All the taverns, streets, hotels, inns and shops I have mentioned did exist at the time, as well as the small fly carriages, called “fly-by-nights”. I know my readers expect authenticity and I do try to deliver. However, since some of you might be wondering, Willow House is not a real place but my creation. It was first seen in Against the Wind as the place where Sir Martin met Katherine, Lady Edgerton (“Kit”). That is my one story where I reversed the order of things: as strangers, they made love, then they married and then they fell in love. My friend, Shirlee Busbee, a NY Times bestselling author, described it as “A fabulous tale with exciting twists and turns reflecting a little-known event in England’s history and, at its heart, a wonderful love story.”
Henry Cairo, should you be wondering, is a real figure, but not as you might suppose. I was working on a trial this spring and one of our experts was a man named Henry Cairo. I told him I loved his name and asked if I could use it. He said he’d be pleased. I then did research and discovered the name has an Italian connection. From the 1820s to 1851 there were four thousand Italian immigrants in England, with 50% of them living in London. The regional origins of most were the valleys around Como and Lucca. The people from Como were skilled artisans, making barometers and other precision instruments. Hence my family of clockmakers, artisans in time.
Grillon’s Hotel was a prominent place to stay in London and the coffee house, maintained by Grillon’s as a part of the hotel, was the purview of gentlemen only.
The Prospect of Whitby tavern on the Thames featured cockfights at one point so I simply had to include that. And I should tell you that same tavern in the 18th century was named The Devil’s Tavern and can be seen in Echo in the Wind, the love story of Jean Donet, comte de Saintonge, Jack’s father and Robbie’s grandfather.
I have described Prinny’s yacht, the Royal George, in detail as my research provided. The great cabin really did have windows of plate glass, a skylight, gilded dark wood paneling, a Brussels carpet beneath a mahogany table and a pianoforte, among other accoutrements. As Robbie said, King George IV liked to travel in style. And the yacht frequently anchored off the coast of Brighton when the king was in residence.
Maria Fitzherbert is presented as I came to know her…a virtuous woman who took her marriage to Prince George seriously even if he did not. It is also true that all of Brighton respected her. The king must have had her on his mind toward the end of his life. When he died in 1830, he was buried wearing a locket containing her miniature. Mrs. Fitzherbert survived him by seven years, dying at the age of eighty in Brighton. She was buried in the Catholic church of St. John the Baptist, where a mural to her memory may be seen today.
You might wonder why Chastity’s sister wore a purple silk gown for her wedding. A bride in the Regency period would not generally wear white, unless it was her best dress. White gowns became the tradition in the Victorian era. In the Regency period, if the bride were from a moneyed family, she would have a new gown she would wear again.
Women of accomplishment have lived in all centuries. Chastity’s antecedent, the Puritan Anne Bradstreet (née Dudley, which is where Dudley Hall came from), was born in Northampton, England in the 17th century. She was a well-read scholar who wrote poetry published in both England and America and she was the mother of eight children. I like to think that such women might have been the rebels who felt they didn’t fit into the role society expected of them. Chastity Reynolds is just such a woman.
I hope you enjoyed this story. Unless my plans change, my next project will begin a new series, the Clan Donald Saga that I hope will extend through several centuries. So, at least for a time, I am back to the medieval era, which, I know, will please many of my readers.
See my research and the characters for Rogue’s Holiday on the Pinterest Board.
Want to read the rest of the Agents of the Crown series? You can see it here on Amazon.
Author’s Bio
Regan Walker is an award-winning, Amazon bestselling author of Regency, Georgian and Medieval romances. A lawyer turned writer, she has six times been featured on USA TODAY’s HEA blog and nominated six times for the Reward of Novel Excellence (RONE) award. Her novels The Red Wolf’s Prize and King’s Knight won Best Historical Novel in the medieval category. The Refuge: An Inspirational Novel of Scotland won the Gold Medal in the Illumination Awards. To Tame the Wind won the International Book Award for Romance Fiction and Best Historical Romance in the San Diego Book Awards. And A Fierce Wind won a medal in the President’s Book Awards of The Florida Authors & Publishers Association and was an award-winning Finalist in the 2019 International Book Awards!
Years of serving clients in private practice and several stints in high levels of government have given Regan a feel for the demands of the “Crown”. Hence her novels often feature a demanding sovereign who taps his subjects for special assignments. Each of her stories features real history and real historical figures. And, of course, adventure and love.
She lives in San Diego with her wonderful dog “Cody”, a Wirehaired Pointing Griffon.
Follow Regan on Amazon and BookBub; and keep in touch on Facebook, and do join Regan Walker’s Readers.
You can sign up for her newsletter on her website.
Books by Regan Walker
The Agents of the Crown series:
Racing with the Wind
Against the Wind
Wind Raven
A Secret Scottish Christmas
Rogue’s Holiday
The Donet Trilogy:
To Tame the Wind
Echo in the Wind
A Fierce Wind
Holiday Novellas (related to the Agents of the Crown):
The Shamrock & The Rose
The Holly & The Thistle
The Twelfth Night Wager
The Medieval Warriors series:
The Red Wolf’s Prize
Rogue Knight
Rebel Warrior
King’s Knight
Inspirational
The Refuge: An Inspirational Novel of Scotland
www.ReganWalkerAuthor.com
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