A Crimson Warning

Author’s Note

Research is one of the best parts of writing historical fiction, particularly as truth is often more fantastic than fiction. My character, Lady Glover, is based on London’s infamous Lady Meux. After being a pantomime girl at Surrey Music Hall and a barmaid at Horseshoe Tavern, she won herself a £20,000-a-year allowance from her wealthy husband, a brewer, after her marriage. She collected Egyptian antiquities and had a menagerie of exotic animals at her country house, along with a Turkish bath, and a roller skating rink. Like Lady Glover, she drove a carriage pulled by zebras in London. No fortune in the world could gain her the good will of society, however. She described herself as “a woman not received.”

Mrs. Fanning and Lady Althway sharing a lover was inspired by an incident in the life of Lady Londonderry, the leading Tory hostess of the time. A sharp, well-read woman, she had the respect of nearly everyone but her husband, who refused to speak to her in private after he learned of her affair with a gentleman called Harry Cust. How was the affair exposed? Gladys, Marchioness of Ripon, another of Mr. Cust’s mistresses, found in her lover’s house a stash of letters written to him by Lady Londonderry. The marchioness read them aloud to guests in her home, causing a scandal and a lifetime feud. Lady Londonderry begged her husband’s forgiveness years later as he lay dying, but he refused to give it. Later, the marchioness begged the same from Lady Londonderry, who was as unforgiving as her husband. I would hope Mrs. Fanning and Lady Althway come to better ends.

The New Poor Law of 1834 included a provision called “outdoor relief,” given to the elderly and disabled who chose to stay in their own homes instead of taking up residence in a state-run facility. It is this relief our villain seeks to exploit in his match factory.

Catherine, one of William Gladstone’s daughters, was instrumental in founding the Women’s Liberal Federation in the late 1880s. By 1892, ten thousand members left in a schism caused by a disagreement over women’s right to vote. Rosalind, Countess of Carlisle, was an influential member of the federation, eventually serving as its president.

Obeah is an Afro-Caribbean form of witchcraft full of violent rituals and often tied to slave rebellions in the islands. The British outlawed it, giving punishments as severe as death to those caught practicing what many colonists viewed as devil worship. For the slaves, however, Obeah offered not only religion, but also a sort of justice, something they could not assume they would get from their owners. Islanders and colonists alike feared obeah practitioners as their spells, dances, and secret rites fueled imaginations and nightmares.