So, Lydia moved in with George and Sophie because their aunt was… not all there… mentally, speaking?

Sherry’s masterful answer on the question of titles, I cannot supplement. But as for your other question — I don’t think you missed anything, I failed to spell it out clearly. Lydia and Ana moved into George’s house after Sophie married him. (Lydia’s dad is not rolling in the money, as you probably gathered, so he was no doubt very glad to cut the expense of housing them.)

Now, you may wonder, where/with whom were they living before Sophie married George? Most of all that got cut, but a single reference remains in the book to an “Aunt Augusta,” with whom they lived and who was their nominal caretaker before Sophie’s marriage. The remaining reference appears in the rooftop scene, in a stray thought by Lydia: “She had missed her sister’s wedding, left it to Aunt Augusta to organize, simply because she could not bear to look the groom in the eye.”

George came to talk to Lydia in the prologue at Aunt Augusta’s house — Aunt Augusta was their chaperone and hostess during Lydia and Sophie’s seasons. As for why George approached Lydia rather than the aunt — well, Aunt Augusta (in the scenes that never made it into the final book) was a bit of a dotty old bat, and even before Lydia embraced spinsterhood, she was already very clearly her father’s man in England (as James dryly calls her at one point). In short, I think George *saw* her as a very masculine figure, and treated her accordingly. He also probably knew that Lydia was far more likely to get a response from her father than he was.

Hope this clears things up! And I’m glad you liked the book.

Meredith is on a tighter deadline than I am, so I’ll put in my two cents on the naming traditions.

The oldest titles (earls and barons, I believe) used to indicate exactly what those lords were masters of. If you are the John Smith, Earl of Shropshire, for example, you are the King’s #1 representative in Shropshire. So the title is separate from the last name that way.

The eldest son–not all sons, just the eldest, the heir–of a peer takes the peer’s next highest title (not the lowest) as his courtesy title. So if the Earl of Shropshire is also Viscount Lincolnshire and Baron Aberdeen (below earls, there is no “of” in the title), then the earl’s heir would bear the courtesy title of Viscount Lincolnshire. That does not make the heir a peer, however, as it is only a courtesy title.

So if your are a peer, or a peer’s heir, you very rarely use your real family name. You are referred to by your title or courtesy title, as if might be. But if James had had a younger brother Bob, for example, then Bob would only be the Honorable Robert Durham, and referred to as Mr. Durham.

If you want further clarification, read this excellent website, which gives examples on exactly how peers are addressed, along with their wives, sons, daughters-in-law, and daughters.

Hope this helps.

I don’t know if you’ll see this, as this is an older post, but I’m really curious about something.

I’ve read Bound by Your Touch (AWESOME story by the way. No, really. Just spectacular), and I don’t understand why, if Sophie’s husband moved in to the Boyce’s house, he’s the head of the household. The Boyce’s father isn’t dead, so even though he’s away, he would technically still be the head, right? And Sophie’s husband came to Lydia to ask permission to marry Sophie, so that would suggest she had some authority. Is it just due to the laws of the time that she became someone they could kick out if it suited them? Or did they move and I just completely missed it?

And the other thing. I have tried looking this up online, but everything I’ve read on the matter has confused the heck out of me. It’s about the rules of naming the peerage.

You have James Durham, the Viscount of Sanburne who is the son of the Earl of Mooreland. That’s three last names. I can not figure out HOW that works. How does the peerage get its names? I read that sons of the peerage take on their father’s lowest ranking title, and is sort of makes sense. But not really. Why isn’t James Viscount of Mooreland, and why is his last name neither Sanburne nor Mooreland?

I am not trying to say that you’re wrong. Because you know this stuff far, far better than I ever will. I’m just trying to understand. Can you help me?

Thanks!

And, once again, FREAKING AWESOME BOOK!

And thank you on the compliment to the appearance of the blog. May I be the first to say that Meredith had nothing to do with it. It was all me, me, me who accidentally came across this theme. And I have a sneaking suspicion that it is way too twee for Meredith’s hardcore soul. But I’m a lover of pastels so there you go.

Here’s what Wikipedia said about the name The Painted Veil.

The title is taken from Percy Bysshe Shelley’s sonnet which begins “Lift Not The Painted Veil Which Those Who Live/Call Life.”

And ooh, you know Meredith’s mother?

As an aside, the look of your blog is great.