Hope everyone had a great mother’s day. I was in Williamsburg where my in laws live (and where Deb, Amanda and I met to plan The Diamonds of Welbourne Manor). I didn’t even glimpse Colonial Williamsburg this time but my mother-in-law and I did make a quick trip to the Prime Outlets and I bought some clothes for the New York trip later this month when Deb, Amanda, and I will be signing TDWM at Book Expo America – Saturday May 30 at 3 pm.

My big To Do List isn’t whittled down nearly enough, so I’m not too happy about sleeping late and sending my Risky Regencies blog so late.

I’m steeped in the Battle of Waterloo for the wip. My hero’s regiment is The Royal Scots and in my research I came across this snippet, first appearing in The Thistle in 1895 but found here in the history pages of the Royal Scots:

Donald Crawford was rescued on the field of Waterloo while nestling as a child in the bosom of his mother who was killed in action. It may be asked what she was doing there, but the poor woman knew of nowhere else to go, and naturally followed the regiment in whose ranks her husband fought and fell on the same day as her.

Fortunately for wee Donald he was seen by a private who was fighting in the ranks and picked him up out of his inanimate mother’s arms, laying him lengthways across his back on the top of his knapsack lodged between his rolled greatcoat and the nape of his neck, and immediately resumed his place in the front rank of the fighting line, where the little boy was as happy as a sand boy.

I regret, at the distance of time, I cannot recall the good man’s name…”

Donald revered the man’s memory with all the affection of a son for his father, and was brought up in the regiment by his guardian, and later attained the rank of Sergeant.

“The incident of his having been picked up on the field of Waterloo, having been brought to the notice of the Duke of Wellington, he ordered him to be granted the Waterloo Medal… as he was under fire during the whole three day engagement.

He wore the medal on his left breast, until he was discharged to pension in the year 1851, at Halifax, Nova Scotia, where he elected to settle, like so many other time-expired men of his regiment, most of whom did well in colonial life – the child of Waterloo.

Which goes to show that ‘mothers’ come into our lives in all shapes and sizes…

Who besides your own mother provided a mothering role for you at least once in your life?

How’s your To Do List faring?

Here‘s a fun thing. A Riskie blog of mine was reprinted in a bilingual magazine Yareah, issue 7. Look at page 21. Check out my website for more news, reviews, and my contest.

Look for Amanda, Deb, and me at Word Wenches May 15.

Oh, and look here! Scandalizing the Ton and The Vanishing Viscountess are both finalists in the Desert Rose Golden Quill contest (Deb’s An Improper Aristocrat is there, too!)

I’m stopping now…..