Childhood foes Josephina Cochrane and her cousin Marcus Wyndham find their fates inextricably linked when Josephina's father, the Earl of Chase, leaves Marcus his fortune but places Marcus's future in Josephina's hands. 100,000 first printing. $60,000 ad/promo. The earl of Chase finds a way, despite the strictures of entailment and primogeniture, to leave nearly his entire inheritance to his illegitimate daughter, Josephina. The will leaves his nephew Marcus all of the entailed lands and residences with an allowance of only 200 pounds per year; Josephina inherits almost everything else. If the two marry, the estate can run smoothly. However, the earl's will also stipulates that if the pair do not marry, the estate will be passed on to distant American relations. The "colonials" hear the news and dash over; meanwhile, Josephina has traveled to Paris (where the earl is helping to restore a monarchy to France) and maneuvers her cousin Marcus into marriage. Their return home is tumultuous because of the interloping Americans, who wish to break up the marriage and search for buried treasure--the Wyndham legacy. Lots of wordplay and other frolicking fill the pages of Coulter's pleasant, sure-to-be-popular historical fiction. Denise Perry Donavin For Coulter's sizable following (The Heiress Bride, etc. etc.): a blast-off for a new Regency trilogy involving romance and a trace of mystery. Josephina, dubbed ``Duchess'' at an early age because of her cool aloofness--the result of learning, at the age of nine, that she's a bastard--is the by-blow of the Earl of Chase and a lovely mother ensconced in a nearby cottage. Duchess is raised in Chase Park and, after the deaths of her mother and the Earl, spirits herself off with a huge servant named Badger to the cottage, where she supports herself in a mysterious fashion. Meanwhile, the new Earl, Marcus Wyndham, learns--to his horror--that Duchess's father, who married her mother at last, has left all to his daughter, who now has the problem of restoring the inheritance and pride to handsome Marcus. The answer, of course, is to trick him into marriage--and bed. While this venerable and favorite feature of the romantic novel--spouse-seduction--is oozing on, a group of cousins troop in from the Colonies, including vigorous widower Trevor, who, like others in the family, is intrigued by rumors of a buried treasure on the premises. Before that's discovered, though, there'll be some near-fatal attempts on the Duchess's life and an escape from a murderer--who's bound to resurface in future volumes. Coulter seems to have hit a popular vein between the more elegant Regency romances (with period diction) of, say, Patricia Veryan, and the squashiest of the paperback palpitators. A quick circulator. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.