The Marriage Wager

It was scandalous, to wager one's reputation on a hand of cards. But Lady Emma Tarrant felt she had no choice. She had watched her husband gamble his life away, and when she saw another young man losing heavily, she was determined to save him from a similar fate. So she challenged the scoundrel who held his debts to the one thing she knew he could never refuse: another game.

After eight years of war, Lord Colin Wareham had returned home a changed man...still handsome, still wealthy, but weary, impatient, restless. Then a furious beauty with pale gilt hair dared to accost him, and Wareham found himself suddenly intrigued - and aroused. So he named his stakes: a loss and he'd surrender the debts. A win, and the lady must surrender herself...

Original Publisher: Bantam
Original Year of Publication: 1996
Page Count: 371

Colin Wareham and Emma Tarrant are on the same ship sailing back to England from the Continent. Colin is returning from the war; Emma is the reluctant prodigal daughter, with a massive Turkish 'servant' named Ferik in tow. Emma is determined not to return to the father who disowned her eight years ago, after her foolish elopement with Edward Tarrant. Emma was 18 when she ran off with Tarrant, and fancied herself crazy in love (and that he, too, was hopelessly enamored) but it turned out that all Edward cared about was Emma's dowry, which he single-handedly gambled away, leaving them both destitute. He's killed in a brawl over a card game, a rather fitting end, I suppose.

Emma was left to her own devices as they traveled from one gaming hell to the next, traipsing across Europe. Edward teaches her how to play cards, but she doesn't enjoy it; she comes to hate it when she sees how the addiction has gripped her husband. Her marriage was a rude awakening; now, as a widow, she is determined to never subject herself to that particular hell again. She's estranged from her family, and so the only way she knows how to make money is by gambling over card games. She makes enough to support herself hand-to-mouth, but it is a dreadful existence.

Colin's not doing much better. He joined the army and saw eight years of hell during the Napoleonic wars, losing a lot of friends along the way. He ended up being the commander of his unit, with only a handful of friends who survived. He's back in England now, and his mother is determined that he is married, but of course she wants to wed him to a pretty young thing in her first Season on the market. He humors her, but doesn't make an effort; the last thing he wants to do is subject a wife to his horrible night terrors, another souvenir from the war.

Colin and Emma both end up at the same establishment one evening, both of them rather bored as they wile away the hours playing cards. Emma wins a tidy sum, but before she leaves, she spots her long-lost brother across the way. Robin Bellingham was just a boy when she left, so she isn't totally sure it's him at first; she watches him from the corner, growing more and more upset as he loses heavily. He's written promissory notes to his partner, which drives Emma over the edge of reason. She's already lost one man to gambling; she can't bear to see her brother heading down the same path.

Robin leaves, as does his partner, and Emma impulsively decides to follow the partner home. She confronts him and demands the chance to play for her brother's debt. The partner is Colin (of course), and he is most amused by this, so he agrees to her wager. They are rather evenly matched over 3 hands, but ultimately Colin wins, so he doesn't discharge Robin's debt to Emma. She leaves, but is still disturbed by this.

Robin comes to see Colin the next day, and Colin does give Robin the notes back, wiping his debt clean. Robin has no idea that Emma was there the night before trying to save his sorry ass, so he can't tell Colin much about her when he starts peppering him with questions. Robin is just as intrigued by his sister's sudden appearance on the scene, and eventually asks his father about her.

Meanwhile, Emma returns to Colin's home and challenges him again for the promissory notes (not realizing that the debt has been discharged). Colin agrees, and takes his own claim: if he wins again, he wins her for the evening. Emma is repulsed by the idea, but driven to save her brother, so she agrees.

Colin wins again, and Emma reluctantly submits to him. He doesn't get very far before he realizes that something is very wrong; they break apart - just in time for Emma's father to show up and demand to know what's going on. He blusters around about not paying his son's debts, to which Colin tells him it's not necessary because he gave the notes back, and then he recognizes his daughter laying on Colin's sofa - and his own sudden good luck. He goes from openly berating her to planning her wedding, as he as caught them in a compromising position and now they must get married.

Emma is having no part of this, and Colin isn't too crazy about the idea either, but the more he thinks about it, the more it makes sense. He can get his mother off his back, and get the sort of wife he wants: an intelligent, independent one who won't plague him with simpering stupidity. It doesn't hurt that she's a total stunner, either.

Emma is outraged that Colin tricked her into submitting to his advances, and it takes quite a while for her to come around. Marriage would actually be beneficial to her as well, giving her a comfortable income and the protection of her husband's title, but her first marriage was awful and she doesn't want to go through it again, especially not with a man who gambles.

Emma's father posts the wedding announcement, and Emma and Colin have to scramble to keep their families from blowing up over the scandal. They have several meetings, and eventually hammer out an agreement to marry for mutual benefit. They both walk into it knowing full well that this isn't a love match, and both are feeling the societal pressure behind their union.

They honeymoon at Colin's family estate in Cornwall (yes!). Emma learns about Colin's night terrors and surprises him with her calm, soothing acceptance of them. Colin puts together bits and pieces of Emma's background as well, and the more he learns, the more attracted he feels. They do eventually consummate their marriage (after a ride along the coast, in a rain storm), and they both thoroughly enjoy themselves, much to Emma's surprise. She has no idea how great sex can be, given the manhandling her first husband subjected her to.

They eventually return to London to face the ton. Neither really want to - Emma has fallen in love with the Cornish estate, and Colin could live forever without returning to London - but each believes the other is champing at the bit to return. They set about cutting a swath through Society, and make quite the splash.

A nasty reminder of Emma's past shows up in the form of Count Julio Orsino. Orsino was a friend of Edward's and is determined to mooch off of Emma. He blackmails her with the scandalous stories Edward shared about their sex life, telling her that he'll tell the ton the stories in such a way as to imply that they're having an affair, which of course is a bad look for a newly married baroness. Orsino worms his way into Emma's company constantly in public, enough to rouse Colin's suspicion, especially when he realizes how Emma's reacting to him. He determines that Orsino is an enemy, and starts trying to figure out their connection.

Meanwhile, a beautiful little doll named Lady Mary Ducre shows up in full-on mourning one day, determined to confront Emma for 'stealing' Colin away from her. Lady Mary is a real drama queen, evening going so far as to attempt suicide to draw attention to Colin's rejection of her.

In reality, Colin doesn't even know who she is other than one of the many many debs his mother threw in his path. When she attempts suicide in order to disgrace Emma, Emma turns the tables on her, plotting with Colin's mother and Lady Mary's mother to turn the tide of gossip by openly becoming Mary's friend. This scheme tries everyone's patience, but they all agree it's the best way to avoid scandal tarnishing anyone's reputation. (Lady Mary is the daughter of a duke, so can hardly afford to be thought of as crazy.)

All of these strands of plots weave together: Emma's friendship with Lady Mary; her burgeoning relationship with her brother Robin; her deepening regard for her husband, as well as the threat of Orsino to ruin everything. Determined still to take matters into her own hands (to save Colin's reputation), she decides to dispatch of Orsino herself, with a little help from her faithful servant Ferik. Meanwhile, Colin has lined Orsino up for the next ship to Italy, having worked his connection in the military/government/society and network aboard to get the little Italian thrown out of the country.

The two refuse to communicate with each other, and it all blows up in their faces. Orsino makes a scene in public much worse than any of them can imagine, and Emma flees, certain that she's ruined everyone's lives. She hasn't, of course, but when she and Colin finally talk to each other, they realize they were working towards the same goal all along and they could've saved themselves a lot of time and trouble (not to mention scandal) if they'd communicated earlier.

They also decide they'd rather be in Cornwall, which is a decision I 1000% support, LOL :)

I can tell that this is one of Ms. Ashford's earlier books. There are a lot of POV characters, and there's quite a bit of head-hopping. The chapters are also quite long, and the introduction of Orsino is pretty heavy-handed and clumsy (I could practically see the stage direction: mustache-twirling villain enters stage right, twirling his mustache). Still, her writing is solid, and she weaves all of the characters and plotlines together into a glorious tangle.

Lady Mary and Robin become something of a secondary pairing, an amusing foil to Colin and Emma, whose relationship is serious and angsty. Both Lady Mary and Robin are OTT and they bicker like children, but it's funny instead of annoying. It's a welcome respite from Emma's crazy. She drives herself nuts trying to keep the secret of Orsino from her husband, and I pretty much wanted to throttle her at one point. The answer to her woes was so obvious, but she's determined not to trust Colin because of the way Edward treated her. While a valid excuse, it's also pretty thin on the ground. She's convinced that Colin doesn't care for her, even though their lovemaking is so explosive that she finds herself falling even more and more in love with him.

It's definitely a problem of actions speaking louder than words, but Emma not listening to either one of those. Her solution to the Orsino issue is even more OTT, but I was intrigued. (Spoiler: she tells Ferik to kill him. Only HK Rowe has had the guts to include actual on the page murder in her book, and it was a delicious one, so I was disappointed here when Ms. Ashford backed down and Ferik didn't have the chance to follow through.)

The secondary characters were lovely; even the servants got some character development. The universe was just a teensy bit too big, though, like she tried to include too many subplots. Her main storyline and secondary arc are very strong, though, and imminently readable.

⭐⭐⭐⭐