the presents being placed around the tree.” In 1841, Prince Albert, Queen Victoria’s German husband, arranged for a fir tree to be brought from Germany and decorated. By 1850, Victoria and Albert had Christmas trees erected in the British Royal Palaces and their children started the tradition of gathering around the tree.
‘The Christmas-tree is doubtless of German origin. Though in its present form it is comparatively of recent date, yet its pagan prototype enjoyed a very high antiquity.’ From 1873 Harper’s Bazaar, America.
A print of the royal family gathered about the Christmas tree at Windsor Castle appeared in the Illustrated London News in 1848, then in Godey’s Lady’s Book in 1850, and was reprinted again ten years later. The six-foot fir sits on a table, each tier laden with a dozen or more lighted wax tapers. An angel with outstretched arms poses at the top. Gilt gingerbread ornaments and tiny baskets filled with sweets hang by ribbons from the branches. Clustered around the base of the tree are dolls and soldiers and toys.
Christmas trees did exist in America before Queen Victoria made them famous, but mainly only amongst migrant groups from Europe. The writer of an 1825 article in The Saturday Evening Post mentions seeing trees in the windows of many houses in Philadelphia, a city with a large German population. He wrote, Their “green boughs laden with fruit, richer than the golden apples of the Hesperides, or the sparkling diamonds that clustered on the branches in the wonderful cave of Aladdin.” Gilded apples and nuts hung from the branches as did marzipan ornaments, sugar cakes, miniature mince pies, spicy cookies cut from molds in the shape of stars, birds, fish, butterflies, and flowers. A woman visiting German friends in Boston in 1832 wrote about their unusual tree hung with gilded eggshell cups filled with candies.
Not until the mid-nineteenth century did Christmas trees start spreading to homes with no known German connection. But once Queen Victoria approved of the custom of a Christmas tree, the practice spread throughout England and America and, to a lesser extent, to other parts of the world, through magazine pictures and articles. Upper-class Victorian Englishmen loved to imitate the royal family, and other nations copied the custom. Late in the century, larger floor-to-ceiling trees replaced the tabletop size.
Nothing had prepared Lady Katharine Montgomery for the jumble of feelings overwhelming her when Alex worshipped her body, first with words and later with his hands and mouth. For years around this house, she’d been forced to appear dowdy, unintelligent, and totally self-effacing to never anger her father, or draw his wrath. Now, though, every degrading restriction was lifted from her mind, body, and life.
Her father was dead. Yesterday, she’d buried her hatred for the despicable man who’d given her life during the quarter hour it took to stand at his grave and, along with all the other hypocrites present, pretend to mourn as they buried his mortal remains. He’d cheated traders, beaten plantation workers, and horse-whipped her within an inch of her life. She and all the other mourners hoped he’d rot in hell.
Last night, she’d felt free to liberate the passionate nature she’d kept buried for six and twenty years for fear of her father’s explosive wrath. But one night with Lord Alexander St. John had changed everything. One night with a lover who was gentle and caring had her aching for more, more of Alex and more of life with him.
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