Pursued by the Rake
Page 25
By way of answer, she dragged his head down the last fraction of an inch and kissed him, drawing him with her onto the bed.
“I do love being married to you,” she whispered.
“And I to you. Let’s see if we can find yet another reason…”
Hazel had no quarrel with that. In this situation, it seemed, scandalous behavior was encouraged.
Author’s Note
In August 1814, taking advantage of the recent peace after decades of war with France, Caroline, Princess of Wales, left her current London residence in Connaught Place to take a ship from Worthing. After nearly twenty years of humiliation and insult at the hands of her husband, the Prince Regent, she could not wait to begin a new phase of her life away from British shores.
Caroline was a fun-loving, larger-than-life, and yet ultimately tragic lady who, unlike her husband, was wildly popular in Britain. Among other insults, she had survived an intrusive public “investigation” into the scandals of her private life, instigated by her husband, who was desperate to be rid of her.
By the summer of 1814, she was in such a hurry to go that she offended her young daughter, Princess Charlotte, with the casualness of her farewell. In the circumstances, it is not unreasonable to imagine that she might not have communicated her exact intentions to some of the ladies of her household, who were never all on duty at once. Or that someone unscrupulous might have taken advantage of her departure to settle a few old scores.
However, the orgy at Connaught Place, the young ladies trapped there overnight, and the unspeakable Lord Barden, are total figments of my imagination—inspired by the suggestion of my publisher, Kathryn le Veque, to whom I owe many thanks.
Mary Lancaster
About Mary Lancaster
Mary Lancaster lives in Scotland with her husband, three mostly grown-up kids and a small, crazy dog.
Her first literary love was historical fiction, a genre which she relishes mixing up with romance and adventure in her own writing. Her most recent books are light, fun Regency romances written for Dragonblade Publishing: The Imperial Season series set at the Congress of Vienna; and the popular Blackhaven Brides series, which is set in a fashionable English spa town frequented by the great and the bad of Regency society.
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