To avoid societal ruin, a young lady must always be chaperoned either by an older female relative, a close male relative (immediate family only, as cousins were considered eligible partis), a companion, or a maid. If riding or driving in the park alone, a groom accompanied a young lady. Any woman who ignored these strictures, especially if she were caught alone with a gentleman (or God-forbid, kissing him except underneath he mistletoe), could end up with her reputation in shreds unless she married the gentleman in question.
Even ladies who became betrothed could lose their reputations if the gentleman had a change of mind and jilted her. Such an action, in the minds of Society, indicated that the gentleman had discovered some flaw in her character or that she had been intimate with another gentleman. So if a man broke the engagement, the woman in question would become all but unmarriageable, because it would be assumed that she was no longer pure. The prevailing custom in the Regency era for betrothed couples to “anticipate the wedding night” (engage in pre-marital sex) had a lot to do with this belief and in many cases would be true. The same unfortunate stigma would be attached to ladies whose betrothed died before they could be married.
The latter grave situation forms the conflict in my upcoming novella, Heart of Decadence, in which the heroine, Miss Amelia Burrowes’ betrothed died before they could marry. All indications point toward the suspicion that they had anticipated the wedding night and she had born a child after his death. Ten years later, Amelia’s parents have arranged a marriage to help repair her reputation (which was possible if given enough time and diligence), although she’s not thrilled with the mercenary gentleman. However, when she meets a long-lost love, she must convince him that a woman with a past deserves a future.
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