It Takes Two to Tangle

Author’s Note

Writing historical romance is a wonderful job for those who like to poke through the details of the past. For this story, I got the chance to study historic paint pigments with fantastical names: orpiment, atramentum, cinnabar. I also asked my medically-inclined relatives questions like, “What kind of injury would take away the use of my hero’s arm, but wouldn’t require its amputation?” Ah, research.

For the record, Henry has Erb’s palsy, a type of paralysis due to torn nerves (in the brachial plexus, if you too are medically inclined). Though a recovery wasn’t possible during the Regency, if Henry lived today, he could have surgery to correct much of the nerve damage.

Soldiers who fought in the battles of Ligny, Quatre Bras, and Waterloo really did receive a medal. Its name? As Henry says: “Waterloo. Always Waterloo.”

As for the chilly spring at the book’s end, the year of 1816 was extremely cold, probably due to a massive volcanic eruption in Indonesia in 1815. But in Winter Cottage, we can assume that Henry and Frances found ways to remain quite cozy.