Arrangement / Mary Balogh 380 p.

With The Arrangement, Mary Balogh continues her septet-series Survivors' Club with the telling of war-blinded Vincent Hunt, Viscount Darleigh.  Vincent finds himself preferring the company of other Napoleonic War survivors.  They each have life changing post war issues.  His sisters' plot to get him married.  There is a need for an heir.  When the sisters' choice admits she is willing to martyr herself and marry him, he flees to a remote country village.  Even there another marital trap is set.  When Sophia Fry's intervenes to prevent the trap, she is tossed out of her stingy aunt's house immediately.  When the minister tells Vincent that Sophia spent the night in the church, he acts.  His offer of marriage is turned down.  He is drawn to Sophia because she treats him like a man; not an invalid.  He finally convinces her that he needs a wife of his own choosing and she needs his protection from abject poverty.  Will this arrangement end up working for both of them?  Balogh shows thoughtfulness as she presents a romance where the characters are both damaged.