Acknowledgments

This book was possible through the supreme patience and understanding of Shauna Summers and the whole team at Penguin Random House, and the continued, saintly patience of my agent, Kate McKean.

I found inspiration for Ann’s story in “The Curious Case of Kitty Kirkpatrick” by Ciara Garcha on the blog Our Shared Cultural Heritage. This book was also buoyed up by the writings of Victor Hugo, particularly his observations of war, and by Andrew Lambert’s Nelson: Britannia’s God of War, Allan Mallinson’s A Close Run Thing, and “ ‘Infamous,’ or Incomplete? The Origins and Structure of Wellington’s 1815 Field Army,” by Andrew Bamford. I also found that Regina Jeffers’s blog posts on Regency publishing were incredibly thorough, enlightening, and useful.

I must also thank Kate Pearce for her keen eye and willingness to help. Finally, deep gratitude to my sensitivity reader extraordinaire, Guntaas Kaur Chugh.