A Civil Contract by Georgette Heyer (1994, Paperback, Reprint)

The author Georgette Heyer is one of my favorites. She writes historical novels, often light romances, placed in England's Georgian and Regency periods and contemporary mysteries. In this book a titled heir returns from the war with Bonaparte to find his dead father has drained all income from his mortgaged estates leaving the family in poverty and near bankruptcy. The only solution seems to be denying his love to a lovely beauty and marriage to a rich woman so that he can provide for his mother and two sisters and reclaim his estates. The marriage is arranged and the plump, plain merchant's heiress becomes his wife. The book is an interesting look at a marriage between two people who barely know each other, the customs of the day, and the determination of a wife to make her husband happy and the determination of a man to adjust to a life he did not choose.