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      AUTHOR NOTE

      When I was a child, our whole family stayed up late on New Year’s Eve, and at the stroke of midnight, we all went onto the front porch and banged pots and pans. While staying up late was in itself a real treat, getting to make a huge racket in the middle of the night was fabulous. I never questioned why. It was fun and therefore good.

      It turns out we were driving away evil spirits, whether or not we knew it or believed in such things. I learned this while researching English Christmas customs, and since I enjoyed this event so much as a child, I put it in both stories of my current duet. In Under a Christmas Spell, the evil spirits are driven out of the house on New Year’s Eve, just as in my childhood. In Under a New Year’s Enchantment, the pots and pans (and a volley of gunfire) are part of the custom of wassailing the apple trees on Twelfth Night—giving thanks for the current crop and driving the evil spirits away so the trees will produce well again in the coming year. The tradition of wassailing the apple trees is still alive and well in parts of England today.

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      Dedication

      Many thanks to Kathy Payne for discussing Roman hoards and ruins in Britain with me, and for directing me to websites where I spent a great deal of time puttering happily. What better friend than one who gives one cause to putter?

      Contents

       Under a New Year's Enchantment