Wanted–a sensible, competent wife When distinguished surgeon Gerard van Doorninck asked staff nurse Deborah Culpeper to marry him, his reasons were practical, not romantic. As she had been secretly in love with Gerard for some time, Deborah accepted his terms and hoped for the best. It might all have worked out very happily, had Gerard’s friend Claude van Trapp not done his best to try and spoil things A Marriage of Convenience… A Love Just Begun… When distinguished surgeon Gerard van Doorninck asked staff nurse Deborah Culpeper to marry him, his reasons were practical, not romantic. As she had been secretly in love with Gerard for some time, Deborah accepted his terms and hoped for the best. It might all have worked out very happily, had Gerard’s friend Claude van Trapp not done his best to try and spoil things A Marriage of Convenience… A Love Just Begun…