When It Rained at Hembry Castle Chapter 32

Author’s Notes

This novel,

When It Rained at Hembry Castle

, was 20 years in the making. Being the Dickens fan I am, I came up with an idea for a novel that would be set in Victorian England. While I always loved the concept, it was pushed aside while I pursued other projects. Finally, my other projects completed, I was able to focus my attention on this idea for a Victorian romance that I had been kicking around for nearly two decades. I’m glad I did.

Although the story is set in England and all but one of the characters are English, I used American spellings since, well, I’m American. In addition, the places of Staton and Hembry exist only in my imagination (and hopefully now in your imagination too).

For those of you who have been asking,

Christmas at Hembry Castle

is now available.

Thank you as always to my wonderful readers from all over the world. You are much appreciated.

As I have said before, my historical fiction stands on the shoulders of historians who do the heavy lifting of researching the eras I write about. Here are some of the books that were helpful to me as I wrote

When It Rained at Hembry Castle

—

Up and Down Stairs: The History of the Country House Servant

by Jeremy Musson;

What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew

by Daniel Pool;

How To Be a Victorian: A Dusk-to-Dawn Guide to Victorian Life

by Ruth Goodman (one of my new favorite historians—she lives what she studies);

The Victorian City: Everyday Life in Dickens’ London

and

Inside the Victorian Home: A Portrait of Domestic Life in Victorian England

by Judith Flanders; and

The Writer’s Guide to Everyday Life in Regency and Victorian England From 1811-1901

by Kristine Hughes.

Stay tuned for more from Edward, Daphne, and the rest of the upstairs/downstairs folks at Hembry in

When We Danced at Hembry Castle

, coming soon.