The Dangerous Touch of Love

Madeline Cooper's younger brother is in a coma, and getting him out of it costs more than she has. The Stewart family will pay if she marries Felix Stewart, the eldest grandson, so she agrees to the engagement. At the engagement she finds out that Felix has been with his secretary for a long time, and that the two of them have already settled on her dying not long after the wedding. Madeline goes to Nathaniel Stewart. He is the illegitimate son of the family, the man Felix treats as his rival, and the one the household is careful around. She makes the approach herself and tests him a step at a time, wanting nothing out of it beyond a different husband and her own life. Nathaniel sees through each move as she makes it and puts himself between her and the danger anyway. She falls for him while this is going on. Her brother has not woken up.