Jessica Hart - Under the Boss’s Mistletoe

Cassie’s heart was so full, she could hardly say ‘I do’. Even when she thought it couldn’t possibly be any fuller, it kept swelling, and swelling until the vicar declared them man and wife, and then she was afraid it would explode altogether. Giddy with happiness, she smiled as Jake took her face between his hands and kissed her.

‘You look beautiful,’ he said.

Cassie had seen how radiant other brides looked, and now she knew exactly how they felt. She was brimming with joy. It felt as if it were spilling out of her, shimmering away into the candlelight.

In a blur, she dropped the pen twice before she managed to sign the register, and then she was sailing back down the aisle, Jake’s fingers wrapped firmly round her own.

The church doors were thrown open and a magical scene awaited them. Great, soft snowflakes were drifting steadily to the ground, blurring the warm, flickering glow of the flares and glimmer of the tiny lights in the trees.

‘Oh Jake, it’s perfect!’ gasped Cassie, and promptly tripped over the porch step. ‘Just as well we decided not to have a video,’ she muttered out of the corner of her mouth as Jake hauled her upright, and behind her she heard Tina smother a fit of giggles. ‘Thank goodness I had you to hang on to, or I’d have gone flat on my face!’

Jake’s hand tightened and he smiled down at her. ‘That’s the thing about being married,’ he said. ‘We’ll always have each other to hang on to now.’

Cassie’s smile widened. ‘So we will,’ she said, and then stopped, catching sight of a carriage drawn up outside the lych gate. In the light of the flares there, she could see that it was pulled by two white horses.

A car would be more sensible, Jake had said once, and it was a car she had expected to take them back to the great hall. But Jake, her sensible husband, must have remembered her fantasy and arranged the carriage for her instead.

Her eyes shone as she looked up at him. ‘It’s my dream!’ she breathed, but Jake shook his head and smiled.

‘It’s not a dream,’ he said. ‘It’s real.’

Invite all your neighbours as well as your friends, even if you don’t know them very well. Everybody loves to be invited to a party-and it’s a great way to meet that person you smile at in the street every day but whose name you don’t know…

It’s much more fun if everyone is jammed in together, so put your guests in a room that’s not quite big enough for them all. Don’t let anyone sit down, either! It makes it easier for your guests to mingle and meet each other if everyone is standing up.

Don’t forget to introduce guests to each other-it can be daunting to walk into a room full of people who all seem to know each other, and it makes a big difference if the hostess makes sure everyone has someone to talk to when they arrive.

At Christmas you can go to town on the decorations-a Christmas tree is a must, but fairy lights look wonderful strung around the room too. Keep the lighting flattering with candles and soft lamps, and put out piles of pine cones and crackers. A room fragrance scented with cinnamon, oranges and cloves will get everyone in the mood the moment they step through the door.

Greet guests with a glass of mulled wine and a mince pie as soon as they arrive, or impress them with a real Christmas cocktail-see below!

Cheese biscuits to nibble on are easy to make, and if you buy a box of Christmas pastry-cutters you can have holly, stars, angels, Christmas trees and all sorts of other Christmassy shapes, or use letters to spell Noel or Happy Christmas on a plate. They can be made in advance, and will make it look as if you’ve gone to masses of effort even when you haven’t.

Have a Secret Santa. Give all your guests a (very low) price limit and get everyone to bring a present to put beneath the tree. That way everyone will have a gift to take home-but much more fun will be had watching their reactions as they open their present!

Make sure you leave yourself enough time to make yourself look fantastic. It won’t matter if nothing else is ready as long as you’re there to greet people when they arrive.

Don’t forget the music-the cheesier, the better. Bring out all the old Christmas favourites and your guests will dance the night away.

Have a good time and everyone else will too!

Frost the glasses in advance by dipping the rims first in lightly whipped egg white, and then in caster sugar.

Put a sugar cube in the bottom of each glass and add enough brandy to cover. Let it soak for a while, then pour in some cranberry juice and top with sparkling wine.

Jessica Hart was born in West Africa, and has suffered from itchy feet ever since, traveling and working around the world in a wide variety of interesting but very lowly jobs. All of them have provided inspiration on which to draw when it comes to the settings and plots of her stories. Now she lives a rather more settled existence in York, U.K., where she has been able to pursue her interest in history, although she still yearns sometimes for wider horizons. If you’d like to know more about Jessica, visit her Web site at www.jessicahart.co.uk.