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First Kisses from HOLIDAYS AT NORTHFIELD HALL!
Katherine Grant: Welcome to the Historical Romance Sampler, where every week you get to meet a new historical romance author. This week is a very special extended episode to celebrate Holidays at Northfield Hall, where every holiday comes with a little heat and a lot of heart. So Holidays at Northfield Hall is a new anthology of novellas that take place in the universe I created at Northfield Hall, where the Prestons make everyone welcome and everyone shares the profits of their labors.
If you're a longtime listener, you have met the Prestons before when I have read samples of the books on the podcast. And if you're a reader of mine, then you've definitely met the Prestons before, and you might even have read a lot of different adventures at Northfield Hall in the Northfield Hall novellas.
This time, I invited some of my author friends to write stories set at Northfield, which leads us to this anthology. In 1814, the Prestons are in the midst of their busy adventures, and beloved Mr. Malvey is amused to report on the many shenanigans and love affairs happening throughout the year. No matter the holiday, you are guaranteed to finish the story with a smile on your face and love in your heart.
So today, I am joined by my fellow authors to celebrate the release. I have here today Isabella Kamal, Charlie Lane, and Sri Savita. They're all waving hello, but I have them on mute, so you can't hear them We are celebrating. We decided it would be fun. We're each going to take turns reading the first kiss scene of our stories.
And then, true to Historical Romance Sampler form, we're gonna have a conversation about why and how and what it was like to write this anthology. So we're going in order of holidays, which means I'm up first, but I promise I'm not the only person speaking on this podcast, so stay tuned. But anyway, in case you missed it, I'm Katherine Grant, host of The Historical Romance Sampler and author of the Preston Series and the series Northfield Hall Novellas, and I'm author of The Haunting of Northfield Hall.
When a ghost haunts Northfield Hall, Aine Delaney suspects this apparition is more flesh than fiction. So as you guessed, my holiday is Halloween, and this first kiss scene comes a little bit way into the story. So what you need to know, Jasper is on the run. He got injured, and he took shelter in the Northfield woods.
Aine found him. She has a little bit of a hideaway in the woods, and so she's helping hide him and help him heal. He has lied to her. He claims to have amnesia, and that he doesn't even know his name, and he's beginning to feel a little guilty about that. Meanwhile, Aine is suspicious of him because he just showed up, and also because it's Halloween time, so she's afraid that he is a spirit, an Irish spirit called a sidh, come to trick her.
So the night before this scene, they set up a jack-o'-lantern to keep out other spirits, and now Aine is back to feed Jasper and to check on him.
"The lantern went out," she said, reaching for the candle in the jack-o'-lantern.
"Is that bad luck?" She held out the stub of the candle.
"It is a rule of nature when the wick burns down so far."
Jasper couldn't help teasing. "I thought you witches had supernatural explanations for every moment in life."
Anne's lips quirked ever so slightly.
"If I were a witch, I would've divined your name by now."
Or cast a love spell on him. Jasper pushed that thought away. "Then what do you consider yourself? A healer?"
"An Irish woman in touch with her ancestors." The day was not as foggy as the past few had been. A fierce gray sunlight shone down, illuminating her white hair and dark brows and glimmering green eyes.
Jasper couldn't bear not to ask her any questions anymore, even if her replies filled him with guilt for the secrets he kept. "Why did you leave your ancestors then? How did you find yourself at Northfield?"
"Perhaps you've heard of what you English did to us in '98?"
"After you Irish rebelled," Jasper parried. But he said it with a smile, so she knew he did not feel the loyalty too deeply. He had seen the British Army do good things, to be sure, but he had also seen and done his fair share of things that would make an enemy's blood boil.
"My brothers were killed in the fighting, my da injured.
The British regiment that took Arklow expected us to pay more money than we had to protect our home." She shrugged. "I took my granny's shawl and ran for Dublin. From there, I got a boat to Liverpool. I found myself a husband there, thought it would help. It didn't much, so when he died, I decided it was either America or Northfield.
It was £9 to sail. It was free to walk here, so here I am."
How Jasper longed to tell her his own terrible story. But then he would have to admit all the lies he had already told her, and what would be the point of that? "I'm sorry your husband wasn't much help," he said.
Anne at last sank onto the ground beside him.
"I should have known better. Men aren't good for much."
"We're good for one thing at least." Jasper lifted an eyebrow in the flirtatious move he had learned at age 14 to keep warm food in his belly.
She scoffed. "Oh, and what is that, which I can't do myself?"
No doubt she could achieve all sorts of wicked things on her own.
Perhaps she even did them right there in the tent, seduced by the heady scent of the woods and the whispers of the stream. But there was one thing no person could do all on their own. Jasper leaned close, his lips almost touching hers. He waited, listening to her breath hitch. Only when her hand fluttered forward, landing like a butterfly on his elbow, did he fulfill the promise of the kiss.
She had wanted this last night. He had wanted this last night. He hadn't kissed a person out of pure desire in too long. Her lips were so soft, so undemanding. She did not want him to prove his desire. She did not require him to work her to completion. She took nothing from him, only gave. The gentle care of her lips, the teasing caress of her tongue, the sweet scent of her skin.
Her palms framed his face, not to pin him in place, but to embrace him. Jasper had been so many people's lovers, but how often had he been loved? The kiss ended as sweetly as it began, their lips parting ever so slowly. Anne's fingers slipped from his face back into her lap, and they were two separate beings again.
Jasper breathed, inhaling the last bit of scent that he could, then opened his eyes to see Anne watching him with that piercing stare.
"What is it?" He asked, afraid he had forced his desire upon her. She smiled, a grin that was at first so small and then grew so big that she hid it behind her hand.
"I was waiting to see if you would shapeshift."
"Shapeshift?"
She laughed at herself now, a beautiful peal of pure joy that rang through the morning mist. "If you were a sidhe, you would have wanted to kiss me to shift back into your true form."
Jasper laughed, too. He hadn't known he could like so much a woman who believed in spirits. "I'm no sidhe." He resisted the urge to take her hand.
"I'm just a man, no better than your husband, I'm sure."
She sobered, sadness muting her colors again. She evaluated him with solemn eyes. "That's likely true."
Jasper wished he hadn't said it. More, he wished he could be the type of man who proved her husband was the bad apple. He wished he could be a man who provided for and protected and loved her.
But he was only a man who, if she were caught harboring him, would get her strung from the gallows. Then Anne smiled again. "I'll tell you one thing, you are a much better kisser than he ever was." And Jasper rewarded her by kissing her again.
So that's the first kiss from The Haunting of Northfield Hall. And the next holiday that comes up in this year of 1814 is Diwali. So the Duke and Duchess of Wednesbury are at a crossroads in their marriage, and taking shelter at Northfield Hall from a storm, they wonder if there is hope for a future together.
Diwali with Her Duke is written by Sri Savita. Sri is an award-winning romance author who loves writing about love, and she believes in the magic of a good story with heart, heat, hope, and happily ever after. Sri's work centers and celebrates Indian characters in romance with bold heroines, besotted heroes, and lyrical longing.
Sri, thank you so much for writing Diwali with Her Duke and for showing up today to read us a first kiss scene.
Sri Savita: Thank you for having me. And, you know, like you said, this has been a long time in the making. I'm really excited to share this with readers, and thanks again for including me.
Katherine Grant: Yes. Do we need to know anything about this scene before you start reading it?
Sri Savita: Yeah. So this is a marriage in trouble, sort of second chance story. And up to this point, they have not been getting along. They have to take shelter at Northfield Hall because of weather. That pushes them together, as forced proximity tends to do. And they've been revealing parts of themselves through having moments of closeness when Tarun, the hero, has a migraine, and Ruchika, his wife, cares for him.
And then they're engaging in different holiday traditions for Diwali to you know, share in the preparations that are happening at Northfield Hall and kind of rediscover the things that are important to Ruchika especially, and Tarun sort of relearning those things through her or learning them for the first time.
So they've had some moments of closeness, and now they're on their way back to London. You know, the weather has cleared. So this is a first kiss at an inn. He's finally made the decision to kind of act on the, the positive feelings that have been brewing between him, and he hopefully, you know, wants Ruchika to reciprocate that feeling.
Katherine Grant: Awesome. Yeah, for a marriage in crisis story, like you'd think they would kiss. Yes. But you sure make us work for it.
Sri Savita: I do, yes. They're both very anxious beings. There's been a lot that has been going on, so yeah. It's someone described it as a slow burn, which isn't always what I think I do, but I, yes, we do make them wait.
I mean, this is like chapter 11 in the book, so, yeah, it's a long time coming.
Katherine Grant: All right, take it away whenever you want.
Sri Savita: Okay.
"Have you learned nothing?" his wife said, without rancor, which was a relief. "You've no right to dismiss my lady's maid, Your Grace."
"Are you complaining?" If she did not want him here, then he would honor her wishes, of course.
"That depends," Rachika said.
"On?"
"On why exactly you're here."
"I'm here because I want you." He paused. "I believe you want that, too. I'm here because I need you, and stars above, I hope you need me, too."
"That's a touch presumptuous, Duke," Rachika said. She unwrapped the towel around her head, then slowly dragged a brush through her damp hair.
"What can you give me that I cannot give myself?"
Tarun met Rachika's eyes in the mirror. "Plenty." A delicate touch was required here, but he couldn't resist testing the waters further. "You know that as well as I do."
So she was going to make him work for this. Fine. He'd expected that. Tarun deserved it, and he'd enjoy earning Rachika's surrender tonight.
She turned to face him. "No, Your Grace. I don't think I do." Her teeth dug into her lower lip. Her dark eyes were guarded, and the stoniness in her expression faded as she added more softly, "Or rather, I cannot seem to remember." Devil and damn. Tarun's heart cracked in two.
"Ah, dove" His voice had gone rough with emotion and pain.
He strode to her side and dropped to one knee before her. "Then let me show you. Let me remind you, please."
She gazed down at him. Candlelight flickered over the walls. Moonlight wavered in the window behind her. Tree branches whipped across the glass with the whistling wind, and an eternity passed between them.
At last, Rachika gave a small nod. "Very well then, Your Grace," she said. They were not romantic words in the least, but then he'd not earned those from her yet.
"Rachika." Her name caught in his throat, and he pushed it tenderly past his lips like a rough-cut jewel, like an unpolished offering. "Tell me what you want."
He wouldn't ask for more than she was willing to give. "Kiss me," Rachika murmured. "I want to feel your lips on mine." Tarun could not resist his wife any longer. Her expression contained such hunger and wariness. The wariness wounded him, but he would be careful. He would proceed slowly. He kissed the knuckles of her left hand, her wedding band glinting at him in the low light.
Then he pressed kisses up the inside of her arm and stood, leaning over her as he traced a path up to her shoulder, to the curve of her neck. There he kissed the hinge of her jaw, the corner of her mouth. Her breath hitched and her lashes brushed her cheeks as her eyes closed. "Now," she whispered.
"Please." He hauled her up against him and her eyes flew open. Tarun leaned closer. Their breath met and mingled. His pulse pounded in his ears.
"Never say please," he whispered, wrapping his arms around her. "Never beg me." He brought his lips to hers, soft, gentle, tentative. When she did not pull away, he pressed his mouth more firmly against hers, coaxing her to open for him.
She did, and her tongue slid against his for one glorious minute. Then she withdrew. Before he could protest, Rachika had unraveled the towel around her body and let it drop to the carpet. Tarun swallowed tightly and pulled her closer to the window. "Let me look at you," he said. "Like this, bathed in moonlight."
He brushed her hair off her shoulders, silver strands gleaming among all that mahogany silk. Milky light and shadow washed down her golden skin, and Tarun trailed his eyes over the expanse of curves he hadn't seen, hadn't touched or held, hadn't tasted in too long. He was a bloody fool to have ignored the goddess standing before him.
Tarun pressed a kiss to her temple, like a prayer. "I'm sorry."
"So am I," she said. What reason did she have to be sorry? While she hadn't asked him for what she desired, he had not approached her either. He had given her nothing. Nothing for two months. Tarun's face burned with the heat of Hades. He should have tried harder.
No, he should have tried in the first damn place.
"God, Rachika, I..." She pressed a finger to his lips.
"Don't apologize again," she said. "I know you expect tonight to be perfect. I, however, do not." He flinched at her unsentimental words. But then he ought not to have been surprised. One night would not be enough to earn her sweeter side, and his wife had always been more pragmatic and practical than he was.
"I only expect it to be real," Rachika said, withdrawing her finger from his lips. "Can you give me that?"
"Yes," he said.
"Good," she said. Tarun kissed her again, firm, insistent, until she yielded. He pulled her closer, crushing her breast to his chest, and she melted into him, reaching up for his clothing, trying to simultaneously undo the buttons of his jacket and untie his cravat.
"Let me help you, darling," he said with a chuckle, and shrugged out of his jacket. "Ganguli decided to attempt something more ambitious with the knot tonight. Haven't a clue why. Perhaps the man grows bored of my lack of sartorial adventure and needed a challenge." Blast, he was already rambling, as if it were his first night with his wife.
And it might as well have been.
Katherine Grant: Well, that is a great excerpt that really sets readers up for how steamy some of these stories can get.
Sri Savita: Yes.
Katherine Grant: So no question there. This holiday romance anthology is all about all forms of intimacy really. So thank you, Sri. Now, in the year of 1814, we come upon Christmas. Chloe escapes to Northfield Hall when she realizes she loves her fiance too much to marry him, but Garrett is determined not to let Chloe go without a fight.
Cold Feet at Christmas is written by Charlie Lane. Charlie lives in East Tennessee with her two kiddos, a doggo, and her very own romance hero. She left academia behind to spend all day writing kissing books like the ones she's always loved reading. When she's not writing light-hearted and hot historical romance, you can find her at the local circus studio, where she's an aerial-obsessed acrobat.
And definitely follow her on Instagram, 'cause she posts really cool videos. Charlie, thank you so much for writing Cold Feet at Christmas.
Charlie Lane: Thank you for the title of that short story. I, yeah, I really struggled, and you just, like, popped that one out, and I'm so grateful. So the first kiss that I'm going to read today is in chapter one, and it is kind of a bummer.
So- ... that's, yeah, I just wanted to put that out there, that there are subsequent kissing scenes that are less of a bummer.
Katherine Grant: Awesome. Well, take it away whenever you're ready.
Charlie Lane: "Miss Allard," Mr. Beckett's voice had softened into curiosity, and it somehow helped her keep her tears at bay. "I realize you are anxious about tomorrow, but Christmas season quickly follows behind it, and we will be with your family to consider where we go after that for our honeymoon." "Northfield Hall," she said.
A lord's estate where everyone worked, everyone profited, everyone shared. She heard herself speak as if from a distance, but she didn't even feel the words on her tongue. "The perfect honeymoon for a pair like us. We will learn much from them about how to improve upon the Magdalene houses for our women's refuge."
"Precisely," he said. "You and I will observe the success of a brave new scheme. We will be so busy taking notes, you will not have time to worry over the sudden change in name and living situation. That is all it is, after all, a name and an address. Other than that, nothing must change between us." Did he, did he not mean to share a bed?
Oh, God. She felt hot from the tips of her toes to her scalp, even the ends of her hair must be on fire. She'd just assumed, and they'd never even broached the subject. She'd even looked forward to it. How humiliating. She'd been harboring hopes of lighting his passion in the bed chamber, while his mind had stayed firmly in the parlor, door open.
"The wedding is a detail," he said, clearly failing to notice she felt a bit like casting up her accounts. "A small stop en route to our final destination. Think of it as signing a contract between two business partners." Never mind the parlor, he was living in an office. Yes, definitely about to cast up her accounts.
He checked his watch. It was a simple but beautiful piece, well taken care of and shining. That and his handkerchief, usually of some vibrant color, were the only aesthetic cracks in his somber apparel. He wore grays and browns and blacks, deep, deep blues sometimes. Unfortunately, she loved that about him, too, those little cracks that proved him human.
He snapped the watch shut and replaced it in his pocket as he stood. "I should be off." At exactly the same time, as always.
"Of course," she said. She stood, too, and they made for the door, keeping a respectable distance from one another. They stopped in the doorway, hovering, her against one side of the frame and him against the other.
He was so much taller than her. She was not a short woman, but standing next to him made her feel terribly small. She loved that. She also loved what happened next.
Next, he melted. One step of his muscled leg brought him right up against her, brought his forearm slamming into the frame above her head. With the knuckles of his other hand, he brushed the skin beneath her chin, tipping it up.
His eyes sparked. In the briefest second before he lowered, the straight line of his lips softened, curved. Then he kissed her. She knew how to melt, too. No other option. Right into his hard body, surprisingly hard for a tailor and radical thinker. She thought him all mind. Her mind? What mind? Entirely gone.
Only sensation now. The firm press of his lips against hers, moving gently, the proprietary way his big hand wrapped around her jaw, tilting her head, making her sigh. She lived for these weekly kisses, and her body ached to make them daily instead, and deeper His passion was always chaste. He lightly opened his lips.
She lightly parted hers. They breathed into shared space, and sometimes he tugged her lower lip between his teeth. A scandal, open doorway and all. Another scandal: she wanted more. The tragedy, he wanted only her signature on a document. The heat of his body promising more, lies. He stepped away, pressed his back against the opposing frame.
"Married tomorrow, Miss Allard." His voice was raspy.
"Married tomorrow" she said. Her smile was crooked, forced. He bowed and left, and she watched the flexing and un-flexing of his muscled backside until the front door slammed behind it. A waste, that backside on a man so unfeeling.
"Oh, God" she said. She became a puddle, sliding down the doorframe, feet sticking out, dangling like doll's legs from the rumpled hem of her skirts.
She groaned, smacking the back of her head against the frame. "Come now, Chlo, it can't be that bad. Did he read another parliamentary account to you?" Chloe popped her eyes open, and there was Caroline, her stepsister, all pale skin and dark hair, her mobile mouth stretched to the side in a half grin. Caro held out a hand.
"Come on then, up you go. Let's have a drink." Chloe took Caro's hand, and when she was on her feet, they locked arms around each other's waist. The whiskey they took from the flask in Caro's pocket as they fell into a cushy sofa in a shadowed corner.
Katherine Grant: You call that disappointing, I call that tantalizing. That first scene got me in a choke hold, and I never stopped reading.
Sri Savita: You have such a great reading voice, too. Like, I literally thought I was listening to, like, a play.
Charlie Lane: I read out loud 20 minutes every night to my kids, so- You learn how to do all the voices.
Katherine Grant: Awesome. Well, thank you, Charlie. That was Christmas. We have, for the final two stories of the anthology, the incomparable Isabella Kamal wrote not one but two holiday stories. On Valentine's Day, Adelaide is sure there is no suitor for her as her mischievous cousin plays Cupid with the house party, but Jacob seizes the game as a chance to speak his heart at last.
And then at Eid al Fitr... I don't think I got that quite right. I apologize. Gray Montgomery wants to convince his cousins beau to leave the family alone. But Farah has other ideas, including showing Gray just how important family traditions can be. So I'm gonna introduce Isabella, and then we'll find out what she's reading for us today.
Isabella is an Iraqi-Muslim historical romance author. Growing up in the Middle East, she had very little access to romance novels, but once she got hold of one, she never looked back. Isabella is a graduate of the University of California, Davis, and California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo.
Now calling Pasadena home, she can usually be found in independent bookstores or reading under her heated blanket after long days spent developing cell-based therapies. So Isabella, which first kiss are we going to hear today?
Isabella Kamal: So I'm going to be reading the first kiss from the Valentine's Day story, which is called From Northfield Hall With Love, and the only reason I chose that one is because I'm a little less shy reading it than I am the other.
So not because it's better. They're both good. I'm just less shy about this one.
Katherine Grant: They are both fantastic.
Isabella Kamal: Okay. Just for a little backstory, we have two characters here, Adelaide, Jacob. There's been a letter-writing game going on at Northfield. Adelaide dislikes two things, romance and Jacob. Jacob's very socially awkward.
He's been in love with Adelaide for about a year and is really bad at showing it, but now all has been revealed, and they can finally share their first kiss.
The last time Adelaide Baxter had been kissed, it had been by a man who'd broken her heart not a week later. She could recall it well, the softness, the restraint, the genuine sense of care.
There wasn't a woman in England who wouldn't have lost her head over it, and Adelaide, despite her perceptive cleverness, had been no exception. What she had been unaware of was the possibility of better. Her lips parted in surprising anticipation as Mr. Colbourne placed his hands on either side of where she sat.
He bent forward, his mouth just grazing hers, and paused.
"I cannot proceed without your permission," he murmured. Adelaide's skin burned as she tried and failed to consider all possible outcomes of allowing him to kiss her, drunk on the warmth emanating from his body. All this time he'd cared for her, and, and she had no idea why any of it should matter, but it did.
Had she too been longing for him? Had her dislike of him been nothing more than resentment at his decision to hold her at arm's length? If both questions could be answered in the affirmative, what sort of silly fool did that make her? He spoke, bringing her back into the room. "Your silence is most encouraging."
"I..." Adelaide's cheeks burned. He was teasing her, and she found comfort in the fact that he would step back if asked, but her heart refused to allow her to do any more than stare and ponder. A flash of lightning came in through the tiny window, bringing with it a thought. Perhaps she'd be better equipped to pass judgment if she did let him kiss her.
Yes, that seemed sensible. He sighed in apparent relief when she nodded, closing the minuscule space between them, and it was better. It was deliberate and warm and hard, and whatever restraint he seemed obliged to practice was soon washed away with the rain, his hands leaving the work table to cup her face as he drew ever closer, stepping easily into the space created by the parting of her legs.
Adelaide followed suit, her hands tangling in his damp hair before falling over his shoulders. "I cannot tell you how often I've dreamt of this," he rasped, shifting his attention to the exposed column of her neck. "How often I've dreamt of you." She shivered, pulling him closer by the lapels of his drenched waistcoat.
"You're soaked through."
"I'll survive." The sardonic reply forming on the tip of Adelaide's tongue dissolved as his hand found her waist, slipping just below the wool of her spencer. He tugged her forward, positioning her at the very edge of the table, her core now pressed against him even through the layers of clothing that separated them.
"You read my letter," he said, unbuttoning the top of her spencer.
"What is your response?"
"Are you..." Adelaide gasped as he moved to undo her chemisette, revealing her flushed chest. "Are you mad?"
"I asked if you've experienced any feeling on your part," he said, lifting his head to look at her. "Have you?"
"I'm surprised at your sudden directness," she managed through stuttering breaths, "given your self-proclaimed lack of social skills."
"You needn't fear," he told her. "I have every intention of putting aside time to drive myself to illness over my candor tomorrow." Adelaide laughed, and he smiled. "Tell me, Adelaide," he whispered. "Teach me to hope, please."
In his letters, he'd made their commonalities clear. In their interactions, restored to a sense of normalcy by his courage, she'd felt the revival of the same spark she'd refused to admit to feeling the day they'd met.
And in his vulnerability, she saw the truth of her own heart. Over the past year, they had been in each other's presence as often as any unattached people could be. He had spent it taking note of her character while she had taken note of his. Her distaste and irritation borne of her inability to experience it, experience him, as Emily and Gilbert did.
She might have confronted him sooner. He might have made an effort to bridge the gap he'd created between them before it had widened beyond repair. Either of them could have made any number of gestures, but such hypotheticals held no weight, and Adelaide knew it. "I wish it had all gone differently," she said, her voice soft.
" That I might have been afforded the opportunity to know you, but..."
"But?" She steeled herself, overcome with the need to tell a terrible truth.
"It might not have made a difference. If anything, I might have been the one to keep you at a distance." He nodded, understanding flickering in his eyes.
"There's always been feeling on my part, even if it wasn't always..." She cut herself off, her gaze drifting downward to where he held her. "As of late, I, I find myself caring about you more than I should."
"I'll do everything in my power to earn that care," he said. "You have my word." A clap of thunder penetrated the shed.
Aware of her unbuttoned chemisette and unable to ignore the distinct lack of space between their bodies, Adelaide asked, "What shall we do now?"
"We..." His face colored. "We remember that I'm a gentleman and you're a well-read lady."
"And after that?"
"Decide if it's worth playing our parts."
"Shocking." Adelaide shook her head in feigned disappointment.
"You're altogether too comfortable with the prospect of ruining a lady, sir. I really ought to kick you out into the rain for it."
"I don't think it's possible to ruin a woman I always intended on marrying." Adelaide hiccuped in surprise, scrambling to decide what to respond to first. "Always intended on?
Always? Even when you found yourself unable to exchange more than two words with me at a time?"
"Every gentleman should allow himself a little bit of delusion," he said. "It's good for the spirit."
Katherine Grant: We're all over here laughing. I just want to say that, like, this From Northfield Hall With Love is such a clever novella that is very Meg Cabot inspired. And then a Gentleman's Guide to Eid is also so funny, but in a completely different way.
And so I want readers to know that they're gonna get two really great flavors from you, and how lucky they are.
Isabella Kamal: Well, thank you so much. I'm so excited. I'm so happy I'm part of this anthology. It's so fun.
Katherine Grant: I'm so excited you're part of it, too. Let's take a quick break for our sponsors, and then we can start talking.
This episode is brought to you by the Rebel Ever After podcast. On Rebel Ever After, host Ella Dawson interviews romance authors about writing swoony, progressive love stories. The happily ever after doesn't have to be a marriage proposal or an epilogue baby anymore, and Ella is here to celebrate that. Past Rebel Ever After episodes include TJ Alexander on trans historical romance, Celestine Martin on witchy Black rom-coms, and Olivia Dade on her iconic fat heroines.
Get a taste of Rebel Ever After by checking out my episode, where Ella interviewed me about The Viscount Without Virtue, and we talked about all things related to my progressive Regency family, the Prestons. Subscribe to Rebel Ever After wherever you like to listen, because everyone deserves their happily ever after, whatever that means to them.
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Katherine Grant: We are back with the whole crew from Holidays at Northfield Hall. It's me, Katherine Grant, Isabella Kamal, Charlie Lane, and Sri Savita.
And you just heard our first kiss scenes from our novellas, and we wanted to talk a little bit about what it was like to write this anthology. From my perspective, I created Northfield Hall for my series, The Prestons, and I started creating this world in The Baron Without Blame. I started writing it a long time ago, and from the start of thinking about Northfield Hall, I was really intrigued by all the characters that would be coming and going, living at Northfield Hall, working at Northfield Hall, visiting Northfield Hall.
It's just a place where there are so many different people living so many different lives. And some of them, as I imagined them, really called to me and I was like, "I need to write those stories." And some of them, I'm like, "I wanna read that story, but I'm not called to write it." And some of them, I wanna read that story, and I'm definitely not the person who should write it.
And so I very early on knew I wanted to figure out a way to invite other authors to write into Northfield Hall. But it was a little difficult to figure out how. I was talking to Sri, and the idea came up of a holidays anthology because Sri had this Diwali story that was kind of hanging around. And I... It, like, just, like, was a spark in my head because holidays are a really great hook for both readers and writers. So that was how I began thinking about Holidays at Northfield Hall, and then it was just convincing people to join in.
And then came the hard part of being like, "Hey, I have a very rich, full vision of Northfield Hall in my head, and you can't see my head, what's in my head, but you can't break the rules either." So, it was interesting to put together this anthology from my perspective- To discover things that I hadn't always known about Northfield Hall or that I did know but I had never had to communicate before.
And it inspired me to create a 20-minute-long video tour on The Sims, which is not publicly available, but the two-minute version is publicly available. And we had a series guide and everything like that. So my first question for you all is what was it like to write into an existing world? And Charlie, let's start with you
Charlie Lane: It was intimidating. There's this huge sense of responsibility or duty to do right by that world, and to not step on the author's toes, your toes. Because, like, I definitely came in, in coming into the series really already respected your world and all the work that had gone into it. Just incredibly impressive.
And to add to it was not only, like, an honor and, but also, like I said, this huge responsibility. I wanted to do the right thing with it, for sure. So I definitely kept that video up all the time, and I had in my notes somewhere, like, the exact right times that of, on the video where I would need certain things, and I went back and I watched them pretty consistently.
Every time I was drafting I had that up, so. I was really, though, happy that you took the time to read the drafts over and to make sure that they, that all the little details were like you wanted them.
Katherine Grant: Yeah, no, I really appreciate that, and I there were a few times where I was like, "Oh, I can tell that this is, like, you watched the video.
I can tell." A lot.
Isabella
Isabella Kamal: I went to it, into it with no fear, honestly. Maybe I should have been a little more apprehensive. I just, like, charged right through. I was like, "If I mess it up, Katherine's gonna tell me it's fine. I'll just fix it." Honestly, I really loved it. I'm a huge fan of The Sims in general, so I was loving that video for, like, on, like, many levels.
I also had it open all the time. I really, really loved writing into an existing world because, this is gonna sound so bad, I don't like world-building . So, so, like, having you be like, "Here's this world," I was like, "Thank you so much. You saved my life" . And now I can, like, put characters in it and do all the character work that I actually prefer doing as a writer.
That's not to say I don't do any world-building in my own books, it's just that when I'm doing it I'm like, "Oh my God, when is this gonna end? I wanna get to the good part" So, and Northfield Hall really, like, suits my sensibilities in general. Like, I feel like it was really easy for me to slot my characters and the way I write into that world.
And you gave us so many resources. I was like, in a way, like, all the little hiccups I made were just me, like, forgetting. But everything was truly available, so you made it very easy. Thank you.
Katherine Grant: Thank you. I mean, I think one of the reasons historical romance is fun to write is- that there is world-building already done in that you just, like, history happened, you know?
Isabella Kamal: Mm-hmm.
Katherine Grant: So I totally relate to the, like, the world-building is done. But this was obviously a whole nother level. But, but I also am like, "Why would I invent a fantasy realm when I can just look at a history book?" All right, Sri, do you have any thoughts on what it was like to write into an existing world?
Sri Savita: Yeah, I actually... My answer's probably kind of a hybrid of Isabella and Charlie's answers because, you know, you and I had started this conversation when I just kind of in passing said, "Oh, I, you know, I would love to be part of these, like, holiday collaborative efforts with authors" but I wouldn't be writing a Christmas story.
I've thought about writing a Diwali story, but that's a big risk, and I was just getting into writing historical romance. So you kinda took that passing comment and then came back to me, and so we kind of have been corresponding by email since then. So I was able to ask a lot of questions about what would be available at Northfield Hall.
Again, it's hard for me to see some of the sensory things when I'm writing. Like, I'm very much just, like, feeling the emotions and dialogue. So it was helpful to have the map. It was helpful to be able to talk with you, like, when I was revising and you're like, "Can you tell us more about this forest path that they're on?"
And I'm like, "I sure can. I didn't know I didn't have enough, and let me go back and look at that and see how I would describe this." I think I was, you know, like Charlie was saying, I think I was just a little afraid of, like, putting something wrong in there, so I'm like, "Let me be, you know, just a little bit with a lighter touch on some of the, the scenic details."
But then that was helpful to go back and forth with you. Like Isabella said, I knew that you would kind of let me know if there were things that needed to be revised or, you know, add more to this. And so I'm happy with the changes that were made, 'cause I do think I brought out more of the richness of, you know, the spirit of Northfield Hall and connected it to a lot of the traditions of Diwali.
And then this is just sort of a funny thing that I wanted to add, 'cause I know you and I went back and forth about this. The thing that was hard for me about the world is that I did not wanna have my characters have sex at your character's house. Like, that was just... It was a mental thing I could not get over.
And so they're, they're banging it out at every inn along the way, but that's one reason why there's a bit of a slow burn. I was like, "No, I need them to not do that at your house." And
Katherine Grant: I kept being like, "Don't worry about it" I know. I think it's fine. "Plenty of people are having plenty of sex at
Sri Savita: Northfield
Katherine Grant: Hall"
Sri Savita: Exactly.
You were like, "It's happening all over the place in Northfield Hall." I was like, "I personally just cannot. That's a hill too far for me"
Charlie Lane: Mine did it under a tree, I think.
Sri Savita: That's why Isabella was like, "Oh, I just, like, made up a shed for them" I'm like, "Yeah" I made up a shed "... I just could not do it"
Isabella Kamal: But I will say in my, in my Eid al-Fitr story that they...
it was... I was like, "This is my house now. I don't" "Like, I don't know where else to put them" "So it's happening"
Katherine Grant: It worked. It worked out. Sri, since this was part of the inspiration, can you talk about what you love about Diwali and why you wanted to write about it?
Sri Savita: Yeah. So one of the things that I know you and I talked about in terms of what I wanted to bring to a Diwali story is, for me, my connection to Hinduism and, and Indian culture is less about the religious structure of Indian society and more about, like, the spirituality.
And I think part of that is because I've grown up in the United States. My parents immigrated from India, but my way of learning about traditions and culture was through them. So I'm getting it a step removed. You know, I don't think we're at the point where these holidays are really mainstream in American culture, so a lot of what I'm getting is kind of, in some ways really, like, undiluted because I'm getting it directly from them.
It doesn't have the outside influences that a lot of organized religion and, you know, cultural spaces might have. But there's also not the advantage of seeing a lot of this in media representation. So, I was concerned that maybe there wouldn't be enough to make it Diwali or enough to make it Indian, and we talked about this, because it's not showy in some of the ways that a lot of commercialized holidays are.
But that is what I like about it, right? It's something that, that's really about you connecting with the people that you care about, the things that are important to you. It's like the start of a new year, so it's a really, we love to throw this word around, auspicious time of the year. And, you're setting intentions and goals for things that are upcoming.
It's something that my mom encourages us to do all the time, you know, write out, like, lists of goals and things that you want to keep a focus on. And it's not really about, like, broadcasting it to the world. It's really more about, like, you checking in with yourself. And so it feels really purposeful and intentional, and I think for a story that's about reconnecting in a marriage, there were just a lot of themes about the holiday that lined up with, you know, figuring out who you are in this, in this relationship individually, you know, in this new stage.
Tarun and Rachika spend a lot of time thinking about how great things were in the past and, and they think the trouble is that they can't return to the past, and eventually they kind of accept that if you do want to make this work, you are gonna have to let that piece go and see who you are right now and how you move forward together.
And so there's a lot of that, like, taking stock of, like, what the last year was like, what the next year is like. And a lot of us, like, you know, I mentioned the, the mandirs that people will buy there, because we talked about wooden objects that could be available in Regency England. Again, because a lot of people's experience with a religion that isn't so dominant in the place that you live is going to be something like a home temple.
Again, there's that emphasis on it being something that I think is untouched by, like, commercialized influences. The disadvantage was thinking about, well, how am I gonna make these traditions salient in a way where it doesn't seem like, oh, I don't feel like there was enough Diwali, you know, if it's someone who's not familiar with stuff, or it doesn't feel...
There's not, like, clear icons or things that you can connect with the culture, other than what I try to bring forward with the marigold flowers, and the thoran, and the rangoli, and the diya lamps, and things like that. But then the other side of that is, like, that's the piece I love about it.
Like, I like that it's really about, you know, just the things that, as Rachika says, the simple things. The things that are important and that really matter. Checking in with you and, and your family, and just about love and togetherness and all that stuff.
Katherine Grant: Absolutely. Thank you. Yeah, I, I mean, as somebody who's never celebrated Diwali, m- I was introduced to it on The Office. It was nice to read about it. And even if these, you know, it's such a personal way that they're celebrating, and it's disconnected because they are immigrants too, it still is educational for me to just see how they think about it.
So that was cool for me as a reader. Charlie, I wanna ask you, you wrote the Christmas story because I said, "I am absolutely not writing a Christmas story, but somebody needs to write a Christmas story. Does anybody please wanna write a Christmas story?" And you were like, "I'll do it" . And you've also written, like, a million Christmas stories.
So when I think about Christmas stories, I think there are, like, so many avenues you can take of what brand you're gonna go or what flavor. So I'm curious, how does it feel to take up a Christmas story again, and how did you think about imbuing it in Chloe and Garrett's story?
Charlie Lane: So yes, I've written a lot of Christmas stories. And I did not ever set out to write a lot of Christmas stories, it somehow just happened. And something Sri said kind of connects with one of the reasons I do like writing Christmas stories for the Regency era is because
the holiday hasn't yet been commercialized, and so you can connect with some of the important aspects of it, and reasons for it, and meanings of it. I try to emphasize things like miracles or birth, new life, forgiveness, things like that, gift giving, and look at sort of how those things, those themes can be explored through a Regency setting and through romance.
And for Chloe and Garrett, I believe that the theme of forgiveness becomes really central, particularly Garrett needing to forgive himself for things that he feels were his fault but maybe weren't as explicitly as he feels that they were. And also kind of giving their relationship new life, since it starts as a marriage of convenience, and then Chloe says, "I cannot do this," and she runs.
And Garrett has to decide whether he can forgive himself enough to rebirth something out of the ashes of that marriage of convenience that's something different, that's something based around love. And it was really nice to set that in Northfield Hall, where we have a large sense of togetherness and people coming together to start a new life, right?
In, in a place that, where some of the restrictions outside of Northfield Hall don't exist, or where people are actively working against those restrictions. So it was really nice. And I also have, like, this other series that I write that's called Hawthorne House Hellions, and it is also about those sorts of themes.
And since Chloe and Garrett are the owners of that house, and this is kind of a prequel to how that series comes to be, the, ... It, it was really nice. It kind of like everything clicked together with the Christmas themes and with the Hawthorne House mission, and these two characters and their backstories.
Katherine Grant: Yeah, absolutely. A beautiful quote in your story about Christmas. Like, Chloe loves Christmas because it's like a community. There's something about, like a everyone's together in a warm huddle- ... that is just really nice, and resonant with my personal experiences of, like gathering by a fire, and it's not about the religion, it's about the you know, you're all together.
Charlie Lane: Yeah. And I think that's another reason that I'm drawn to writing Christmas stories quite often, is because Some of my favorite childhood memories come from these big extended family Christmases we would have that were really focused on that feeling of family warmth and togetherness and jokes, and we would all watch each other open up presents, and it was like this big, connected thing where you got to learn something about someone by watching them open up a present, but also were, like part of a joke if it was, like, fun.
Like, it, it was really funny. It was really fun. It was very warm. And I like writing big families in general. So, I like, I like settings and situations that integrate that big family togetherness, and Northfield's great for that.
Katherine Grant: Yeah.
Sri Savita: I'm really glad you said that, 'cause I think that's important for readers to know too, that the commercialization of Christmas kind of happens, like, with the Victorian period and forward, and I think it's, And it's just reassuring for me too, that I think a lot of us, like, with these stories, are focusing on those kinds of themes.
Like, the quality time is the gift. And, like, the fact that they're coming into a community at Northfield Hall, that should help them be able to connect with those things that maybe they're not feeling as much because of insecurity or feeling alone for different reasons- Mm-hmm ... or disconnected. So it's nice to see that we all kind of like hit on that same, you know, idea.
Katherine Grant: Yeah. And Isabella, you wrote two holidays. You, you raised your hand for two times. Would you like to speak to either or both or neither, and why you chose to write them?
Isabella Kamal: I can speak to both. I'll start with Valentine's Day because the answer's really short. Like you with Christmas, I was like, "I feel like there needs to be a Valentine's Day story in a, like, multi-holiday anthology."
And one of the first things actually that Katherine and I bonded over was our love of Meg Cabot and her contemporary epistolary novels. So my brain went Valentine's Day, love letter, epistolary, and then I said, "I'll do it." So that, that's like the answer. I have, And
Katherine Grant: it is, it is... It delivers the Meg Cabot vibes so...
When I picked up the draft I was like, "Oh my God, I am obsessed"
Isabella Kamal: Yeah, so that, that's like the really simple answer. For my Eid story, I, I... So I grew up in the Middle East, and I was there, like, until I was about 17, and then I moved to the US for college. So I, I grew up there and- Eid is just, like, so special there. I feel like the experience of Eid here is so much... It's so different, right? I'm really grateful that I was able to experience Eid, like, in a Muslim country, in a very collectivist society.
Even as a kid, you just love it so much. Those streets, they would, put, all these twinkle lights and, some of the icons in Islam are, like crescent moons, so we would have a lot of moon and star imagery and lanterns. Eid al-Fitr comes after the end of Ramadan, so, as someone who did used to fast when I, when I was living back home it's kind of like your reward for fasting.
So you've pushed through for a month, and now you get to have a big feast. What's really beautiful about it though is this idea of sharing, right?
Islam is a very charity-driven religion, and so This memory that I have really clearly in my head is we had a mosque very close to the apartment building that we lived in, and there are mosques dotted everywhere because you need to be able to walk to them if you wanted to go pray there instead of at home.
And I just remember my grandma making this huge, massive pot of, I feel like it was, like, rice with stew, because that's, like, 90% of Iraqi dishes, and just to take down to the mosque. And the mosque would be open for anyone to join, so, the unhoused population, anyone who was just unable to afford food for whatever reason.
They would just set up this long table, and you just had... Like- they weren't, like, segregating people in any way. Everybody just sat together. For me and my sisters, there were other fun things. Like, you always got new clothes on Eid, right? It's like a new beginning. I actually put that into the short story as well of, like, Gray's grandmother being like, "Pack your new outfit," because that's, like, a universal Eid experience.
So yeah, I really just drew on what I loved about it from my childhood and my teenagerhood, and it was really easy to put it at Northfield Hall because it's an accepting, open place. I feel like I didn't need to justify the existence of the holiday there. I didn't need to justify the presence of Iraqi characters or anything like that.
So it made it very easy.
Katherine Grant: That's so beautiful. Thank you. Like, I don't know very much about... I hadn't heard about this as, like, a separate having a separate name from Ramadan because- Mm-hmm ... you know, just not enough exposure to other cultures. So, I've... Again, it was like, oh, I get to, like, be invited into someone else's celebration is how it feels, and it was really nice.
And I also want to say I love that you have this memory of your grandmother. The grandmother character in A Gentleman's Guide to Eid is spectacular.
Isabella Kamal: The grandmother character in A Gentleman's Guide to Eid is actually my grandmother. Because, you know, when you come, like, character crafting, you have to think, you have to, put together these characters.
I didn't have to for her 'cause I was like, I already knew a character of a person. My grandmother, who, she passed away in 2016, but she was just, like, outrageous. Frankly, she was, like, kind of a terror in a really fun way. She was, like, 4'11", charging through life. Like, had a very difficult life but was so tough and was just always, you know, just always giving you shit, and it was really funny.
She was just such a funny person. So, I really... Part of it also was, like, paying homage to my grandmother in the character of Leyla.
Katherine Grant: I loved it. Readers are gonna love her. Okay, so the last question I wanna ask is, did you discover any fun historical tidbits while preparing this story?
Isabella, you haven't gone first yet. You just spoke- Mm ... but I'm gonna call on you.
Isabella Kamal: Okay. So for Eid, honestly, I probably didn't do as much research as I should have, because I was like, "I'm gonna put on an Eid that's, like, my Eid." Right? And I just, like, adapted it to, like, historical time setting. So there are some things that I, like, included that I may not have necessarily done, but that I knew were done, and had had, like, tangential exposure to as a child.
For Valentine's Day, something interesting that I found out was, like, the existence of Valentine's Day writers which were, like, these little books that were filled with couplets or poems. So if you were bad at expressing yourself, you could just flip open the writer and copy a couplet.
And when I read that, I was like, "Lazy." And then so I had Adelaide be, like, "lazy." In one of the letters, Jacob tells her... And this is an anonymous letter. She doesn't know it's coming from him. He tells her that he's not much of a poet like other gentlemen, so he can't really, like, express himself in that way.
And she writes back, and she's like, "Well, first of all, most gentlemen aren't poets, and you s- like, a lot of them just rely on, you know, the Valentine's writer." And later, he thinks to himself, like, "Oh, she's, like, happy that I don't use those."
Katherine Grant: People have always used cheats.
Isabella Kamal: Mm-hmm.
Katherine Grant: Sri, did you have any fun historical tidbits?
Sri Savita: Yeah. So I guess they're sort of like research tidbits in general, but, one of the things that I think is kind of the main challenge and kind of the main focus of what I'm doing when I'm writing is I'm taking what I know already exists in the Regency world and kind of pulling it forward in a way that's Indian.
I was just talking to someone else about, you know, they... I was reading their story and they had a character that was planning a menu with peas and potatoes. And I'm like, "Great, so they can make aloo matar," because that's peas and potatoes. And the spices exist there, the tea exists there, you know, all these things that we know are imported from other places like India.
So for me, I'm just trying to pull that forward in a way where I can say, oh, look, like it is completely plausible for these Indian things to be here. So we talked a lot about the kinds of wood that would be there in order to think about things like the mandirs or you know, other gifts that I was gonna have them shop for, like the carved horses and other animals.
We also talked about migraine remedies, which was important to include. And, you know, to sort of shift this in a different direction, that also led into a discussion about, like, what would an older couple in their 50s maybe need to use as personal lubricant? And because we already had oil for the migraine remedy, I'm like, perfect, this is great.
'Cause I wanted to make sure that if I'm writing characters that are- You know, in a relationship and they're older and there are challenges to their body, challenges to physical intimacy, like I wanted that stuff to be real. So this was something that, you know, we talked about and I'm like, "Great, that, that works in too."
And then the other motif that's kind of really important to me and I think it's a, it's a really special kind of like moving moment, is when Tarun takes Ruchika to see the, the marigolds are there in the kitchen garden still. And we talked about how, if the first hard frost hasn't fallen yet, they would still be there, and I think that that's like an important recognition for them that they're like in the right place at the right time together.
So, it was just kinda nice that that sort of aligned with me writing in November and us sort of saying like, "Yeah, it would make sense that like we could say the first frost hasn't happened yet." So, a few different things that just kind of like came together in, you know, what I think is a, is a compelling way in the story.
Katherine Grant: Yes. Although it was interesting to do the dance of, and I think this came up with a couple of different stories things from India and Baghdad were totally in England. However, at Northfield Hall they have banned imports.
Sri Savita: Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So that was the thing I remember we went back and forth about, and I'm like, "That's, you know, it's all right.
There's a, there's a place for creative license, right?"
Katherine Grant: Exactly. Charlie, did you have any fun historical tidbits you wanna share from writing Cold Feet at Christmas?
Charlie Lane: I did a ton of research for this one. A ton. Not all my books have the same amount of research, but this one just had, like, mountains of it.
So I think one of the most interesting things was I already... I always had, like, Garrett and Chloe in the back of my head, and I had, kind of shadowy images of who they were, and They didn't start to come to light until I started researching. And when I learned about this Black British tailor named William Cuffay, who was a leader of the Chartist movement and was very short and a very passionate orator, that I began to kind of see how I wanted Garrett to be.
And so I really, really enjoyed learning about Cuffay. Not sure if I'm saying that last name right. C-U-F-F-A-Y. And he was apparently a heckler, so he liked going to all of these various political meetings and just heckling people, and I found that fascinating. He also is, like I said, a passionate orator, and I put a line from one of his speeches in the story, so that was really fun.
And, Oh, gosh, there's so much. The Magdalene laundries, or the Magdalene houses, which were run by m- a lot of religious organizations, including, like, Catholic nuns, and they were houses where prostitutes would go to learn not to be prostitutes anymore. And that kind of has some impact on my women's refuge, which Chloe and Garrett are going to open.
So learning about those was interesting. There's not as much research on Magdalene laundries or houses as I would like there to be, so... Or at least not research that I can easily access sitting in Knoxville, Tennessee. Yeah. So the research trip, I guess.
Katherine Grant: Sounds like we need to plan something. Yeah. No, I kn- I know that this is really underpinning this series, the Hawthorne House series, so, that research will really pay off, I bet.
Charlie Lane: One hopes.
Katherine Grant: Well, I want to thank everyone again, first of all, for writing these stories and taking the chance, whether it was fearful or not, to write into Northfield Hall. It really is so meaningful to me to see these stories and read them and like, it was very weird in a great way to see characters talking about and interacting with this world that I didn't write.
I was like, "Wait a second, you're talking about me." So that was really cool, and I really hope... And this conversation has just reflected kind of what I hope readers get out of reading this anthology, which is just like a warm hug of everyone has these beautiful, different human experiences, and we get to share them with each other So readers, listeners, Holidays at Northfield Hall is now available in ebook form only wherever you get your ebooks.
It will be available for only one year, and then we're each gonna take our stories and do whatever we want. And in this format that it is currently available in, each story is introduced by a letter from Mr. Maulvi, who you might know from The Prestons. So definitely get it this year. You can read it all at once.
You can read it as the holidays happen in the 2026/2027 calendar. You can do whatever you want with it. But go and get it from your preferred ebook retailer. And also go and make sure you're following Sri and Isabella and Charlie on Instagram, on their newsletters, thank you so much for spending your time today with me.