Dukes Prefer Blondes (38 page)

Authors: Loretta Chase

BOOK: Dukes Prefer Blondes

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If our Stranger's mind be of a lively inquisitive nature, his imagination thus fills up the chasm that wonderment has created with ill-Âassorted suggestions, or he seeks to obtain information from his fellow-Âtravellers, some of whom know as little of the passing scene as himself.

âÂ
A Living Picture of London, for 1828, and Stranger's Guide

Legal matters

F
or story purposes, I took some liberties with police and judicial proceedings, e.g., sending felons to trial when convenient to my plot, rather than waiting for the Sessions, during which their indictments would have been reviewed. For a readable survey of the history of the criminal justice system in London, I recommend the Old Bailey Proceedings Online. (
http://www.oldbaileyonline.org/index.jsp
)

My fictional Grumley pauper farm is a thinly disguised version of an actual case of 1849.

Ragged Schools

T
hough the Ragged Schools Union wasn't established until 1844, ragged schooling was known before this, although not necessarily by that name. “It was with the establishment of the London City Mission in 1835 .Â .Â . that the ragged schooling got its name,” according to infed.org (
http://www.infed.org/youthwork/ragged_schools.htm
). I took some artistic license in modeling mine on a ragged school that did exist in Saffron Hill at a later date than that of my story.

Cameo appearances

M
arcelline, Sophy, and Leonie's stories are told in my Dressmakers trilogy:
Silk Is for Seduction
,
Scandal Wears Satin
, and
Vixen in Velvet
.

The Duke of Marchmont's story is
Don't Tempt Me
. His house in Kensington features in
Lord Lovedon's Duel
, a novella in
Royally Ever After
.

The Broken Almost-ÂEngagement and the Shocking Incident at the Countess of Igby's Ball are episodes in
Silk Is for Seduction
and
Scandal Wears Satin
.

Yes, the clothes are for real

F
ashions are based on images in early nineteenth-Âcentury ladies' magazines available online. Among many other sartorial thefts, I stole most of the description of Clara's wedding dress from the November 1835
Magazine of the Beau Monde
. On my Pinterest page (
https://www.pinterest.com/lorettachase/
) you'll see the fashions as well as other illustrations for my stories.

Pounds, shillings, pence, and other old money

M
oney equivalents: Once upon a time (until 1971) English money wasn't based on a decimal system. It went like this:

Twelve pence in a shilling (
bob
, in slang).

Twenty shillings in a pound or sovereign.

Twenty-Âone shillings in a guinea.

There were numerous smaller and larger units of these denominations, such as:

Ten shillings in a half sovereign.

Five shillings in a crown.

For more, see:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coins_of_the_pound_sterling#Pre-Âdecimal_coinage

Other odd bits

R
obert Burns's poem about a louse:

Ye ugly, creepin, blastit wonner,

Detested, shunn'd by saunt an' sinner,

How daur ye set your fit upon herâÂ

Sae fine a lady?

Gae somewhere else and seek your dinner

On some poor body.

âÂRobert Burns, “To a Louse, On Seeing One on a Lady's Bonnet, at Church,” 1786

You can hear a recording here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/robertburns/works/to_a_louse/

A tiger is a groom in livery who travels with owner/driver of carriage to hold horses, etc.

If anything else puzzles you, please e-Âmail me ([email protected]). I love nerdy history questions, and might even write a blog post about it.

About the Author

LORETTA CHASE has worked in academe, retail, and the visual arts, as well as on the streetsâas a meter maidâand in video, as a scriptwriter. She might have developed an excitingly checkered career had her spouse not nagged her into writing fiction. Her bestselling historical romances, set in the Regency and Romantic eras of the early nineteenth century, have won a number of awards, including the Romance Writers of America's RITAÂ®. For more about her past, her books, and what she does and doesn't do on social media, please visit her website at
www.LorettaChase.com
.

Discover great authors, exclusive offers, and more at
hc.com
.

By Loretta Chase

D
UKES
P
REFER
B
LONDES

V
IXEN
IN
V
ELVET

S
CANDAL
W
EARS
S
ATIN

S
ILK
I
S FOR
S
EDUCTION

R
OYA
LLY
E
VER
A
FTER

D
ON'T
T
EMPT
M
E

Y
OUR
S
CAND
ALOUS
W
AYS

N
OT
Q
UITE
A
L
ADY

T
HE
L
AST
H
ELLION

T
HE
M
AD
E
ARL'S
B
RIDE

L
ORD O
F
S
COUNDRELS

C
APTIVE
S OF THE
N
IGHT

T
HE
L
ION'S
D
AUGHTER

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

DUKES PREFER BLONDES
. Copyright Â© 2016 by Loretta Chekani. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

EPub Edition JANUARY 2015 ISBN: 9780062098276

Print Edition ISBN: 978-Â0-Â06-Â210034-Â4

FIRST EDITION

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

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