The Rake and the Recluse REDUX (a time travel romance) (104 page)

Read The Rake and the Recluse REDUX (a time travel romance) Online

Authors: Jenn LeBlanc

It has been a long road from the dream to this reality and the fact that you are here reading it still astounds me. I certainly hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I have enjoyed writing, photographing, designing and bringing it to you.

A note about a couple things in the book. While, in general, there aren’t duplicate location titles in the peerage, there are a few that I found in my research. In fact the first pair of titles sharing location I found was in my own family history wherein there was a Baron and Earl of the same title. (Name withheld to protect me from being made fun of) From what I gathered it happened primarily in borderlands where there was a dispute. A new title of a higher rank was bestowed when a lesser title was already held. In general a second son wouldn’t have a title at all unless it was bestowed upon him by the Queen (or King) for duties perform in his own right.

I placed the Roxleigh seat near the border of England and Scotland, on the Scotland side because at one time the book dealt with the border disputes and all the intricacies of how the United Kingdom came to be, through all the wars and complaints. However, most of that information was removed from the final manuscript. Roxleigh was meant to be a powerful Duke, to illustrate this he was placed at the border, which would have been one of the foothold seats that held the Scots from the Sassenachs. At any rate, the backstory cometh and the editor taketh away and I was left with no explanation as to why there were both Duke and Viscount Roxleigh. Also, the reason he is referred to as Lord Trumbull is because Roxleigh is Roxleigh. And as in
Highlander - There can be only one.
The Duke being the highest rank recieves the right to be referred to as Roxleigh.

I had thought about changing Trumbull’s title to make it easier, but I decided, since it was already out there, that I didn’t want to create a new level of confusion for my first readers. Perry has become a beloved character in his own right, and changing his name seemed to be something unteneble to me.

There was also, at one point, a great deal of information about mental illness and the handling of mentally ill people in the Victorian era (not very well done). Bethlem Royal Hospital was the main dumping ground for the mentally deficient, and it’s nickname, Bedlam, has become synonymous with chaos. Mental illness touches my family closely, and it is a theme that I dealt with carefully. One of the biggest problems that I see, personally, with mentally ill people is misunderstanding. That is something I hope I brought across in this book.

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