The Perfect Wife
Lady Sabrina Winfield faces a problem upon her daughter's engagement.  Belinda's fiancé, Erick, is the son of Nicholas Harrington, the Earl of Wyldewood.  Nicholas is wealthy, widowed, and a successful diplomat.  How can Sabrina amass a proper dowry from her modest means?  Sabrina's husband Jack had left substantial debts upon his death over a decade ago.  Sabrina -- "Bree" -- and Nicholas had not been introduced before the engagement took place, so neither realized they had met years ago under unique circumstances steeped in mystery, and had a very brief love-hate relationship.  They meet, and attraction blooms.  He thinks she might make a fine trophy wife.  He doesn't have long to consider the matter, for within days, Sabrina leaves their native England.  She's found a letter Jack had won in a card game, directing one to a chest of gold once meant to support Napoleon's military ventures -- buried in Egypt!! Nicholas goes after her, for her safety and to court her.  Knowing the Earl is a notorious womanizer, Erick and Belinda set off in pursuit, to protect Sabrina.  Erick's aunt Wynne, a lovely but bookish spinster of thirty-two, comes along to chaperone. Three Englishmen are trailing Bree as well, their intentions selfish and sinister.  Sabrina impulsively marries Nicholas on board before the others reach them.  It was she who proposed a marriage of convenience, one not meant to be consummated -- but Bree and Nicholas do fall in love and become lovers, as some detailed episodes relate.  Sabrina realizes that Nicholas is the man who had hunted her down years ago.  She could lose him if he knew she was the woman whose activities their government had sent him to stop, to no avail.  Would he turn her over to the authorities?  The five adventurers and the ship's captain, dashing young Matthew Madison, land at Alexandria and venture into the desert, seeking the gold.  The interfering trio arranges a confrontation that's stunning in more ways than one.  It's time to follow the directions in the letter, but Nicholas is feeling quite sure that Bree is the woman he had once hunted.  She had been his obsession:  he had failed to arrest her, but also lost his chance to get to know her better.  He had never forgotten her allure.  The outlaw, the siren, his wife -- were they one and the same? What must he do now -- is the dream of her being the perfect wife over as soon as it began?Alexander treats us to a tale with a novel setting, satisfying in its depiction of the feisty, likable Sabrina.  In the second half of the novel, her writing seems more polished.  This reviewer's frustration with Bree's somewhat fickle ways and the author's verbosity in the early chapters were overridden as the tale developed, offering solidly enjoyable twists and a well-crafted plot.With Sabrina Winfield in your life, there's never a dull moment.  Love, rivalry, lost gold -- there's treasure of all sorts in The Perfect Wife !  A tale that draws you in -- you'll root for Nicholas and Bree to sail home with the riches they seek -- will it be a fortune in gold?  In love?  Dare they hope for both?  Alexander's characters are distinctive.  Her work is a refreshing addition to the world of historical romance!  Nineteenth-century Egypt . . .timeless longings and questions of the heart . . .this one's a winner!Frances Mosconi  --Copyright © 1994-97 Literary Times, Inc.  All rights reserved--FromLiterary Times--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.