Married Past Redemption — Patricia Veryan

It was a marriage of convenience -- until the bride found herself alone.

"VERY WELL. IF JUSTIN OFFERS MARRIAGE, I WILL ACCEPT."

Forced to wed a man she despised, lovely Lisette Lindsay found herself alone on her wedding night. It was worse than the horrors she's imagined. Justin had left a note, of course, but Lisette was thrown into a rage of confusion and humiliation. What if her friends heard about this? She vowed she would get even.

Exactly what she was going to do she did not know. There was always Garvey. He professed to be madly in love with her, and often begged her to run away with him.

But Lisette was more of a wife than she knew. And Garvey was a source of danger that neither Lisette nor Justin anticipated.

******* Even though this book was published before The Noblest Frailty, the author recommends reading The Noblest Frailty prior to Married Past Redemption. The two stories overlap, but in MPR the main characters are married and they are just engaged in TNF.