The first novel in the captivating Brides Trilogy, in which three unconventional young women vow they will never marry—only to be overtaken by destiny.  
Bride #1 is the outspoken Portia. . . . 
It's bad enough that seventeen-year-old Portia Worth is taken in by her uncle, the marquis of Granville, after her father dies.  As the bastard niece, Portia knows she can expect little beyond a roof over her head...

Beautiful, brilliant, and sophisticated, Lady Guinevere Mallory is only 28 but has buried four wealthy husbands. When seasoned soldier Hugh of Beaucaire contests her ownership of a parcel of land, he brings Guinevere's rich estates to the attention of financially needy King Henry VIII, setting in motion events that threaten her status and her life. Traveling to her estate on the King's orders to investigate her fourth husband's death, Hugh expects...

Lady Serena Grantley was born to the nobility, but fortune's whim placed her in control of her gamester stepfather, who uses her beauty to lure young men to his gambling tables. Serena even dismissed her first love, the Honorable Sebastian Sullivan, at her stepfather's command. But when he attempts to force her into a liaison with a dissolute earl, Serena resolves to do his bidding no more. Sebastian is the only man who ever captured her heart, and...

Ariadne Daunt has vowed to be with the man she loves, Gabriel Fawcett. There's just one obstacle. On his deathbed, Ari's grandfather decrees that she marry her childhood friend Ivor Chalfont, thus forging a powerful alliance between the two warring families. Giving Ari no time to protest, the elders plan her wedding the next day, forcing her to follow through on the nuptials. Though she is fond of Ivor, Ari has no intention of consummating their marriage--until...

Lady Hero Fanshawe has chafed at society dictates since the death of her fianceþ taught her that joy can be fleeting. When her brother disappears in Paris at the height of the Terror, she has no hesitation in disguising herself as a boy and risking her life to find him--or in joining forces with a chance-met ally, the enigmatic William Ducasse, Viscount St. Aubrey. And she has no regrets in indulging in a passionate affair with the dangerously handsome...

This story begins on a terror-filled night when two babies--identical twin girls of noble birth--are separated. One grows to womanhood as the frail, manipulative ward of the handsome young earl of Harcourt. The other becomes an enchanting, street-smart urchin who earns her way as a traveling player on the streets of England and France.

Pooling their meager resources, Lady Cornelia Dagenham and her sister-in-law Aurelia spend a month at their friend's house in London, where they meet Lord Harry Bonham, an aristocrat who is out to purchase their friend's property.