Marion Chesney

The Earl of Devenham and Mary Anstey had to pretend after their wedding that their feelings for each other had not cooled off. But Mary's younger sister, Emily, saw through the masquerade - and hatched a naughty plot to get the marriage anulled.

No sooner does Miss Pym board her next stagecoach than she finds herself embroiled in the plight of Miss Belinda Earle, a spirited heiress banished to Bath after swearing off the marriage market.

The eldest, Minerva, is enchantingly beautiful - but a prude. She lives in the country looking after her siblings while her mother reclines on a chaise longue happily inventing new malaises. Her father, a vicar of decidedly secular inclinations, indulges a hearty passion for hunting instead of worrying about the girls' dowries. But when he wants to send his boys to Eton, the money must be found - and how better than by marrying Minerva off to a man...