“She selected a bouquet and ribbon and threaded the trimming between the stems of dried lavender flowers.”

OK, so who doesn’t love a man on a horse? I sure do. Anson’s horse is a magnificent chestnut. Like the racehorse horse, Saintly. Or like this beautiful animal…

“A shadow moved. His gaze lifted. Wary, he slowed his breathing. Above the gentle lap of water against the stone canal walls…a footfall.”

The houses our heroine Karalee visits and lives in are the stateliest and grandest of England’s great houses.

Beauleigh Park, Oakfield and Edgecastle would be full of incredible paintings and sculptures. On a night when sleep won’t come, our heroine wanders the rooms looking at paintings similar to this one of the Death of Adonis by Luca Giordano.

Research is wonderful fun, especially when I can find real people to add to a story. A couple of the characters in Bright Lights and Shadows are real. Of course, Queen Victoria, Karalee’s godmother, is one. So is Victoria’s cousin Prince Ferdinand whose wife died in childbirth in 1853. The knowledge of this death adds to Karalee’s deepest darkest fears.