A Marriage of Inconvenience

by Susanna Fraser

Overview

Lucy Jones is a nobody. As an orphan she was reluctantly taken in by her wealthy relatives, the Arringtons, on the condition that she be silent and obedient, always. When her lifelong infatuation with her cousin Sebastian is rewarded by a proposal of marriage, she's happy and grateful, even though the family finds excuses to keep the engagement a secret.

James Wright-Gordon has always had the benefits of money and a high station in society, but he is no snob. He's very close to his sister, Anna, who quickly falls for the dashing Sebastian when the families are brought together at a wedding party. Meanwhile, James is struck by Lucy's quiet intelligence, and drawn to her despite their different circumstances in life.

Lucy suspects that Sebastian has fallen for Anna, but before she can set him free, a terrible secret is revealed that shakes both families. Will James come to her rescue—or abandon her to poverty?

95,500 words

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781426891465
Publisher:	Carina Press
Publication date:	04/11/2011
Sold by:	HARLEQUIN
Format:	eBook
Sales rank:	395,845
File size:	409 KB

About the Author

Susanna Fraser has been writing since the age of 9. Her youthful efforts featured talking horses, but she now writes Regency-set historicals with a focus on the soldiers who fought the Napoleonic Wars.

A native of Alabama, she never lost her love for barbecue or stopped saying “y’all” as life took her to Philadelphia, England and Seattle, where she lives with her husband and daughter.

For more information on Susanna and her books, visit susannafraser.com.

Read an Excerpt

Essex, May 1809

"Marry you?" Lucy stared open-mouthed at her cousin Sebastian for a long moment before she remembered that she must always be ladylike and self-controlled. She closed her mouth and looked down at her clasped hands. She could not stop her heart from trying to gallop its way out of her chest, but she could and did force herself to breathe slowly and steadily.

This was the very thing she had always wanted most, the thing she would have dreamed of had she permitted herself dreams. It could not possibly be real. Someone as golden and perfect as Sebastian could not possibly intend to marry anyone as plain and insignificant as she was. "Surely you cannot be serious," she said in the calmest, steadiest voice she could manage.

"Lucy." Sebastian reached across the small gap that separated them on the stone bench in his mother's garden and covered her small hand with his large one. He hadn't held her hand since she was a little child, newly orphaned and come to live with her mother's fine, aristocratic relations. "When have I ever spoken in jest to you? Of course I am serious."

That much was true. Unlike her other cousins, Sebastian had never teased or mocked her, and he would never joke about something so momentous as his own marriage. But it made no sense. He was the younger of the two Arrington brothers, a cavalry lieutenant who needed to make his own way in the world. He ought to marry a woman with a fortune or connections, not a penniless orphan like her whose only claim to gentility was her kinship to the Arringtons themselves. "But, why, cousin?" she asked. "I offer you nothing."

He squeezed her hand. It felt…pleasant, just as it had when she had been a frightened child and he had been the only one of the cousins to show her any kindness. "You offer yourself," he said.

Lucy gazed unseeing at the blooming roses. She had come out to pick a bouquet for her aunt when Sebastian had waylaid her with…this. It still made no sense. Offering herself would be all very well if he was in love with her, but he wasn't. Of that Lucy was sure. She might be young, just turned eighteen that winter, and she might have lived a sheltered life in the country for the past nine years, but she knew enough to know what was missing in Sebastian's proposal. There was no ardor there. He did not look at her the way the second footman did at the upper housemaid—nor how Lucy remembered her own parents looking at each other when they weren't quarreling about too many babies and too little money. "How could I marry you?" she asked. "You do me too great an honor."

He laughed, a soft chuckle with just a hint of teasing in it. "Surely not so great an honor that you cannot accept it."

As much as she adored Sebastian, Lucy wanted to refuse, or at least plead for further reasons behind this extraordinary and completely unexpected proposal. Of course she wanted to marry him, but this was all so sudden and odd. In her experience, blessings always carried a hidden trap.