by Marlowe Mia
At last, I lay aside my nom de plume. Blanche La Tour has written her final scandalous entry. I now sign my true name.
Her boudoir door opened a crack and Isabella laid aside her quill. “Geoffrey, what are you doing here? It’s not Thursday.”
“No, Bella. It’s not Thursday,” he said sheepishly, stepping in and closing the door softly behind him. “But you asked me to stay one night, and I’ve been thinking and . . . well, you know nothing can . . . We started as friends, Bella, and by God, if I don’t think we like each other better than some who actually . . . What I mean is—”
“Geoff, please come to the point.”
“If it would be all right with you, I would like . . . to just hold you.” He shrugged. “May I stay?”
Nothing had changed. There would never be passion between them, but perhaps the warmth of their friendship was a treasure itself. Isabella smiled.
“Of course, Geoffrey. Please stay.”
The End
AUTHOR’S NOTE
Even in a work of fiction such as How to Vex a Viscount, there is always some basis in fact. The Society of Antiquaries met regularly in 1731, and the association still exists today for the express purpose of “the encouragement, advancement and furtherance of the study and knowledge of the antiquities and history of this and other countries” (Royal Charter, 1751). The earliest recorded minutes of the group are dated December 5, 1707. But instead of having their own edifice, complete with lecture hall, as described in this novel, the Society was obliged to meet in various taverns until 1780, when George III granted them use of Somerset House. I hope readers will forgive my slight shuffling of the facts to serve my story.
The disastrous South Sea Bubble, which so devastated my hero’s father, was an historically accurate stock swindle. The debacle has been dubbed “the Enron of England.” Shares in the South Sea Company soared to such ridiculous heights in the summer of 1720, it inspired shysters everywhere to urge investment in their schemes. One newly formed enterprise advertised itself as “a company for carrying out an undertaking of great advantage, but nobody to know what it is.” When the South Sea Company defaulted, the entire market crashed with it. However, since the principal cargo the company intended to market to the New World was slaves from Africa, I can’t help but feel the cosmic justice of total financial ruin was fitting.
Rome controlled portions of Britain for four hundred years. The time referenced in How to Vex a Viscount (405 A.D.) was near the end of that occupation. Rome was imploding. By 410 A.D., the Emperor Honorius advised Romans in Britain to defend themselves, for he would send no more troops from the south. My freedman, Caius Meritus, is fictional, but he would have been pleased by their fate, had he lived long enough to see it.
The druid isle of Braellafgwen is purely the product of my imagination, but barrows and standing stones dot the U.K., enigmatic glimpses into what was. You can’t walk the land without sensing the magic of the past. My heroine, Daisy, is right: sometimes, the rocks do cry out with words only the heart hears.
I hope you enjoyed How to Vex a Viscount! I had a wonderful time writing it. If you’d like to know what’s coming next, please visit me at http://www.miamarlowe.com
Wishing you the best of everything,
Mia
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