Mary Ashe — Barbara Sherrod

Hers was a sensible heart. But is good sense enough when true love calls?

The Difficulty With Miss Ashe...

Spoilt, eccentric, willful, and perverse -- such was the portrait of Mary Ashe as limned by the wags of society. After all, they whispered, a young woman with eyes as black and flashing as her hair was capable of anything! Indeed, scandalous as it sounded, it appeared that Miss Ashe meant to be a spinster.

Could and apparently unalterable fate be tempted? Mary's father, Squire Ashe, and the matchmaking Mrs. Chattaburty conspired to guide a certain Lord Hugo Mallory, a gallant officer of wondrous charm but precarious position, into Mary's unsuspecting path. Yet when her love for him -- a love as gloriously stubborn as Mary herself -- blossomed at last, she found herself in a maze of most unhappy circumstances. For saving Lord Mallory from a life of shameful debt could mean losing him altogether...

Hero: Lord Hugo Mallory
Heroine: Mary Ashe