Romance is perennially popular in historical fiction. The genre demands obstacles to the path of True Love, and history offers so many: stricter socio-economic segregation, tribal loyalties, wars, dynastic feuding, etc. etc. Furthermore, throughout history, with contraception either difficult or impossible, many societies resorted to some form of chaperonage, in order to control fertility.
Until recent times, marriage for love was rare. Marriages were contracted to further diplomacy, family power, wealth, business connections, and so forth. Cupid’s arrows of love were unpredictable, dangerous troublemakers.
But Cupid’s arrows are the stuff of life for romance writers. A couple meet: somehow, however mismatched or unlikely, a spark is lit…
How then, to evade the chaperone?
The first answer is, don’t.
The first meeting
You know your characters, you know how they meet. Even under the eye of the chaperone, they experience a moment of amity. It could be a reaction to anything: something they see, hear, or undergo. They may not even speak, but it’s a vital moment, unique to their character and setting.
The chaperone builds tension
But there are obstacles between the lovers – and what more insurmountable obstacle than the constantly-vigilant chaperone, personally guarding our heroine?
How can the lovers even speak to each other?
The chaperone may be a block to the lovers, but is a gift to the romantic novelist. This is because the excitement of the genre arises not from consummation, but from the journey through uncertainty to the climax: mutual acknowledgement of love and commitment.
Under a chaperone, your lovers suffer the heightened tension of suppressed desire. Readers too, undergo heightened tension, puzzling over how, and when, the lovers will ‘get it together.’
Under the chaperone’s eye, without a word spoken, let the lovers experience the flush of blood, the dilated pupils, the trembling, the shortness of breath, the flood of hormones – all that pent-up desire that will, eventually, rush forth in a flood of fulfillment.
Hiding in plain sight
After meeting, the lovers’ interaction continues. They need to communicate. But how, under the ever-vigilant chaperone?
There are ways. Ways of hiding their affinity in plain sight.
First is ‘double speak’: words that look innocent, but have interpretations unknown to the chaperone. They may speak of shared experiences such as work, their social arena, or perhaps stories known to both characters.
They can also hide in plain sight by conversing in crowds, difficult to overhear. A noisy gathering, a busy street, a group walk.
Children are great cover. If the lovers play with or supervise children, other adults will take no notice. And kids don’t listen to adult talk – it’s boring.
And all the while, under the chaperone’s eye, gratification suppressed heightens the lovers’ responses. They’re hanging on edge, desperate with WANTING, as they share secret looks and snatched glances.
Let readers smell the pheromones as your characters sweat under the eye of the chaperone.
Eventually, however, all this must lead to something. Your characters must share their first kiss. How then, to escape the chaperone?
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Go undercover, like a spy
It’s common to pass a secret message. It may be a simple written note. If your characters are sophisticated, they might use a code. The Victorians invented a ‘language of flowers’ for the purpose.
If they are non-literate – or even if they are, but wary of discovery – they could pass a token, a physical object of significance to the lovers. Such a token is a golden opportunity for an imaginative approach. What object is specific to the lovers, but not to others? What demonstrates their unique character and setting?
Messages can be sent by a trusted intermediary, or by other means. There’s the ‘drop off’: leave a message in a hidden place, known only to the lovers. Or, the ‘brush by’. Pass each other in a crowded place, and slip the message, unseen, into hand or pocket.
Messages may or may not reach their destination. Carriers may be trustworthy – or duplicitous. Received messages may be understood, or they may be misinterpreted. Here again, are story opportunities.
The path of true love never ran smooth. Every single one of your characters’ ruses could lead either to triumph, or disaster. You are the story master: you decide.
Disguise
Chaperonage is very much a class issue. The richer you are, the better able to afford to remove a daughter from economically productive work, and to devote a servant to watching her.
Take Victorian England, for instance. Wealthy women were heavily chaperoned. But lower-class women toiled, unchaperoned, in mines, factories and farms.
Drop sufficiently down the social scale, and your protagonist can become invisible to their peers. Imagine, even today, a wealthy financier donning high-vis and boots to haul bins to the refuse wagon. Would his colleagues recognise him?
Going unchaperoned brings freedom – but also risk. How many Victorian housemaids, seduced or raped by men of the household, were dismissed to face destitution, when discovered to be pregnant?
If your characters have access to wealthier costume, they could go upscale. Remember Cinderella?
It’s also effective to dress as the opposite sex. In some cultures, this was a punishable offence – effective disguise, but with more jeopardy.
Disguise your characters for a secret meeting. Does it achieve the kiss? Or create more problems? Maybe, it does both?
Crisis
If all else fails, engineer a crisis that overturns societal norms. Jane Austen, mistress of romance, did this in Sense and Sensibility. Marianne sprains her ankle, Mr Willoughby sweeps her into his arms to carry her home, an act totally impossible under normal circumstances. The shock of physical proximity has a profound effect upon the innocent Marianne.
Other crises may dislocate norms. There are big ones such as storms or war, or domestic scale crises such as illness or accident. Your proto-lovers are hyper-aware of each other. They need only a moment of disruption to snatch their opportunity.
Make the chaperone your friend
The longer the delay, the sweeter the consummation. Set the chaperone to work for you.
Helen Johnson is a guest contributor to The History Quill. She has spent a quarter of a century writing about Yorkshire’s people, places, culture and heritage. What she learned inspired her to bring Yorkshire’s past to life through historical fiction. She is currently working on a novel set during William the Conqueror’s genocide. Helen also publishes articles, reviews and short stories. She is a beta reader for The History Quill, a reviewer for the Historical Novel Society, and leads workshops for Promoting Yorkshire Authors. Visit Helen’s website for more information.
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