How can you explain attraction? You can't, but strange as it
may seem there definitely was something about Major David
Lancaster that made Lady Jocelyn realize this was a man of
great substance. At the ripe young age of four, Jocelyn
learned a disheartening lesson about love. At this very
impressionable age she lost people she loved, including her
mother, and was unable to truly comprehend the situations
that compelled these people to leave. So Jocelyn squarely
blamed herself. Imagine growing up thinking you were
defective and incapable of getting someone to truly love you
forever. Rather than face losing any more people she loved,
Jocelyn managed her life so any potential suitor was
summarily dismissed as being after her fortune and title.
When her father's will was read, Jocelyn was shocked to
learn that he put in a proviso that for her to keep things
status quo she marry by the time she reached her
twenty-fifth birthday. She felt utterly betrayed by the
father who had been so dear to her and yet had to admit that
their relationship was tainted after her mother left. There
was an unwritten law in the house prohibiting mention of her
mother and since Jocelyn felt her life teetered at an abyss
there was no way she was going to broach the subject.
Marriage just wasn't in the cards since she would never put
herself in such a vulnerable position and yet here she was
scheming to secure her future. Jocelyn was a warm and caring
gentle woman with a wide range of friends.
Fate stepped in when she met David whose battle injuries
were considered life threatening. David was resigned to his
imminent death but worried about his sister's future. This
bargain to wed would allow David to die in peace assuring
his sister Sally and Jocelyn's future. But no one would
imagine the lengths Sally would go to keep her dear brother
alive. Never underestimate the love and bond between a
sister and brother. For Jocelyn, security was of utmost
importance but David yearned for passion and love. Since
their bargain did not include any sort of real relationship
or commitment it seemed inevitable that the marriage of
convenience end. Neither expected that as they spent time
together this relationship would become a friendship based
on caring and trust. David recognized that he was quickly
becoming enamored of this wife of his but at odds how to win
her love in return. Jocelyn was determined to disavow any
feelings she was developing towards David. She had a
plan which she fully intended to follow through with and
nothing was going to spoil it.
Putney provides a snapshot of a time where life often
depended on miracles since medical science
was still in its infancy. Her characters always have such
great dimensions, and such is the case with THE BARGAIN.
This story is a true ensemble piece. This reissue has lose
ties to Putney's Fallen Angel series.
Forced to wed to keep her inheritance, independent Lady
Jocelyn Kendal finds an
outrageous solution: she proposes marriage to Major David
Lancaster, an officer dying
from his Waterloo wounds. In return for making her his
wife, she will provide for his
governess sister. But after the bargain is struck and the
marriage is made, the major makes
a shocking, miraculous recovery. Though they agree to an
annulment, such matters
take time…time enough for David to realize he is
irrevocably in love with his wife.
Haunted by her past, Jocelyn refuses to trust the desire
David ignites in her. She never
counted on a real husband, least of all one who would
entice her to be a real wife. But
some bargains are made to be broken—and his skilled
courtship is impossible to resist.
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