Wife for a Penny

Wife for a Penny is a 1972 Mills & Boon romance by Anne Hampson, published as a 187-page paperback and recorded as romantic fiction. The novel is built on a conditional inheritance, which the line used repeatedly: a will that requires a marriage, two people who would not otherwise choose each other, and a fixed term during which the arrangement has to hold.

Liz's position is negative from the start, since she has no wish to marry and holds men in low regard, and the specific objection the book gives is that a Greek husband would expect a submissive wife. Her reason for agreeing is financial and moral at once: refusing the condition would cost not only her and Nigel but also her elderly relatives, who need the money.

The physical setting is Delphi, where she lives in Nigel's house, and the copy makes clear that the arrangement is meant to be commercial. The book's question is whether she can maintain that position, which is where the title's dismissal of her own value comes in, and the novel spends its length on the gap between a contract and what the two of them begin to feel.