London, 1835
Dashiell Steen, heir to the Earl of Heathridge, is tired of boring dinner parties and matchmaking mamas. He craves one final adventure before heâs forced to settle downâand finds it with a vivacious beauty escaping from a manor window! Elisabeth Becketâs intelligence and rebellious sprit excite both his mind and his body, stirring a mutual attraction that neither can resist. But will their illicit encounter last when she discovers Dashiell is the unwanted suitor she was trying to escape?
Dear Reader,
Merry Christmas! I hope you love Elisabeth and Dashiellâs story. Itâs a Christmas story in that itâs a tale of the things we associate with the season; hope and faith and love. Elisabeth gambles everything on her faith that the comet will be there and that her freedom is worth fighting for. Dashiell takes the biggest leap of faith of all in his search for love.
Their story is set around the 1835 return of Halleyâs Comet. This return is significant because it is the third consecutive sighting of the comet using Newton and Halleyâs calculations for determining its cyclical appearance, proving the reliability for the formula. Halleyâs Comet has long been associated with the Christmas Season. Its 1758 return was confirmed Christmas night, 1758 and thereâs been long speculation that the comet was the Christmas âstarâ seen by the Three Wiseman, although that is highly debatable. Many scientists argue the cometâs return would have been twelve years too early to coincide the birth of Christ.
I do need to take a moment and share information about my resources. First, I found a great article from the Manchester Guardian, dated Sept. 1835 and written by a citizen concerning the best way to view the comet. He reported that he had only a mediocre Dolland telescope for viewing. He also reported in the article, the best viewing times and where in the galaxy to spot the comet. I used that information in Elisabethâs December sightings, even though the position of stars would have shifted between August and December.
The comet did pass perihelion on November 16>th and it was lost to the eye for a time. It was âre-sightedâ in early January according to some records. This means, Elisabethâs spotting of it in December is fictionalized by a week or two.
Comet pins were indeed a big rage that year so it was fitting that Dashiell give Elisabeth a comet pin as a gift. I found some lovely pictures of the jewelry on-line.
The advancements made in refractory lenses by 1835 made the study of comets quite scientific. The 1835 sighting allowed for the gathering data until then unknown.
Englandâs great astronomer, John Hershel, did set up âshopâ at the Cape for the duration and regularly reported a stream of visitors coming to take tea and see the comet.
Lastly, in terms of women astronomy, they were few and far between. But there were some. Elisabeth wouldnât have been an anomaly. For instance, the first woman to discover a comet was Caroline Herschel in 1786 (she was the daughter of the man who discovered the planet, Uranus).
Thereâs so much more to say, but Iâll leave it at this: Merry Christmas, embrace your dreams.
Stop by my blog for holiday fun at www.bronwynswriting.blogspot.com
See you out there!
Bronwyn
London, December 20, 1835
Escaping from oneâs room was more difficult in practice than it was in theory. Elisabeth Becket straddled the window-sill of her second storey chamber dressed in a purloined pair of trousers and gingerly felt for a foothold on the trellis just below. She lowered herself out of the window, but not without a healthy dose of trepidation. Her room was exceedingly farther from the ground at this vantage point than it had been that afternoon looking up from the garden. There was a reason people used doors.
But conventional exits wouldnât help her tonight. Using a door would mean going downstairs to her motherâs dinner party and it would mean meeting the Earl of Heathridgeâs heir, who was bound to be as stuffy and traditional as all the other eligible young men she had met in London. She might be the daughter of a politically ambitious viscount, but she was most definitely not traditional. Going out the window proved it.
The thought sustained her for the first third of the way down the trellis.
Her mother would be furious. That particular thought almost made her climb back up. Elisabeth could practically hear her motherâs voice now: What was she doing sneaking off in the dark unchaperoned? London was too dangerous for any woman, but especially for Elisabeth with her head in the clouds. She was not cut out for the real world.