The First Day of Christmas

Synopsis in progress.

Air Date: 16 Apr 2011
Present: All but Cindy, who phoned in her actions at key points.

(Note: This was the day the tornadoes moved through. They missed Cindy’s house to the right and the left by a good margin, but still—yikes!)

December 05, 1867, Thursday
London and its environs, England

We have returned from West Wycombe and Dionysius Beignet and his new bride Priscilla are busy refurbishing a mews into three floors of hobbit home. Katherine is eager to see it when it is finished. She also can’t wait for Priscilla and Dionysius’s new baby to arrive either. Dionysius may be busy setting up his new home but he has not neglected his duty to Katherine. He has set her up in handsome accommodations at the famous Savoy Hotel in London. As her husband, Ezekiel is living there with her and all is good with the world. Then comes a knock on the door to their suite and after making sure he and his wife are presentable, Ezekiel answers it.

A footman in the hotel livery is standing there with a salver. On the salver is an eggshell white envelope. It’s an invitation. Ezekiel plucks it off the salver and tips the footman.

Footman: Thank you sir, that’s entirely unnecessar—

Absorbed with the envelope, Ezekiel nods vaguely and closes the door. Ezekiel opens the invitation and reads:

Abigail and Victor FitzHugh cordially invite you to The Twelve Days of Christmas at their estate, Butter Oaks, outside of Dublin.

Katherine is pleasantly surprised and pleased. She recognizes the name.

Katherine: Oh, Mrs. FitzHugh!
Ezekiel: Oh yes. That would be quite nice, wouldn’t it?
Katherine: (beaming) It would be wonderful. (a beat) The hotel is not warm and Christmas-y enough.
Ezekiel: (looking around) Really not at all, to be honest. Or, very little.
Katherine: (at the note) That would be wonderful.

Ezekiel finds another envelope tucked inside the invitation. It’s a matching invitation to Bertie. Apparently the FitzHughs are not aware Bertie and Flora are now established at West Wycombe. Someone has been lax in sending out their calling cards …

Ezekiel reads the invitation through and sees at the bottom: Please RSVP including any guests.

Ezekiel: (holding up the invitation) We will take the train to Wycombe and let Flora and Bertie know they’ve been invited.
Katherine: We need to chase down Josephine. She has no one to spend Christmas with.

She pauses for a moment, thinking on how Mrs. FitzHugh would accept someone of a lower station as a guest. Col. Fleming has managed to tell her a little about them. Without going into too many details, she’s managed to glean the fact that the FitzHugh parties are notoriously rollicking, a sharp contrast to their prim and proper London personas. Katherine’s unconventional friend would fit in nicely. Katherine focuses on her husband and repeats her assertion.

Katherine: We need to chase down Josephine. She has no one to spend Christmas with.
Ezekiel: Yes, of course. Of course. Ah … Where is she?

As to where Josephine is, she’s currently in her new digs off Baker Street.

Katherine fetches one of her new calling cards—smiling at the name on it: Mrs. Ezekiel Drake—and dashes off a note on the back of it: Please come by as soon as possible. She has Ezekiel give it to the footman, still waiting outside for their reply, to have it delivered to her friend. Ezekiel does so with pleasure, still surprised at actually having the wherewithal to order it done. To be sure, he’s retained the services of his manservant Barrymore for some time now, but this is altogether a different sort of situation. Having been handsomely tipped an entire shilling, the footman is only too disposed to take on the task.

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