During the Regency period people celebrated Valentine’s Day by exchanging hand made cards with heartfelt versus inside. Often made with cloth and lace, it was the thought that counted. Of course the poets of the day had many of their poems copied too!
I love the idea of handmade cards. Paper was a luxury item in this era so many had to save for the special day. So I suppose, like today, in a way it was about the money.
No mention can be found of cards exchanged between married couples. The giving of cards remained between single adults and went across all classes. The upper class also embraced the practice of Valentine’s Day turning a blind eye to exchanged of cards in a era when letters between unmarried ladies and men was deemed scandalous.
Here’s a love lorn note that Clary made for Helen – A DREAM OF REDEMPTION
You told me that you needed me
That we could face any opposition
To know I have your heart
Our love becomes my mission
You say that you love me
And that you truly care
But it’s I who pledge my heart
Forever it will be yours
I promise we will never part
No matter what life has in store
Because as you tell me every day
Love Truely Conquers All
A forbidden love and a chilling mystery tease the senses in this sensuous historical romance 
from the USA Today bestselling author of A Kiss of Lies and A Love to Remember.
Bookish and independent Lady Helen Hawkestone is expected to marry well. But, having grown up with warring parents, the institution holds little appeal. The trick, she realizes, is to marry for love—a task that’s easier said than done. Only while Helen is raising funds for her do-gooder sister’s orphanage does she meet a man who arouses her curiosity. Lowborn and yet so dignified that Helen can’t help but try to elicit a response, Clary Homeward is an enigma—a heart-stopping, body-stirring, forget-her-social-upbringing enigma.
A single offense against a noblewoman such as Lady Helen would ruin a man like Clary. Her sister, Marisa, rescued him from hellish poverty and employs him with her charity work. Try as he might to push her away, Helen tempts him to want things he could never have. But when girls from the orphanage start disappearing, destined for a grim fate Clary knows all too well, Helen insists on helping. And soon Clary wonders whether something more were not just possible but inevitable—even right.
