fantasy lala land

I've just started reading "Empress Orchid" by Anchee Min, about the last Empress of China. I have a thing for books about historical concubines, particularly on the royal concubines in China because there were just thousands of them, all for one emperor. I especially love reading or watching movies showing what they wore, how they ate or spoke. It was such an age of luxurious decadence. And although they were concubines i.e. hardly creatures of virtue, they were bound by such strict codes of conduct. I think that paradox is what fascinates me. I wonder what it must be like to live a life of such luxury. I wonder about the new second wife of the Sultan of Brunei. How does her day start? Do her maids in waiting wipe the sleep from her eyes with cotton wool dipped in flower-scented water? Has a bath already been drawn for her, strewed with even more flower petals? Afterwards, are various lotions gently rubbed into her face and skin and her shoulders massaged before dressing her in the softest of silks?

Yes, this is what comes from reading too many Mills & Boons and historical romances in my formative years.