Can An Arranged Marriage Lead to Love?
As an author, my romance novels are often inspired by history and my latest book, Tempting Bella, is no exception. The story begins when a 13-year-old girl is forced to marry the heir to a dukedom in order to settle a gaming debt between their fathers.
It’s a provocative start, but the fact that it was inspired by a true story is what makes it even more compelling. However, as occurs in Tempting Bella, the real-life union did not start as a happy one.
According to accounts from the time, the marriage was arranged after the first Duke of Richmond lost a round of cards to the first Earl of Cadogan. To settle the 5,000-pound debt, a marriage between Lord March, the duke’s heir, and Lady Sarah Cadogan, the earl’s daughter, was arranged.
It is unclear exactly who lost the game. Most accounts suggest Lord Cadogan won. However, his daughter was an heiress who would bring a great dowry to the union, so it’s possible the duke emerged victorious.
Whatever the case, the following day, the debt of honor was paid when Lord March was brought from university and young Sarah from the nursery, to stand before a clergyman. When the handsome young groom spotted the plain awkward girl, he is said to have exclaimed in disgust, “You are surely not going to marry me to that dowdy!”
But whether he liked it or not, the marriage did indeed take place. Immediately afterward, the groom jumped into a waiting carriage and, accompanied by his tutor, headed off on his Grand Tour of the continent. The bride, meanwhile, returned to her mother and the nursery.
Years later, when Lord March returned home after his travels, he was known to be “a strikingly handsome, cultured young man” who wasn’t eager to renew his acquaintance with his “ugly duckling” wife.
On his first night back in London, avoiding a much-dreaded reunion with his wife, Lord March attended the opera. In the box opposite, he spied a beautiful woman and asked who she was.
“You must indeed be a stranger to London,” was the answer, “if you do not know the beautiful Lady March, the toast of the town!”
Shocked and disbelieving, Lord March went to the box and introduced himself. He was delighted to learn that it was true, the enchanting woman was none other than his wife.
The marriage is said to have been an enormously happy one. The Richmonds were known to kiss, coo and cuddle constantly. On one occasion, an acquaintance of the couple, Horace Walpole, said ”the duke sat by her side all night kissing her hand and gazing at his beautiful daughters.”
It was also a fruitful union. The couple made excellent use of the marriage bed. Sarah got pregnant twenty-eight times and twelve children survived. When the duke died in 1750 at the young age of 49, Sarah was despondent. She died a year later, in 1751, at the age of forty-five.
Those who knew the couple said the duchess died of a broken heart.
While I do re-imagine key parts of the Richmonds’ love story—such as the youthful marriage and the first sighting at the opera—Tempting Bella takes its own course as my hero and heroine struggle along their way toward happily ever after.
Here’s a preview and excerpt:
Mirabella can hardly remember the man she married as a girl. And it’s just as well. She feels nothing but contempt for the man who married her for her fortune and promptly forgot she existed.
Sebastian has been apart from his child bride since their wedding day, after a teenaged marriage forced upon him to rescue his family from certain ruin. His attempt to honor his vows to his absent wife have earned him the nickname, “The Saint.”
But when he encounters an enchanting impish beauty at the opera, Sebastian cannot resist learning who she is. He is thrilled to find she is none other than his long-ago bride.
Already resentful of his early abandonment, Bella is suspicious of her husband’s unusual activities —mysterious midnight outings and apparent liaisons with pretty servant girls. Then there is the mounting evidence that Sebastian is not who he claims to be.
Guarding the painful secret of his true identity, Sebastian is entranced by Bella. Delighted by his good fortune, he is eager to make her his wife in truth. But he soon realizes the beguiling lady has no intention of coming meekly to the marriage bed!
EXCERPT
Uttering an uncharacteristically terse thank you to the butler, Sebastian took Bella’s arm to escort her above stairs. His rigid posture, the intransigent set of his expansive shoulders, the very deliberate click of each boot step, all belied that otherwise calm exterior.
He was angry. Furious even.
The hair on the back of her neck tingled. She’d never seen him truly out of sorts. His demeanor brought to mind that ominous lull before a natural disaster strikes.
He hastened his steps, practically dragging her up the stairs, pulling her arm, moving quickly. When they reached her chamber, he did not leave her as he usually did. Instead he stepped in behind her.
“Thank you, Louisa, that will be all,” he said to the sleepy girl, who’d waited up for her mistress. “Go and seek your bed.”
As soon as he closed the door behind the maid, Bella spun around to face him, her heart clamoring. “I did not give you leave to enter my bedchamber. Please show me the courtesy of departing at once.”
He pulled off his cravat and folded it in a slow deliberate manner, as though he hadn’t heard her. Removing his tailcoat, he placed it neatly over the back of a chair.
Alarm trilled down her spine. “Why are you disrobing?”
Unbuttoning his waistcoat, he said, “Take off that dress.”
“I beg your pardon?”
He advanced toward her, the muscles in his thighs flexing powerfully as he did so. “You heard me.”
Hugging herself, she stepped back from him. “I will do no such thing. Leave or I will scream.”
Cold anger glittered in his eyes. “Take if off or I will take it off for you.”
***
You can read the entire first chapter of Tempting Bella, which features the wedding scene, here.
