“A deuced fine animal,” one gentleman had shouted from his natty tilbury when Vivien entered the Knightsbridge gate at Hyde Park.

“But a mushroom aboard him,” another chortled, to the titters of several ladies in a nearby elegant landau.

Deeply embarrassed, Vivien nevertheless continued down Rotten Row, even as the rude ogling and catcalls of London’s highest society followed her.  She would be damned if she were to turn around.  Thor seemed to sense her distress, trotting forward strongly as if to demonstrate his disdain for what was said about his rider.

And what was said made one thing abundantly clear.  The dowdy spinster that rode the gentlemen’s hack was pretending to be something she was not.  One of them. 

Part of the opening scene in Notorious Vow, Vivien is met with a situation similar to that of the Emperor without clothes.  She does not fit in, but the following ladies do!   Because she does not have their birth, or fortune.