In my agony, I asked my husband what he thought. This crazy half-italicized version looked completely wrong to me so I went online and the very first reference I found was: Henry VI, Part 2. That’s what I had in my manuscript, but my copyeditor changed it to Henry VI, Part 2. You wouldn’t think it would be nearly impossible to include a reference to a Shakespearean play, but I had a fiendishly difficult time figuring out the proper way to mention Henry VI, Part II.As you can probably imagine, the privilege of the free frank was widely abused. This was called “franking,” or using their “free frank.” All they had to do was sign their name on the front of the letter. Members of Parliament (including peers sitting in the House of Lords) were able to send letters without charge. It looks difficult to read to me, but I’m told that it’s not so bad once you get the hang of it. After filling a sheet with words, the writer would turn the paper ninety degrees and start again. Since postage was calculated in part by the number of sheets in the letter, many people economized by writing “crossed” letters. At the time of A Night Like This, postage was paid by the recipient of a letter, not the sender.

I have always been fascinated by postal systems and had great fun researching how Anne might send letters to her sister.It’s in His Kiss takes place one year after A Night Like This, so I had a lot of fun setting up the pieces of Harriet’s future “masterwork.” Written, of course, by Harriet Pleinsworth.

Harriet Pleinsworth first made her first appearance in It’s in His Kiss when Hyacinth and Gareth discovered that what they thought was to be a poetry reading had been changed to a performance of an original composition-The Shepherdess, the Unicorn, and Henry VIII.

A Night Like This by Julia Quinn