For herself, Helena had no great ambitions to be married off like a chattel, or as a payment against the clawing advances of her father's creditors. She had long ago given up the idea that she might marry for love, and at 27 had all but abandoned any idea of being a wife at all. It was only the sudden inheritance of her father to the estates, which had given him the idea of luring in a wealthy son-in-law. Now she was to be taken to London, to be paraded through the society balls like prize horses at Tattersall's.