A Handful of Dreams

the long version

FORBIDDEN VENUS Even as a ragged Irish child, Sally Desmond was so beautiful that men noticed her -- like the soldier who tossed her the sovereign that became a talisman for her dream. But none of the dreams came true when she became a woman more lovely than a goddess. Instead men offered gold for her virtue, and against her wishes, her guardian had accepted ten thousand pounds for her hand from a notorious dilettante, Lord Darlington. Terrified, she was whisked away to London, married, installed in a splendid mansion and treated like a goddess on a pedestal. But the dark, brooding moods of Lord Darlington troubled her. Who was he really, this mysterious lord, this handsome stranger who had come into her life and tantalized her senses with wild desires...?