i like the obstacles Sophie faces but i do hope you won't be having her cry so much...sorry..not much of a critic.

Lord Markham stopped pacing and sank down into a wingback chair, crossing his legs and linking his hands around his knees. "I was wondering, Mr Wentworth. What do you know about the Fulham family?" ~~Wouldn't it have been reasonable to give Mr Wentworth this task when he was asked to prepare the first draft of settlements?

Here: "Ah, but I do, Ashington," Sir George said softly. He was aware of the earls anger at his deliberate lack of respect by addressing his lordship without making use of his title. ~~there's sort of a problem. Not to sound all kindergartener and all, but the Earl started the lack of respect bit in an earlier paragraph: "Indeed, Fulham? I was under the impression you were the one who arranged this interview," said the earl grimly. Technically, calling the earl 'Ashington' is proper enough; 'Ashington' is how he would sign his letters and what other earls and peers would call him. Check Dorothy Sayers/Jill Walsh: The Attenborough Emeralds: '...Denver has all the luck...' where Denver is what the Duke of Denver is called. Also, in history, Essex, for Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex. And so forth ~~That is not the same as denying Sir George HIS title by calling him only Fulham; I would say that Ashington was rude there.

"You would prefer to see yourself in debtors prison, your historical birthplace and estates broken up and sold, your tenants turned into homeless beggars, my lord." ~~This seems to be a rhetorical question. It still needs a question mark.

'Mr Wentworth, who had been sitting and listening to the exchange with growing horror, handed the piece of paper to Lord Ashington. Although, his loyalty lay with Lord Ashington and Lord Markham, he could not, in all conscience, allow the marriage settlement he had devised to be signed. During the interview, it had been made abundantly clear to him that Sir George thought his niece no more than a bargaining tool to achieve his own ends.' ~~Needs some clarification. I don't think Mr Wentworth would care WHY Sir George does anything; I think he would care that his clients behave honorably, regardless of whom they are dealing with. ((In the second sentence in the example, the first comma, the one after Although, should be omitted. The whole introductory phrase is -Although his loyalty lay with Lord Ashington and Lord Markham- and the comma after 'Markham' is correct and sufficient.))

This was not the antidote that Clarence Fulham had led him to believe. He put voice to his thoughts. "You are not the antidote your cousin Clarence told me you were." ~~Since you're going to have M say what his thoughts are, you don't need to tell the reader what he's going to say right before he says it. I would drop the first sentence. 'He put voice to his thoughts: "You are not the antidote your cousin Clarence told me you were."'

'...behaving like a veritable fishwife...' ~~What aspect of S's behavior does she think is fishwife-like? She didn't shout, she didn't use bad grammar or an uneducated accent. Since she's been living mostly in the country, has she ever even seen a fishwife?

I find myself wondering about Sophie's mother's family. Do they exist?

Thank-you for updating. I'd really hoped that Lord Markham had managed to see past her appearance. I'm still holding out on Sophie getting away and getting her revenge on her uncle. I'm hoping that perhaps there is another will :)

Can't wait to read more

Thank-you for updating. I really hope Lord Markham realises that Sophie is innocent and will try to help her, perhaps by finding that she has money of her own/ does not have to be under the guardianship of her uncle. I just hate to see either of them being put into this situation and still hope they'll get revenge on her uncle somehow

This is really good. I feel so bad for Sophie but I hope she sticks it to her jerk of an uncle after she gets married.

Looking forward to more!

Nice second chapter :) I can't wait until Sophie and Lord Markham actually meet ... although I suspect that they will both have a little trouble giving each other the benefit of the doubt at first. And it's lovely to see Grace (and Artemis) again - looks like she's still as smart a young lady as ever!

English idioms -ways of saying something- don't always make literal sense; however, a dictionary is ALWAYS helpful. 'Lo' ~~is an interjection to attract attention. 'behold' ~~means 'look here'. Neither word is suitable for the context here: 'lo and behold the person, whether it be family or servant, who flouted his authority.' Look at the person? Then what happens? What you want here is another idiom: 'woe betide'. 'Woe' is pain or suffering or punishment. 'Betide' is will come to, will happen to, and it's obviously 'woe betide the person who flouted and so forth.' ~~Search 'English idioms and idiomatic phrases' for online collections.

And Aunt Harriet treated her as an unpaid housekeeper, captivated by her own self-importance as Lady Fulham. Although, Sophie suspected that was on Sir George's order and not something she had thought of herself. ~~very awkward and confusing. Who is capitvated by her own self importance? Whenever possible, avoid starting sentences with 'although'. Try: Aunt Harriet, captivated by her own self-importance as Lady Fulham, treated Sophie as an unpaid housekeeper. Sophie sometimes wondered if that was on Sir George's order...and so forth. ~~Yes, when you're talking about two women, more direct reference is needed to avoid confusion.

"Arrange to have my curricle readied for me," Lord Markham said ~~Too verbose. "Have my curricle brought around," ~~ or "Send for my curricle," either are less 'wordy'.

"But there will still be a scandal," Lady Rutherford said. ~~Not much of one. Marriage involves money, after all. M and his parents may be twited or congratulated, depending on who is speaking with them, but the solution to M's family's problem is not scandalous, just pragmatic. Lady R worries too much. On the other hand, her advice a little further along is realistic and quite practical.

can't wait to see the chemistry between the two! please update asap :)

This is a really good story so far, I can't wait to see what happens.

I really like your first chapter, I'm glad Sophie should be able to get away from her horrible uncle. Hopefully Lord Markham will have the power to ignore or reject Sir George openly once/if they marry and Sir George hands over the documents. I hope you manage to include a written agreement into the story so that Lord Markham's marriage to Sophie was not in vain and Sir George does actually relinquish the mortgages.

Can't wait to see where you take this, please update soon

There's a difference between a cut and a put down. 'Lord Markham frowned at Mr Fulham, not liking the talk about money in the slightest.' Why doesn't Peter change the subject? "I have never thought of it either. The weather has been uncommonly good of late, has it not?" ~~I realize this conversation or one very similar must occur to move the plot along, but P's tolerance here is unconvincing.

Plurals ~~Mamas, not 's which will be confused with the possessive. The same with Marquess ~~although here it's one Marquess, two or more Marquesses; not Marquess', which isn't even the possessive, which would be the Marquess's dog The dog of the Marquess.

"Well surely if she is given another chance she might make a match now that she is older. She just must have been shy," He signalled a passing footman and obtained a glass of wine. ~~'He signalled a passing footman and obtained a glass of wine'-this sentence is not a dialogue tag: it does not contain 'said' or any synonym of said. Therefore, it should not be joined to what was said. More correctly, the punctuation goes like this: "Well, surely if she is given another chance she might make a match now that she is older. She just must have been shy." He signalled a passing footman and obtained a glass of wine. ~~with a comma after the interjection 'well' and a period immediately before the closing quotation marks. Some purists would insist on a comma after 'surely'.

She remained blissfully unaware of the impending change in her circumstances. If she did, she would not be so serene. ~~If she did what? If she KNEW? But as you just wrote, she doesn't know, and the sentence, as written, is pointless. ((This form of foreshadowing has given a name to some types of 'women's fiction': The 'HAD I BUT KNOWN' school of writing. HIBK, as it is sometimes labelled, is frequently mocked by Bertie Wooster/PGWodehouse.))

It's been ages since I read a good Hayer-ette!

I really like it so far, love your descriptions. Keep writing!

I'm so pleased you have a new story up! When I read the summary, I wondered if this was the Lord Markham from "Grace's Gamble", and I'm so happy that it is. I really liked him in that story, and I hope he gets an ending as wonderful as Nicholas and Grace's by the end of this one.

You do an excellent job of capturing the Regency society - it sounds like you've really done your research, and it pays off!

And I can't wait to find out more about Sophie. She sounds nice from her introductory scene, but I'm sure she'll become more and more interesting as the story progresses and you get a chance to flesh her out a bit more.

Can't wait for the next chapter!