The Earl's Wet Nurse by DeGroot Jacqueline

Author:DeGroot, Jacqueline [DeGroot, Jacqueline]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: October Press
Published: 2014-05-04T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Sixteen

Christmas was fast approaching and the yuletide season was in evidence everywhere Catherine looked. The gardeners had gathered huge piles of greenery for the house, and the footmen had been busy stringing evergreen boughs together and looping them over doorways, across the mantelpieces, and around the bannisters. Sprigs of holly with bright red berries peaked out from behind picture frames, ringed candlesticks, and hung from doorknobs, and there were bowls of pinecones and rosemary branches tied with crimson ribbons gracing every table in every sitting room.

On her forays down to the kitchen, Catherine, fascinated by all the preparations, and caught up in the spirit, often stopped to help. One morning she made orange pomanders pierced with cloves and decorated with little bits of colored yarn. Then came back that same afternoon to help make beeswax candles and long chains of curled and glued papers that Jeb called do-la-lies.

This morning she lent a hand beribboning sprigs of holly, made mistletoe clusters, and chopped a mountain of dried fruit for the mini-cakes Cook was baking.

“Whatever are all these cakes for?” she asked, as counters overflowed with row upon row of the little brown bundles. Still more were baking in the ovens, with even more in various stages of production on the worktables.

“They’re for the gift baskets for the open house. Christmas is only two days away, and as is custom here at Sefton, the household hosts an open house for the entire village. It’s a grand celebration and everyone comes. There is singing and musicians play all day. In the afternoon mummers put on a pageant. A Yule log is lit, and there is food aplenty: minced pies, mulled cider, pheasant, pickled eggs, prawns, and fruit aspic. For the children there are cookies and toffee cakes and hard bits of ribbon candy and butter brickle. Everyone leaves with a gift basket to use for Boxing Day, as his lordship gives all his staff the day off and even closes the kitchen.”

“So the cakes we’re making are for the baskets?”

“Yes. Every year the lord and lady of the house give baskets to all the tenant families, everyone in the village, and all the staff. Each basket has a ham, a fruitcake, a bottle of hard cider, two beeswax candles, butter scones, buckle berry jam, a crock of butter and a jar of honey. It’s a fun day. The best day of the year, I think. The house is filled with scents of the season and everyone joins in to sing The Holly and the Ivy and watch as the actors perform The Christmas Story.”

“It sounds wonderful.”

“Oh it is. And even though it’s more work for all of us, it’s grand to see all the children smiling and everyone is so happy to be invited to such a nice feast. The women love to stroll the rooms and oooh and aaah over all the lovely things. The men love that the tables set up outside have plenty of tapped barrels and that the honeyed mead and brandied eggnog flow freely until the sun goes down.

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