Flora Dain | ROMP AND RISK - the pleasures and pitfalls of the London Season in Regency times
The London Season โ famous in fiction (and still happens today,
amazingly!) โ
was the ideal marriage market for the Regency Miss. With Parliament in session
from mid-fall to early summer, the court and the gentry alike left their country
estates to flock to the capital. By day some made laws, by night all made hay at
a glittering round of parties, concerts and balls. Eager mamas thronged the best
venues, hunting a good catch for their daughters.
Romance flowered, and not just for debutantes. Marriage could be little more
than a property deal, so for married women flirtation spiced up a life of
sheltered respectability. Naturally all had to be hidden. A whiff of scandal
could ruin even the most powerful, but women, with so few rights, suffered most.
Saffinaโs passionate romance with the mighty Earl of Endale, her rakish
guardian, travelled a rocky road. They quickly become lovers, sharing his taste
for erotic discipline. In SAFFINAโS SEASON theyโre
now settled and married but Lord Endale treats his new Countess to her
long-promised London Season with mixed feelings. He knows her beauty and wit
will make her a star, but his reputation is checkered. Worse, he dreads a rival
โ in the heady crush sheโs set to dazzle, she may fall for a younger man. The
more she sparkles, the darker his mood.
She teases him about this, unwittingly causing him agonies when her secret plans
for his birthday involve stolen moments with strangers. In the Clubs of St
Jamesโs, gossip about the Prince Regentโs latest love-interest deepens his
gloom. His lordship soon fears the worst.
To keep her in line he teases her back with some extra discipline. Heโs a
gentleman with exotic tastes, so his response is both delicate and sinister. The
leather rose he regularly places by her plate or in her bosom warns her to
expect an evening of fiery and unusual pleasures. Soon theyโre more passionately
attached than ever.
But the Carlton House Ball at the height of the Season brings things to a head.
Now they both get a shock. All at once she faces ruin. With her marriage and her
fortunes on the brink, this Season is one sheโll never forget. It takes wits,
daring and an all-night dash in a bumpy carriage to reach him and turn things
around.
The Suiting Saffina
series was fun to write โ hot and racy, punchy and fierce. After years of on-off
research into the period โ biographies and letters, accounts and memoirs - I do
hope I caught for readers some of the excitement, the energy and the risks of
the times. The real-life heroes and heroines of the period blew me away, as did
the age they lived in โ creative, intelligent and daring. A manโs fortune was
won or lost on the turn of a card, a womanโs on the bat of an eyelash - all to
play for, all to lose. So I made Lady Saffina bold, beautiful and brave. She
takes it all on and wins.
I grew up in North America, land of hot summers, cold winters, bright
butterflies and bold children. Bliss!
Now I live in the UK. My kids also say what they like but butterflies are
smaller and itโs wet. When the sun shines we all go nuts. Different places,
different pleasures.
Writing evens things out. Do try it. You can go where you like, when you like.
Itโs like reading, only more so. And if you donโt like the ending, you can
change it. Perfect!
As Lady Saffina is soon to inherit a fortune, her rakish guardian, a
disgraced Earl, returns from abroad to launch her into society and find her a
suitor. To her dismay, he finds her education sadly lacking. He fires her tutors
and takes her in hand, determined to tame her wild ways and instill a proper
sense of her rank. To her delight, his instruction is strict, detailed and
exotic, especially in the darker arts of pleasure. Soon few suitors meet his
lofty standards or give her the satisfaction she craves. And even after she
finds one, his strict discipline continues...
When he treats her to her first London Season, she looks set to shine. But
the more she sparkles, the more he despairs.
Now happily married with
a baby son, Jacquard treats Saffina to her first London Season. Heโs keen to
show off his new countess, and she means to enjoy it to the fullest. She flirts
outrageously, sees off catty remarks from jealous rivals with smart retorts and
generally has a terrific time.
But when sheโs waylaid by footpads one
night in the backstreets of Chelsea, sheโs unexpectedly rescued by a struggling
artist. Inspired, she commissions a raunchy portrait for Jacquardโs birthday. As
she struggles to keep it a secret, Jacquard grows moody. Soon he suspects an
affair and thrillingly, steps up her discipline by giving her a taste of
leather.
But at the Carlton House ball, when the prince reveals his new
mistress, both she and Jacquard get a shock. He storms out, enraged.
Has
she gone too far? Will she lose her husband, her good name and her son?
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