You did it! We figured this one out! It is a truth universally acknowledged (by me for certain) that the Bitchery pretty much knows everything, and really, it's true. Scroll down to see the solution for this HaBO - and many thanks!
This HaBO request is from SusieQ, who is searching for a historical romance:
Historical, with an 'older' rogue-type hero who finds the heroine when he goes through her downtrodden (war-torn?) village. I'm pretty sure she was all alone/had been left behind somehow. Maybe her family had been killed?
Anyhow, she comes from a family of stained glass artists, who I guess had made a famous stained glass dome at some point. Hero ends up taking her back to wherever with him, so she can make a new dome.
When they get back to society, she ends up living with him (so she can get her glass skills up to snuff), but to avoid scandal, everyone makes a big deal about how she is his 'virginal young ward' and not a sexytimes lady.
Tidbits: Everyone had thought it was the men of the family who made the stained glass windows, but actually it was the women.
As part of making her seem young, the heroine only wears white dresses while she is staying with the hero.
For her 'coming out' ball, she wears silver. Hero is, of course, stunned.
One of the sexytimes involves a chair, which was always referred to as “The Chair.”
That gives “the chair” a whole new positive meaning. Anyone recognize this book?
Looks like it might be The Beloved Scoundrel by Iris Johansen
Amazon link: http://www.amazon.com/The-Beloved-Scoundrel-Iris-Johansen/dp/055329945X
I don’t recall that story, but now I want to know!
@ Roberta – Thanks for the link 🙂
Aww man. For the first time ever I recognized one of these books (I just read it two months ago) and the answer was already supplied. Bummer.
@Lisa M—Sorry; just came across the link on Twitter, Googled “historical romance stained glass” and it was the first result, then I checked the Amazon description and it seemed to fit. Now I want to look for the book myself… 🙂
Looks like you found it—Thanks so much!
My grandmother owned this book & I read it. I remember the stained glass but that’s about it. I’m tempted to track it down for a reread.
Aw yeah! Well played Roberta K – your Google-fu was way better than mine. I should have searched those terms instead!
When I read the title I was sure it was going to be Seduced by Her Highland Warrior by Michelle Willingham (although since this is a fairly new book it would be strange as a HABO).
Well, let it be known that there are at least two historical romances out there in which the heroine makes stained glass on the QT!
Not the HABO, but there is a novel based on the true life story of Clara Driscoll, “Clara and Mr. Tiffany”. Her and other women in his workshop made most of the stained glass lamps Tiffany was famous for, Clara was the one who designed them.
I knew this one too! I actually googled it for it last year, i’d read it as a teen and it had stuck with me. It’s a good one for sure.
Featured on THE SINNER’S GRAND TOUR: the royal “sex chair” was made for Le Chabanais—the most exquisite, and the most lavish bordello of Victorian Paris. It is now owned by the Soubrier family, the furniture makers who originally designed and made the chair for the future King Edward VII, then known to everyone as ‘Bertie’, the playboy Prince of Wales.
Bertie’s famous sex chair looks like a dainty Russian troika, until you realize it is meant for THREE people—Lady #1, feet in stirrups; King, feet in foothold, braced on handlebar; Lady #2, sliding like a mechanic under a car, between the king’s legs. Here are 4 skeletons reenacting the pose.