After the Wedding (The Worth Saga #2)(110)

There are two things mentioned in this book that are purposefully ahistorical. One is the underglazing colors that Adrian describes. I purposefully tried not to say too much about the production of china in this book because this is not a book about the production of china, but basically, the colors that can be used under the initial glaze were historically quite limited because the glaze needs to be fired at an incredibly high temperature. That temperature means that chemical reactions occur, and a dye that might start out as one color would turn into something else at heat.

As our knowledge of chemistry progressed, the colors we can use have been expanded. Adrian (and the business that his family runs) have historical access to minerals that would allow them to have a broader spectrum of underglaze colors.

The second thing I mention will be a much larger issue in the third full-length book in this series. I mention that Grayson wants to lay a transpacific telegraph cable. In reality, that cable was not laid until early in the twentieth century. There was, however, no reason it could not be put down earlier. There will be more about Grayson and the telegraph in the third book.





Acknowledgments


I have so many people to thank for this book. First, for those who had a direct hand in its creation—Lindsey Faber, Rawles Lumumba, Louisa Jordan, Martha Trachtenberg, and Wendy Chan—my unending gratitude for working with me on impossible deadlines that were endlessly delayed.

Special thanks to those friends of mine, who were there for me when I needed them most. Rebekah Weatherspoon, Alisha Rai, Bree Bridges, Alyssa Cole, Rose Lerner, Erica Ridley, and Tessa Dare were all there during the hardest times of the last ten years. Lucas Watkins and Chris Walker listened to me and believed me.

My dog, my cat, and Mr. Milan all gave me snuggles when I needed them, and I needed a lot of snuggles.

And there’s you, my readers. I will thank you, but first, I owe you an apology. I said something at the end of Once upon a Marquess like “I’m not the fastest writer…” And I said something like maybe this book would come out at the end of 2016?

I had no idea how slowly things were going to go. I am so sorry.

I’ve talked a little about why things went slowly for me—and the dedication for this book is a little personal, even for a book dedication.

All of my books have aspects of who I am in them, and I don’t think this one is much different. But I wrote the first few scenes that appeared in this book—the ones that took place in the rectory—a few years ago, shortly after I’d written Once Upon a Marquess. Maybe I should have known then that there was a problem.

Sometimes we write books to challenge ourselves, but sometimes our challenges show up in our books.

I hope I am never that slow a writer again. I often say that I hope this book was worth the wait; in this case, the wait was pretty darned long, and so that may create too high a standard. All I can say is that if I had tried to publish what I had sooner, it definitely wouldn’t have been worth it.

I didn’t know that this needed to be a book about hope until I had found mine.

So finally, I’d like to thank myself. I know it’s a little gauche, but I have been writing romance for ten years now because I always believed in hope, even if I didn’t know the reason for it.

I’m glad I found the reason.