One day it occurred to me that the perfect place to reform a rake would be an abbey. At first, it seems like a rake’s dream: all those women, all to himself. They weren’t going anywhere. Plenty of opportunities for flirtation and perhaps seduction. But the nuns certainly weren’t going to succumb to a rake’s charms easily, if at all.

Before I began to write, I thought it might be worthwhile to do a little research. Like, would or could this ever happen? How do you get a rake in an abbey and keep him there for a while?

It turns out that England in the 1820’s was not exactly the heyday of monastic living. Henry the eighth had dissolved the monasteries in the 16th century. Anglican orders don’t really appear until the 1840’s.

My novel takes place in the 1820’s.

Had I been willing to set my novel in a convent in France, things might have been easier on me. As my professor recently said in class, many monasteries and the like were havens for girls that might have gotten into a bit of trouble (like my heroine, Angela) and actually provided plenty of opportunities for more trouble (um, like my heroine). But I didn’t really want to set a novel in France. Language barriers, stinky cheese, numerous nausea inducing channel crossings…not my idea of romance.

However, thanks to google I did find a mention of a female religious group who were in existence in England during the Regency (who eventually moved to Stanbrook Abbey). It wasn’t much, but it was something.

There was only one thing to do. Recalling that I write fiction, I decided to take a liberty with the dates. So, concerned readers, it is unlikely there would have been a rake in an abbey in the 1820’s, simply because it was unlikely there would have been an abbey at that time. Far more likely before the 16th century or after the mid 19th century.

Here’s what is true, though:

The orders of poverty, chastity and obedience that Angela delays in taking are from the Anglican religion (of which she and Phillip would have been members). Click here for more info. You can view Stanbrook Abbey’s official website  (although I really only used their name). I did, however, enjoy their “day in the life” feature. (A clue: prayer of all sorts. Also: Arts and crafts, music hour, free time. Sounds like summer camp!).

But a rake in an abbey!? Really!? Lord Phillip is found severely injured, and the abbey was the closest place. Why wouldn’t they take him on and care for him? They couldn’t very well let a man die simply because boys weren’t allowed within their confines. Or perhaps they would in real life, but that was not going to happen in any fictional world of mine. But I did want to double check that the premise of my novel was plausible so I emailed the nuns at St. Cecilia’s Abbey to ask. They didn’t write back and then my manuscript was due…so the rake remained.