Hi all! A trusted beta reader raised a question for me about characters in my historical novel manuscript who refer to having sex as "making love." My story is set in the 1760s in Savoy, a mostly francophone area that today is the French Alps but used to be part of its own separate country along with Northern Italy. My reader said she reads a lot of historical fiction set in this era and has never seen sex referred to in this way in other historical novels, as "making love." I'd like to get the thoughts of other readers and writers of historical fiction on this. In my novel scene where it comes up, the main character has been packed off by her not-so-nice father to become a courtesan, although it's not what she want to be. She has met a man who she expects will treat her as the courtesan she is supposed to be, but he hasn't tried to have sex with her. So she asks him point blanc whether he means to "make love" to her or not. Would you use this phrasing? If not, what alternatives might be better? Have you seen other historical or period fiction that used this? Does it make a difference that it's a francophone setting, but I'm writing in English, so I'm effectively "translating" the characters' dialogue and trying to keep a little French flavor to it?