“Do you believe in miracles?”
“Yes.”
“Do you think I could get a miracle?”
“You’re going to get a miracle, Mom. Just not the one you think you want. It’s going to be so much better than that.”
She nodded.
Two weeks later in the deep quiet of the night her miracle came so gently it did not even disturb the slumber of my sister who’d fallen asleep holding her hand.
from the journal of Regina Richards, entry 2-12-11
Cherry tapped her forehead lightly against the pine door frame as if to knock some sense into herself.
She shouldn’t be here staring at her husband as he slept, taking the chance of being discovered, tempting herself to throw caution to the wind and touch him. She had to stay strong. Jason Culler was a man worth fighting for and she’d be a fool to spoil her chances of victory by deviating from the battle plan.
Jason mumbled in his sleep and Cherry came to taunt attention. Was it her imagination or had that been longing in his tone? It had certainly been her name on his lips.
- chapter 4, Cherry’s War
In the early 1800′s snake charmers where plentiful in Cairo. Upon visiting a home the owner believed to be troubled with a snake the charmer might say:
“I conjure thee, by our Lord Suleyman” (Solomon, son of David) “who ruled over mankind and the Jan” (Jin or Genii) “if thou be obedient, come to me: and if thou be disobedient, do not hurt me!”
A snake would usually dutifully appear and be secured without harm by the charmer.
- source: The Englishwoman in Egypt by Sophia Poole 1846
He reached for the coin. His fingers never touched it.
With the flick of his wrist the gentleman sent the coin sailing into the air. It tumbled among the snowflakes, flashing metallic among the white. But this time the gentleman made no attempt to catch it. It fell, the sharp ping as it hit the cobblestones emphasizing the deliberateness of the insult.
- chapter 1, book 2, Blood Trilogy
It was not unusual at a ball in the 1800s for dancers to have wax dripped down on them as they progressed around the floor – courtesy of the candles burning in the chandeliers above them.
- source: What Jane Austin Ate and Charles Dickens Knew by Daniel Pool
The cabbie frowned. His horse shifted and tossed her head. But the drunk hadn’t left. A white-sleeved arm extended out of the darkness, a glinting coin offered up by long elegant fingers.
“Well, if I ain’t a’ Ant’ony Pig! A crown, sir?” The boy’s wariness dissolved as quickly as the snowflakes against the wet cobblestones.
- chapter 1, book 2, Blood Trilogy
In ancient Egypt a mother might eat a mouse to heal a sick baby. Afterwards she would put the bones in a bag tied with seven knots and hang it around the child’s neck for good luck.
- source: Ancient Egypt by The Nature Company
Silently Nicholas agreed with her.
He should send his friend home with his bride, but since the attack on Margaret, Leo had been keeping watch on Randall, freeing Nicholas to stalk a more dangerous predator. Not that he’d been terribly successful so far. Both Randall and the diavol had escaped their oversight more than once. Death had been the result.
An echo of the gut-wrenching panic he’d felt at Grubner’s wake when he’d realized Randall and the diavol had slipped away made him clench his jaw.
- chapter 21, book 1, Blood Trilogy
In the early 1800s the first dance at a ball would most likely have been a minuet with country dances to follow. By the mid 1800s a quadrille would have been the usual choice for the first dance and would have been followed by a series of dances that might have included waltzes, galops and polkas.
- source: What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew by Daniel Pool
Wispy clouds drifted loose in a sky made starless by the full moon. The scents of soil and the tender green plants of early summer danced together on a night-cool breeze. The buzz of night insects droned in the near distance. A horse whinnied.
Nicholas put Elizabeth down on the tallest of the mounting blocks outside the stables. She sat with her feet dangling above the ground while he pulled her hood up to cover her hair and buttoned the cloak over her wedding gown.
- Blood Trilogy, book 1, chapter 8
