Thank you to readers for feedback via Amazon and Goodreads on the first of my new set of Classic Regency Romances, Surprised by a Duke, published a month ago. I’m now working on the second in the series which is called Tricked by a Duke. The trickery comes when said Duke pretends to be someone else as well as his real self. As usually happens, the deception cannot persist forever, but we can have some fun while it lasts.
My inspiration came, as it often does, from a real event of the time. In May 1819 a Lady Hyde Parker (yes, really!) held a Masquerade (a masked ball) at her grand town house in Cumberland Place. The event ran all night and about 300 families attended (a very big house!). Next day’s papers described the event and listed many notables and which costumes they wore. However there was an unidentified gent, who wore a full suit of armour in the character of Baron de Courcy, which armour weighed in at 70 lbs; the helmet alone weighing upwards of 15 lbs. The gent who wore this cumbrous load for nearly six hours apparently said he experienced the greatest ease and comfort!