Sophie Fisher

Lady Prudence Brooke, a flirtatious, flighty young widow buys EVERYTHING on credit. She flees her creditors and goes to her grandmother's, but on the way is stopped by a highwayman, who is so struck by her amazing beauty that he decides to steal only a kiss. Lady Prudence is incensed.

At her grandmother's, Prudence's financial situation is no better. Then she hears that the highwayman who affronted her has been captured while on another raid, and he is sentenced to be hanged in a week. Prudence has a light bulb moment: When a woman marries, everything she has, INCLUDING HER DEBTS, become the property of her husband, and if he dies, the debts disappear. Boom, problem solved. She'll marry the convict on death row.
And she does. But all does not go according to plan. :)

I liked this quite a lot, except it did feel a little repetitive by the end, with a formula of Predicament, Escape.... Predicament, Escape, etc.… (meer)