The Heiress

No one is richer than the Maidenhall heiress. Miserly merchant Perkin Maidenhall is to Elizabethan England what John D. Rockefeller was to 20th-century America. And his daughter Axia, whom he has never met, stands to inherit the whole enchilada. But can a rich heiress ever find true love? Can she ever be sure that the hard-muscled thighs between her 16th-century sheets have been attracted by hot passion and not cold cash? Playing God (as the reader finally learns), the omniscient and omnipotent merchant intends to make sure that his daughter marries for love. He betroths Axia to a wealthy but impotent Yorkshireman, then hires penniless but startlingly handsome Jamie Montgomery, Earl of Dalkeith, to escort her across England. Poor Axia, who has spent her whole life cloistered away, with only Tode, a deformed young man, and Frances, her beautiful but shallow cousin, as companions, has never known any real freedom. The spirited girl switches identities with Frances for the trip--unbeknownst to Jamie, who has been given the last Montgomery pennies in order to seduce the heiress. Poor, honorable Jamie is torn between his growing devotion to Axia and his responsibility to marry for money. Lots of predictable filler before he discovers that his loss is his gain. Reliable Deveraux, if not her best. (Dec.)