The Winning Hand — Barri Bryan

Chadwick Hamilton decides to marry the mail-order-bride he wins in a poker game. He reasons that any female who is a graduate of Miss Lavenia Sitwell's Atlanta School for Young Ladies must be docile, refined and well-bred. His reasoning is sound but his assumptions are slightly erroneous.

Miss Cherry Blossom is, by 1857 standards, a modern woman with strong beliefs and firm opinions. She is also a woman who is deeply in debt and in fear of being sent to debtor's prison, When her employer, Miss Lavenia Sitwell, offers her a way out of her dilemma, she promptly accepts.