Dinner Date

The three left the table and moved to Cassie's backyard. Sitting peacefully in the sunshine, Cassie asked tentatively, "What are you doing for dinner tonight?" She smiled pleasantly at George.

George leapt to his feet, "Dear heavens, I was so taken with seeing you again that I've simply lost my senses. I've impulsively invited a friend to my house for dinner. I met this man at my club. Edward Cornwallis. He's had me to dinner at his place twice. It was my turn to reciprocate. And so I invited him. But …" he looked around wildly, "I don't have Cook or any servants left at the manor. I was coming into town to try to find … help maybe or perhaps … I don't know."

Sten and Cassie began to laugh the more distraught George became. They had both planned dinner parties and knew how much work it took even if you knew what you were doing.

"Can I help somehow?" asked Cassie. "We could pick up one of these kitchen machines for you and I can enter a menu and then maybe serve the meal for you."

"Cassandra, I couldn't ask you to do that. If you were going to be at the dinner, it would be solely as my honored guest. Please don't think I would expect you to cook and serve a meal." George knew this wasn't her problem.

"Nonsense." Sten had other plans. "This sounds like too much fun. Cassie will be your guest. Cooking isn't an issue with the technology we have. I will be the maid and help serve. I'm pretty sure Frau will find this an enjoyable way to spend an evening. He will be your butler and help with the serving, if needed." Sten pulled out her communicator, called Frau and got his permission for the entire plan.

"What we need now is to go back into town and get a kitchen appliance, take it to your Manor House, and get Cassie all dressed up for a nineteenth century dinner party." Sten loved giving orders to men. Turning to Cassie she asked, "Do you have the proper clothing at the Manor House or do we need to shop for a dress of some sort?"

Cassie looked to George to see if her gowns were still there. "Yes, the house is just as it was left to me at the end of the aborted story." George hadn't changed a thing, hoping that Cassandra would find him there if everything looked the same.

Everyone got back into Cassie's car and went back to town. They acquired what they needed, including some extra frills for Cassie's somewhat plain dresses. Then they headed for Bindlewaithe Manor and waited for Frau to meet them there.

The kitchen was updated with one very out-of-place kitchen appliance. The three sat down and worked out a menu. Including several courses but centered on a leg of mutton as the entrée. Sten used Mrs. Beeton's Book of Household Management, a copy of which was helpfully in the kitchen, to get recipes that were authentic and entered them into the appliance while George sat by mystified. She assured him that all would be well.

Frau arrived with several bottles of wine that were produced outside the time frame and highly unlikely to be in George's wine cellar. Everyone was in a festive mood.

George found appropriate clothing for Frau, the butler, and Sten, the maid. Sten and Cassie went upstairs to Cassie's apartment and selected her best dress. A few embellishments were added and then Sten helped her to get dressed. "I'm not wearing that corset. They are the most uncomfortable items of clothing ever produced," she avowed.

After getting her into the attractive gown, now adorned with extra ribbons and a touch of lace, the two women went to work on make-up to cover the bruising and some way to play with Cassie's long, red hair.

Cassie then returned the favor and helped Sten into the complicated clothing, again without a corset. Sten went down the sweeping staircase and rounded up her husband and George and called up to Cassie to make a grand entrance.

As she slowly descended the staircase, George gasped. She was a vision, delightful to gaze upon. The velvet emerald green gown with the wide hooped skirt perfectly set of Cassie's creamy skin. The red hair was in an upsweep with a few curling tendrils framing her face. She was breathtakingly beautiful. George was speechless.

They awaited the arrival of Edward.