A combination marriage manual and advice to midwives, Aristotle’s Master-piece first appeared in the late 1600s and by the turn of the century was a veritable bestseller—likely to be found in any newlywed couple’s home. All of the words Violet read were actual passages from the book. Reflecting the attitudes of the time, this book presented marital sex as an act of pleasure without sin or guilt. In later years, of course, society became much more strait-laced about such matters… although the Master-piece saw countless reprintings up until about 1900, in Victorian times the chapter Chrystabel cut from Violet’s copy was completely removed from the book!
As usual, the homes we used in this story were based on real ones that you can visit. Though we moved it to the Thames, Lakefield House was loosely modeled on Snowshill Manor in Gloucestershire. Snowshill was owned by Winchcombe Abbey from the year 821 until the reign of Henry VIII in the 16th century, when, with the dissolution of the monasteries, it passed to the Crown. Thereafter it had many owners and tenants until 1919, when a man named Charles Paget Wade returned from the First World War and found it for sale. The house was derelict, the garden an overgrown jumble of weeds, including—of course!—a sundial. Wade bought Snowshill and restored it, removing the plaster ceilings, moving partitions back to their original places, unblocking fireplaces, and fitting Tudor paneling to many of the rooms to recapture the original atmosphere. He scorned the use of electricity and modern conveniences, so the house appears today much as it would have during Ford’s time. Wade never lived in the house, instead using it to showcase his amazing collection of everyday and curious objects, literally thousands of items including musical instruments, clocks, toys, bicycles, weavers’ and spinners’ tools, and Japanese armor. The home is now owned by the National Trust and open April through October to view the house and collection.
Trentingham Manor was inspired by another National Trust property, The Vyne in Hampshire (which we also relocated to sit on the banks of the Thames). Built in the early 16th century for Lord Sandys, Henry VIII’s Lord Chamberlain, the house acquired a classical portico in the mid-17th century (the first of its kind in England) and contains a grand Palladian staircase, a wealth of old paneling and fine furniture, and a fascinating Tudor chapel with Renaissance glass. The Vyne and its extensive gardens are also open for visits from April through October.
I hope you enjoyed The Viscount’s Wallflower Bride! Next up is Lily’s story in The Baron’s Inconvenient Bride. Please read on for an excerpt as well as more bonus material!
Always,
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LAUREN & DEVON’S NEXT BOOK IS…
The Baron’s Inconvenient Bride
The Chase Brides
Book Six
Lady Lily Ashcroft is known for being kind to all creatures—even Rose, her flighty and frivolous older sister. But Lily’s sweet nature is put to the test when she unwittingly falls for the man her sister intends to marry. Betraying her own kin is out of the question, but she can’t seem to bury her growing feelings for Lord Randal Nesbitt…
What Lily doesn’t realize is that Rand, a young Oxford linguist, has been harboring a secret admiration for her ever since she was a girl. But Rose is just as beautiful and shares his passion for languages. Now he finds himself caught in a tug of war between two sisters—the one he's expected to wed and the one who holds his heart…
Read an excerpt…
Trentingham Manor, the South of England
August 1677
HE’D FORGOTTEN about her.
Well, maybe he hadn’t quite forgotten about her, but he’d certainly put her out of his mind.
Well, maybe he hadn’t put her all the way out of his mind, but he’d banished all thoughts of her to the outskirts. She was only fourteen, after all. And Lord Randal Nesbitt was far too honorable to let a girl of fourteen anywhere near his…well, thoughts.
But it had been four years since they’d last met, and now, he’d just realized, Lady Lily Ashcroft must be eighteen.
A fetching, dark-haired, blue-eyed eighteen. A marriageable eighteen.
Marriageable? Having never really considered marriage in all of his twenty-three years, Rand found the notion jarring. Perhaps being in a chapel put ideas into a fellow’s head. Though truth be told, he hardly knew where he was or what was going on around him. All his awareness was focused on Lily standing beside him at the altar, her month-old niece cradled in her arms.
“Having now,” the priest continued, sounding distant to Rand though the man stood right in front of him, “in the name of these children, made these promises, wilt thou also on thy part take heed that these children learn the Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, and the Ten Commandments, and all other things which a Christian ought to know and believe to his soul’s health?”
“I will, by God’s help,” Lily replied softly. Gently, gazing down at the babe she held close.
A smile curved Rand’s lips. In four years she had changed, of course. But her gentleness, that unfailing sweetness, hadn’t changed. Couldn’t have changed. It was what made her Lily.
Ford Chase, Rand’s friend—and father of the children in question—elbowed him in the ribs.
“Hmm?” Startled, Rand looked down at the month-old boy squirming in his own arms, its bald little head colored by the sun streaming through the chapel’s stained-glass windows. Ford’s son, he thought, surprised by a rush
