Highlighting Historical Romance with Cerise DeLand
Have you watched the BBC/Netflix series Bodyguard? If so, you’ve seen the Home Secretary pull up to the home of the Prime Minister. Later they ID it as Chequers, once the home of Winston Churchill, now the PM’s. Well! This one in the show is not the real Chequers! No!
It’s Ham House, a marvelous 17th century darkly gorgeous brick home in suburb of London along the Thames! Built for the Dysarts, this home is a wonderful example of Stuart-early Georgian architecture and a wonderful place to visit. Here I am in front of the house last year. And this is the view you’ll see in the TV series, too!
The interior is rich with black walnut walls and tiled floors of wood or marble in parquet designs. Many of the furnishings are of the period, too, including a Queen’s Bedchamber done in rich reds and gold. Most striking is the main staircase and the solid silver fruit bowl at the foot of the banister. A picture gallery upstairs of members of the family are set against rich black walnut walls, including that of King Charles II.
Most intriguing was the intimate library with old globe and celestial one too. Do note the far door in this picture of the library. Where might it lead? Ah. To the master’s bedhcamber!
One aspect of touring the house and kitchen gardens was for me the collect5ion of informative plaques describing servants’ duties. Here for you are a few to show their title, duties, status, how they lived and (drumroll!) their annual salaries in today’s GBPs!
For example, we have Mary Hobley, a scullery maid. Do read about her work, her superiors and see what she earned. An astonishing and pitiful 295 GBPs. The best paid of servants? The Cook! He earned over 3000 GBPs per year.
Now to incorporate all this wonderful information in my series about servants who fall in love with their employers! HER BEGUILING BUTLER is first. HIS TEMPTING GOVERNESS debuts in a few months.
Thanks for reading! And remember, reading fiction makes us more compassionate! True, says a psychological study!
About the Book
The lovely widow at Number Ten Dudley Crescent hopes to lead a merry life without any husband to replace the elderly one she recently buried. Yet Lady Ranford finds herself in a pickle. Her new butler, Finnley, is not only the most obstinate man she’s ever met, but also an enigma.
She’s never been lured to naughtiness with a man. Heaven knows, she certainly shouldn’t fantasize about the tall, dark, scowling creature who runs her household like his finely tuned pocket watch.
But she can’t help herself. She needs to taste him—or dismiss him.
Finnley, poor fellow, has a few risqué dreams of his own about how he’d like to handle the delectable widow. Alone in his rooms, he tries to deny how her humor riddles his mind and how her beauty steals his breath away.
None of his solutions are proper.
All of his desires are quite…dear me…scandalous.
But what’s a butler to do when the very life of his beloved employer is at stake? And he cannot control his need to protect her and…ahem…bed her?
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About the Author
Cerise DeLand loves to write about dashing heroes and the sassy women they adore. Whether she’s penning historical romances or contemporaries, she’s praised for her poetic elegance and accuracy of detail.
An award-winning author of more than 60 novels, she’s been published since 1990 by Pocket Books, St. Martin’s Press, Kensington and independent presses. Her books have been monthly selections of the Doubleday Book Club, Rhapsody Book Club and the Mystery Guild. Plus she’s won countless 4, 4.5 and 5 star rave reviews from Romantic Times, Affair de Coeur, Publishers Weekly and more.
To research, she’ll dive into the oldest texts and dustiest library shelves. She’ll also travel abroad, trusty notebook and pen in hand, to visit the chateaux and country homes she loves to people with her own imaginary characters.
And at home every day? She loves to cook, hates to dust, lives to travel and go to Jazz class once a week!
Cerise DeLand is a #1 bestselling author of historical romance.
Visit her website: http://cerisedeland.com
Author Page on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Cerise-DeLand/e/B0089DS2N2/