Author's Note

This is a story concerning the relationships of an English aristocratic family sometime around 1810 (vaguely) - the time of the Napoleonic Wars. It could quite easily have been called Brotherton, or Sisterton, or more appropriately Motherton, if you were so inclined. It is a shameless effort on my part to use my vague knowledge of history and moderate story-telling abilities to cash in on the interest in the English Regency period off the back of the popular TV series of a similar(ish) name Bridgerton. At least there isn't an annoyingly condescending gossip columnist voiced by Julie Andrews, driving this one, the gossipers are there, they're just not controlling the narrative.

If incest or historical stories are not your thing (and it's long as well), you might want to look at something else. On the other hand, you could try it and see, after all, what's the worst that could happen?

Most of this was written before the release of the second season of the Netflix series, and watching it while I have been finishing this off has made me reflect on what I written so far, and so far, I am happy with the choices I have made. there were some tweaks, but not many.

All characters are over the age of 18, though references are made to the characters' younger selves, all of the sexual acts referred to take place when they are adults.

Some notes on pronunciation - 'Rogeringham' is pronounced "rogering 'em", the word 'mama' is pronounced "mum-mah!" and the word "ma'am" as 'mam'.

It is a very long read, but I hope you will find it entertaining and worth your perseverance. And if you do enjoy it, please leave a comment letting me know what you thought.

Edit: when I first submitted this for publication, inevitably errors had crept into the text - mea culpa - I believe that I have sorted most of them in this updated version, though there may still be some errant commas, I would ask you then, gentle reader, to accept this as it is, warts and all, 'cos I ain't changing it any more.