Lady Munevver: The Opium Merchant’s Daughter by Eris F. Perese

Lady Munevver struggles against three powerful men for control of her destiny. Obsessed with gaining acceptance by the London ton, the merchant father of beautiful but handicapped Munevver, ignores her pleas to marry her childhood love, William of Yorkshire. Instead, he arranges a marriage with James, the dissolute son of an impoverished Duke who, after the wedding, boasts that he will have a grandson one way or another. When England is drawn into the Crimean War, James joins the Light Brigade and sails to the Crimea to fight the invading Russians. Soon after, Munevver learns her husband was injured and died in Scutari Hospital. Terrified of her father-in-law, Munevver flees England. Her destination: Aleppo where her uncle will protect her. Escape ends 742 miles short, in Constantinople. The Sultan, irate at being commanded to return the widow of one of Queen Victoria’s Lords, arranges a marriage for Munevver with a member of his court. Banished to Ankara, the young couple struggles to survive political turmoil, intense cold, and lack of medical care. After her husband dies, Munevver is desperate to return to Yorkshire and William but how? Dare she accept the quid pro quo arrangement offered by the Sultan’s mother?