Brash
by Margo Maguire
James Norris isn’t going to spend the rest of his life in the royal navy. He’s going to marry Virginia Barrington, and he rides to her family’s home to ask her to be his bride. Stella Barrington, Virginia's sister, was a lame child, but now she barely limps. She’s been in love with James Norris for as long as she can remember, and if she wants to win him, she can be nothing but brash…When Lieutenant James Norris’s closest friend is killed in a horrible accident, he realizes life is far too short to spend it all in the post-Napoleonic navy. He decides it is time to marry, and he knows just the young woman he wants as his wife. Lady Virginia Barrington is charming and beautiful, and James travels to her family’s manor to ask her the most important question of his life. Lady Stella Barrington was lame and sickly for much of her life. Now she walks with barely a limp, and she is ill no more than anyone else. She has been in love with James Norris for as long as her elder brother’s friend has been coming to visit at Barrington Manor. Stella cannot doubt that James has come to see her lovely but shallow sister. But Virginia is away, and if Stella wants to win the man she loves, she can be nothing but brash…A romantic novella. Approximately 10,000 words.