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There are a lot of different experiences to explore with the different characters and I hope they illuminate the world. I don’t use the words as Eyam doesn’t have the words but they do have the people, as has always been the case. Fabianus is bi and everyone thought he was gay given his preferred presentation and interests, but also because he wished to avoid the typical arranged marriage between nobles and chose not to correct his father’s misapprehension. This did rely on Fabianus’s confidence in his father’s affection, and yet Fabianus wasn’t confident enough to come out until his father both explicitly discussed the matter for the first time and Fabianus had found someone he loved enough to commit to.

The Cobra is bi and people sort-of know, though in a very ‘he’s Othered and no doubt up for anything’ manner. (There are dark-skinned nobles in Eyam but they are a minority, while racial politics are not the same as in our world it is a factor, and the Cobra also being a stranger in town of dubious origins and morals, well, perception becomes fact swiftly to many.)

Emer is a lesbian and is extremely closeted and repressed to the point where she regards her sexual encounters as almost unreal, something she believes cannot and will not be spoken of and which nobody else could ever know or would ever guess. She feels the isolation of not only not having a community, but not dreaming one exists. She only takes her first step out of this at the end of Long Live Evil when she kisses Lia out of doors but as we all know… it’s a journey.

Lia is a lesbian and is closeted, but not repressed. In a world where women’s chastity is guarded but sapphic desire not acknowledged, a male guard standing before your door while your maid is shut up in your bedroom with you to… preserve your chastity… presents opportunities. People will criticise her for indiscretions with men, and praise her for not exhibiting any inclinations to same. Lonely and guarded since childhood, accustomed to wearing a pearl and gold mask of feminity, Lia knows how to make her position work for her. Knowing how to work the oppressive system doesn’t make it not oppressive.

Everyone else as of Long Live Evil is sexuality non-confirmed (Rae, Marius, Key, Vasilisa, the Nemeths, Forge, Pio, Octavian, the gods, Zenobia, Sinad, Alice, though there are some fairly major indications of sexual or romantic interest in several cases that might point certain ways) but their sexual mores are oft called into question also.

The sexual mores of Eyam aren’t modern western sexual mores, which causes plenty of conflict, e.g. Rae and Eric hugging in Long Live Evil to the shock of onlookers. Rae is much more likely to get splashback from this than Eric, as only Emer is wholly and keenly aware.

(I have a headcanon, not present in either book but might make it to book 3 who knows, that at an earlier point in his life in Eyam Eric got a girlfriend - a lady of the lower classes working in the palace - something entirely normal to us and him, but everyone was simply scandalised that he didn’t make her his mistress and set her up away from society so they didn’t have to perceive the lurid affair. It contributed hugely to Eric’s reputation as a playboy scoundrel.

Thank the gods, for the sake of public decency, the peerlessly virtuous Lord Marius made sure honour prevailed and had the hussy packed off to serve far away. (The Cobra: oh man honey, we’re splitting up because you got a promotion in another city? Sad times. The Court: Once more your low morals shock us, Lord Popenjoy!) )

Vasilisa is from another country with different (and in fact, deeply divided) sexual morals - Vasilisa swiftly calls out Octavian’s having a Towet of Maidens that he has sexual access to, disguised under Eyam’s courtly discretions, and describes it as insulting to women. Vasilisa both clearly already knows her betrothed is bisexual and is unruffled by public announcement of same, which would be very unlikely to be the case for a well brought up noblewoman of Eyam, let alone a princess. (Private lavender marriages would be an entirely different matter.) This does not mean Tagar’s court is a utopia. They have a raider army. They also have sexual mores different to modern western ones, and different to Eyam’s.