Victorians didn’t like to talk about bodily functions, or even admit that they existed. Convention dictated that women were fragile creatures with the appetite of a mouse, who would resort to a deep fainting fit for entertainment—as would you, if you were laced into a steel-boned corset and dress that could weigh between twenty and thirty pounds. Bear in mind that women of the day generally weighed only one hundred pounds themselves! Lady Margaret’s full court dress—the corset plus many yards of cloth in her gown and petticoats—would have been so heavy as to almost paralyze her. One poor young woman making her debut in the same year as my heroine actually toppled over backwards when making her curtsy, felled by the sheer weight of her gown. The tradition of court presentations was ended by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, but some of the protocol that Lady Margaret followed still endures. A person doesn’t sit down in the presence of the queen, no matter what. In a deleted scene from this book, I had Charlotte, the Duchess of Buccleuch, seven months pregnant (and still corseted and crinolined), forced to stand for hours as one of the privileged guests at the opening ceremony of the Great Exhibition.

Court life was a privilege, but it was often, frankly, incredibly tedious. It became even more so after Prince Albert’s death in 1861. Queen Victoria’s daughters led a pretty miserable life, permanently dressed in black, forced to keep their mother company, deprived of any fun. They followed the queen in everything. If she didn’t wish to talk, no-one conversed. If she wished to converse, she chose the subject. Public shows of affection of any kind were frowned upon—something else that has changed very little in court life. No wonder the Victorians developed a whole language of communicating with their fans. Lady Margaret would have had to endure the endless ceremonies and mindlessly boring rituals of court life when required—as she must have been regularly, in her mother’s company. Her role as one of Princess Helena’s bridesmaids was testament to her elevated status.