by Emma Prince
She’d been kept up all night so that at the stroke of midnight, she and the others could dine first thing on sowens, a porridge sweetened with treacle, by candlelight.
Now, as they were finishing their tea, a rumbling of voices rose outside the keep.
“The beggars!” Lady Clarissa cried, snatching up her doll and nutcracker from the table and bolting from her chair to the door.
Edmund grinned. “Come, sweeting,” he said, motioning Thea after his sister.
As Clarissa pulled open the door, weak morning sunlight spilled into the great hall—along with a booming chorus of male voices. They were singing a carol about an “auld woman” in need of grain for the winter. Each strapping farmer or village lad wore a canvas sack draped over one shoulder.
Thea stood with Clarissa and Edmund in the doorway until the men concluded their song with a robust flourish. Several women, whom Thea realized belatedly had been standing behind the men, rushed forward and planted lusty kisses on the singers’ mouths.
“We dinnae even need yer English mistletoe in the Highlands,” Edmund murmured into her ear, causing a blush to rise to her cheeks.
Edmund stepped in amongst the crowd and a ripple of excitement spread through those gathered.
“Do ye have yer cups, men?”
“Aye!” was the unanimous reply as they produced wooden cups from pockets and sporrans.
Thea watched as Edmund went to the cupboard inside and removed a large, full bottle of whisky. Striding back to the doorway, he extended the bottle to her.
“Ye are to be mistress of this keep,” he said, giving her a warm smile. “Which means it is yer duty to dole out the whisky.”
The gathered men stomped the frozen ground and murmured in anticipation.
Hesitantly, Thea took the heavy bottle and approached the first man. She slowly filled his cup nearly to the top.
“The lass may be English,” the man said loudly over his shoulder to the others, “but she isnae afraid to pour more than a wee dram on Yule!”
This was met with roars of approval and laughter.
“That lass is soon to be Lady Thea, Countess of Kinfallon to ye!” Edmund shouted good-naturedly over the ruckus, only drawing more whoops and merriment. Edmund had wished for the wedding to happen as soon as possible, but the snowstorms over the last week had delayed their plans. Now that the snow was melting at last, Thea hoped to make Edmund’s words true within the fortnight.
Her cheeks warming at the thought, Thea moved amongst the men, filling their cups and accepting their bobbing heads and bows of thanks.
When all the cups were full and the bottle nearly empty, she went back to the keep’s wide doorway, where Edmund and Clarissa stood.
“And now,” Edmund said, motioning to one of the servants in the kitchen, “it is time to make sure no ‘auld woman’ goes hungry this winter.”
The servant dragged out an enormous sack of grain, bringing it to the doorway. The top had already been opened and a large metal scoop rested inside.
Edmund bent to her ear and spoke softly. “As the lady of the household, ye are to put grain in each man’s sack, then the farmers and villagers will redistribute it to those in need so that no one will suffer in the cold months,” he said.
The men fell in line, lifting the canvas sacks from their shoulders and holding them open to her with warm smiles on their faces.
Just as she had with the whisky, Thea doled out the grain, making sure to heap each scoop high, much to the pleasure of those gathered.
When the last of the grain had been distributed, the men took up another merry tune as they began to disperse to their homes, the women trailing after them.
“Ye did well, sweeting,” Edmund said as they closed the keep’s door against the chilly air and returned to the table.
“We havenae celebrated Yule since the fire,” Clarissa murmured, taking her seat. She carefully set both the doll and the nutcracker on the table, but then she turned her attention back to Thea and Edmund. “It was good.”
The nutcracker bore a small cloth bandage around his head where Edmund had repaired his jaw, yet Clarissa said he would not need it soon, for he would be healed. Clarissa, too, seemed to be healing, for though she continued to grieve, she was slowly rejoining the world outside her chamber.
“Aye,” Edmund replied, squeezing his sister’s hand and giving her a soft smile.
“Are there to be more thirsty carolers and midnight porridges to eat, or might I steal a bit of sleep?” Thea asked, stifling a contented yawn behind her hand.
“Nay, that was it—well, until next year,” Edmund said. “And the year after that, and the year after that…”
Despite her sleepiness, Thea’s insides warmed and roused at that. Her future with Edmund lay bright and beautiful before her, just like the dazzling blankets of snow spreading out over the landscape surrounding the castle.
“Indeed,” she murmured, holding his gaze with hers and letting the love filling her heart shine in her eyes. “I cannot wait.”
The End
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Author’s Note
One of my favorite things about writing historical romance is getting to share a bit more about all the interesting historical tidbits I came across while doing research with you, lovely readers.
This story was inspired by the tale of The Nutcracker, both the original story written by E. T. A. Hoffmann (“The Nutcracker and the Mouse King,” written in 1816) and the ballet, first performed in 1892. I wondered what would happen if Clara (Marie in the original story) and her brother Fritz, who were seven and eight in the 1816 version, respectively, grew to adulthood. Clara falls in love with a nutcracker doll and is swept into a world of imagination. But on the outside, might that be mistaken for the workings of an unwell mind? I aged Clara (Clarissa in my story) and Fritz (Edmund) twenty-two years, to the year 1838, sent Edmund a governess to help with his sister, and set them all down in the Scottish Highlands to see what would happen!
While portraying Clarissa’s mental state, I have tried to be both sensitive to the fact that mental health is an extremely personal and often challenging contemporary issue, while also attemping to fairly portray how mental illnesses were thought of and treated in the nineteenth century. As understandings of the brain and psychology expanded during that time, a wide array of both diagnoses and treatments were promoted. Women were thought to be particularly susceptible to hysteria, which could cover everything from what we’d now call post-partum depression to bipolar disorder to reading too much. Often, a common theme in the diagnosis of women with a mental disorder involved focusing on women who didn’t conform to society’s expectations of them—women who were outspoken, or not “motherly” enough, or who were simply struggling to cope with society’s pressures.
In my research, I came across a nineteenth-century document that listed the varied reasons a woman could suffer “mental disorder,” which included the climate of India, overworking, and the loss of a husband or child, among others (the last of which inspired Clarissa’s backstory for the purposes of this book). Some women were committed to asylums, where they were often abused with shock therapy, enemas, and isolation. Others would spend time in an asylum or sanatorium, receive treatment for several weeks, months, or even years, and leave “cured” enough to rejoin their lives and families. You can imagine with such an incredibly broad definition of mental illness, a wide range of symptoms demonstrated by patients, wildly varying treatments, and a gamut of outcomes for different women, mental health was a thorny issue in the nineteenth century, with some women being caused harm as well as others finding relief.
The MacLainn clan and Kinfallon Castle are fictitious, but the issues facing the Highlands at this time, particularly the Clearances, are another important historical point that provided context for my story. The Cl
earances, or the effort to remove farmers and replace them with Blackface or Cheviot sheep, took place mainly in the first half of the nineteenth century. Because sheep grazing was more profitable than farming, landowners on many estates dislocated tenants from traditionally common lands and moved them to poor, unworkable regions. Many farmers were relocated to coastal lands, where they were forced to become fishermen or kelpers (collecting kelp/seaweed to burn or sell).
One of the most egregious and damaging instances of the Clearances took place on Sutherland lands. The Countess of Sutherland, looking to make a greater profit from her estate, hired a man named Patrick Sellar (whom I have reimagined as Perry Selfridge in this story) to lead the scheme of clearance. Sellar was a lawyer who became the factor (estate manager) for the Countess of Sutherland, who controlled about 1.5 million acres of land in Scotland—the largest private estate in Europe at the time.
Under Sellar’s scheme and at the Countess’s urging, roughly fifteen thousand people were dislocated from their homes between 1811 and 1821. Many of the farmers being displaced were given no time to pack their things or even evacuate their crofts. One eye-witness recounts a night in 1816 when he observed two hundred and fifty houses aflame to force the farmers to leave, some with people still inside. He said the countryside burned for six days, until nothing was left of either the land or the farmers’ homes.
On June 13, 1814, Sellar participated in the forced removal of a man named William Chisholm and his wife from their croft. The croft’s roof was set on fire, but William’s mother-in-law was still inside. Her daughter rescued her, but she died five days later. Sellar was put on trial for arson and culpable homicide, but he was acquitted.
For their part, Sellar and the Countess of Sutherland (and many others) believed that the Clearances were a good thing. They argued that it was necessary to modernize their land management techniques by shifting from farming to grazing. They also claimed that by forcing farmers onto smaller and far inferior plots of land by the coast, they would become more industrious and frugal (ignoring the fact that most farmers already lived in abject poverty). Perhaps most disturbing was Sellar’s argument, which he gave in an account after the fact, that it was a “benevolent act” to displace the “barbarous Highlanders” from their land, claiming that they would be forced to “apply themselves to industry, educate their children, and advance in civilisation.” Sadly, many suffered because of the Countess and Sellar’s warped views on their own people.
On a slightly lighter note, I had great fun incorporating The Mysteries of Udolpho, the great gothic novel by Ann Radcliff, into this story. The quotes I used come directly from that novel, which is part of the public domain. Gothic and Romantic novels like Radcliff’s were wildly popular, yet they were thought to be terribly scandalous and inappropriate for proper young women to read (sound familiar, romance readers?).
Regarding Highland celebrations of Christmas (and Hogmanay and Yule) in the 1830s, I found a wonderful account called “Christmas in Scotland” written in 1833 by Andrew Halliday. In it, he explains the traditions of New Year’s Day (Hogmanay) and Yule, observed on January 6th (or Twelfth-day), including carolling, eating sowens, and the lady of the house handing out both whisky and grain to the “beggars” singing at her door. It was not the custom in England or Scotland to bring an entire tree into the house until the 1840s (when Queen Victoria borrowed the tradition from her German husband, Albert), but pine boughs and holly decorations date all the way back to the Vikings’ arrival in Scotland!
Thank you for journeying back in time with me for this romantic tale!
Thank You!
Thank you for taking the time to read To Kiss a Governess (A Highland Christmas Novella)!
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Books by Emma Prince
Highland Bodyguards Series:
The Lady’s Protector (Book 1)
Heart’s Thief (Book 2)
A Warrior’s Pledge (Book 3)
Claimed by the Bounty Hunter (Book 4)
A Highland Betrothal (Novella, Book 4.5)
The Promise of a Highlander (Book 5)
The Bastard Laird’s Bride (Book 6)
Surrender to the Scot (Book 7)
Book 8 (Vivienne and Kieran’s story) coming mid-2018!
The Sinclair Brothers Trilogy:
Highlander’s Ransom (Book 1)
Highlander’s Redemption (Book 2)
Highlander’s Return (Bonus Novella, Book 2.5)
Highlander’s Reckoning (Book 3)
Viking Lore Series:
Enthralled (Viking Lore, Book 1)
Shieldmaiden’s Revenge (Viking Lore, Book 2)
The Bride Prize (Viking Lore, Book 2.5)
Desire’s Hostage (Viking Lore, Book 3)
Thor’s Wolf (Viking Lore, Book 3.5)—a Kindle Worlds novella
Other Books:
Wish upon a Winter Solstice (A Highland Holiday Novella)
To Kiss a Governess (A Highland Christmas Novella)
Teasers for Emma Prince’s Books
The Sinclair Brothers Trilogy
Go back to where it all began—with Robert and Alwin’s story in Highlander’s Ransom, Book One of the Sinclair Brothers Trilogy. Available now on Amazon!
He was out for revenge…
Laird Robert Sinclair will stop at nothing to exact revenge on Lord Raef Warren, the English scoundrel who brought war to his doorstep and razed his lands and people. Leaving his clan in the Highlands to conduct covert attacks in the Borderlands, Robert lives to be a thorn in Warren’s side. So when he finds a beautiful English lass on her way to marry Warren, he whisks her away to the Highlands with a plan to ransom her back to her dastardly fiancé.
She would not be controlled…
Lady Alwin Hewett had no idea when she left her father’s manor to marry a man she’d never met that she would instead be kidnapped by a Highland rogue out for vengeance. But she refuses to be a pawn in any man’s game. So when she learns that Robert has had them secretly wed, she will stop at nothing to regain her freedom. But her heart may have other plans…
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Highland Bodyguards Series
The Lady’s Protector, the thrilling start to the Highland Bodyguards series, is available now on Amazon!
The Battle of Bannockburn may be over, but the war is far from won.
Her Protector…
Ansel Sutherland is charged with a mission from King Robert the Bruce to protect the illegitimate son of a powerful English Earl. Though Ansel bristles at aiding an Englishman, the nature of the war for Scottish independence is changing, and he is honor-bound to serve as a bodyguard. He arrives in England to fulfill his assignment, only to meet the beautiful but secretive Lady Isolda, who refuses to tell him where his ward is. When a mysterious attacker threatens Isolda’s life, Ansel realizes he is the only thing standing between her and deadly peril.
His Lady…
Lady Isolda harbors dark secrets—secrets she refuses to reveal to the rugged Highland rogue who arrives at her castle demanding answers. But Ansel’s dark eyes cut through all her defenses, threatening to undo her resolve. To protect her past, she cannot submit to the white-hot desire that burns between them. As the threat to her life spirals out of control, she has no choice but to trust Ansel to whisk her to safety deep in the heart of the Highlands…
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Viking Lore Series
Step into the lush, daring world of the Vikings w
ith Enthralled (Viking Lore, Book 1)!
He is bound by honor…
Eirik is eager to plunder the treasures of the fabled lands to the west in order to secure the future of his village. The one thing he swears never to do is claim possession over another human being. But when he journeys across the North Sea to raid the holy houses of Northumbria, he encounters a dark-haired beauty, Laurel, who stirs him like no other. When his cruel cousin tries to take Laurel for himself, Eirik breaks his oath in an attempt to protect her. He claims her as his thrall. But can he claim her heart, or will Laurel fall prey to the devious schemes of his enemies?
She has the heart of a warrior…
Life as an orphan at Whitby Abbey hasn’t been easy, but Laurel refuses to be bested by the backbreaking work and lecherous advances she must endure. When Viking raiders storm the abbey and take her captive, her strength may finally fail her—especially when she must face her fear of water at every turn. But under Eirik’s gentle protection, she discovers a deeper bravery within herself—and a yearning for her golden-haired captor that she shouldn’t harbor. Torn between securing her freedom or giving herself to her Viking master, will fate decide for her—and rip them apart forever?
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About the Author
Emma Prince is the Bestselling and Amazon All-Star Author of steamy historical romances jam-packed with adventure, conflict, and of course love!