Showing results by narrator "Wren" in All Categories

The beautiful Lady Elva Chartham had returned to her family home in the country from her Season as a debutante as she had become disenchanted by the endless balls and empty-headed young suitors. She much preferred to be with her horses. Her father was away fishing and her beloved Aunt Violet came to coax her into returning to London to finish her Season. Elva was persuaded by Aunt Violet and in her London house, she overheard a conversation between her aunt and her cousin, the Duke of Sparkbrook, that would dramatically change her life.

Lady Tamina Braithwaite is excited and happy to be secretly engaged to the handsome politician Edmund Newson. However, she is devastated when she discovers he is already betrothed to another girl. Determined to flee the country to heal her broken heart, she takes a job with Ivan, the Earl of Daventry, who is about to travel abroad and needs a secretary to help him with a book he is writing. Pretending to be plain Miss Waites, Tamina is unaware that the Earl has also recently been betrayed by a close friend.

Daughter of the Earl of Longwood, a gentleman gambler, and the Countess of Longwood, a society beauty, Lady Yolanda Wood has an exciting if unconventional childhood travelling around the casinos and racecourses of Europe. But life changes dramatically after the tragic death of her father, and she and her ravishing mother are left penniless and alone. In mourning for her husband, and dependent on the kindness of selfmade millionaire Oliver Garrack, the Countess's gratitude swiftly turns to romance and Yolanda finds herself with a stepfather she neither likes nor respects.

For years, Celina Storton had been in love with Robin, the Earl of Torrington, but he spent his time in Paris, pursuing beautiful women and the more the merrier. Then his mother's illness forced him to return to England, where she demanded that he marry quickly, as she had not long to live. She had chosen his bride for him - Celina. He was horrified by this threat to his liberty, but since Celina was an old friend and as he loved his mother, he agreed.

Michael Belmont is heir to an Earldom, but he is also the family black sheep, a charming gambler leading a dissolute life in France. He has quarrelled with his father, who has threatened to disinherit him. When he reads in a newspaper that his father has died, he does not even have enough money for his fare home. But then he meets the beautiful young Lady Verna, seeking a chauffeur to drive her car home to England. Michael volunteers and while they are on the journey he falls under her spell.

Charles Arram, the son of the Marquis of Arramford, their next-door neighbour. Because the Earl is so rich, he is afraid that his daughter, who at eighteen is exceedingly beautiful, will be pursued by fortune-hunters. Malvina is horrified at the idea. Her father is suddenly summoned to Scotland and Malvina decides she will travel with her Nanny to Paris, where she will be able to see Charles Arram without him knowing he is being spied on. During the journey Malvina meets the brother of one of her French school friends and he tells her of the extraordinary parties that are given in Paris by the courtesans.

Heir to the throne of Valdina, beautiful Attila vows two things - to do everything in her power to return her beloved sick father, King Sigismund, to health and to find true love. But it seems that her stepmother, the scheming and selfish Queen Margit has other ideas for her future. Desperate to marry her as quickly as possible to Prince Otto, a young man with a shadowy past, Queen Margit's eyes are set firmly on the throne for herself. And it seems she will stop at nothing to get her own way and rule Valdina alone.

If you like Downton Abbey you will love Barbara Cartland. Beautiful Jasmina Winfield is a thoroughly modern American girl who likes to make her own decisions. A skilled and daring horsewoman, she is used to taking care of herself and takes orders from no one - especially not a man. Arriving in Yorkshire from Missouri to visit her relations, the Duke and Duchess of Harley, Jasmina is captivated by the sad romantic tale of her near neighbour the reclusive Earl of Somerton.

Michael, the Earl of Danesbury was being hounded to marry Lady Alice Randall, a woman he did not love. Even the Prince of Wales was determined to force him into marriage. Michael fled to his dilapidated ancestral castle for the first time since inheriting his title. There he heard a girl singing and fell in love. She was Bettina, daughter of an eccentric Major, a genius with gardens plants and herbs. Determined to put the castle gardens in good order, Michael hired the Major and found himself becoming more and more enchanted with Bettina.

Can money buy you happiness? Impoverished Lady Viola and her twin brother David Northcombe find that their fortunes change dramatically when their entrepreneurial father dies unexpectedly, leaving them a vast fortune that will change their lives forever. Returning home to England, still reeling from their dramatic change in circumstances, fate seems to have smiled on them when the handsome, but impoverished, Duke of Glentorran dramatically rescues them from the perils of the sea off the coast of Scotland. Barbara Cartland was the world's most prolific novelist who wrote an amazing 723 books in her lifetime.

"Get away from me. As far as I am concerned, David, you are dead to me and this entire family!" The handsome Viscount Kennington has never enjoyed a good relationship with his father, the Earl, but he loves his grandparents and they love him. But when a family scandal is aired after the sudden death of the Viscount's grandfather, the Marquis, the family feud grows worse. The Viscount retreats to the huge mysterious house in Devon left to him by his grandfather.

The Marquis of Kexley is just falling asleep beside the beautiful Isobel Heywood, when in a soft voice she suggests that they should be married. Only by pretending to be asleep does he escape answering her and then he realises that because she is a widow, she is extremely dangerous in that she is free for him to marry her. In his other affaires-de-coeur, the women were already married, so he was safe, and he avoided debutantes with ambitious mothers like the plague. Because Isobel is so possessive he thinks it best to leave London at once.

Protected by loving parents, young, beautiful and happy, Lady Ravina Ashley has the world at her feet. Unused to harsh words, she is taken aback when a stranger at a ball in London takes her to task for her behavior towards a clumsy suitor. But Ravina hopes that one day she will fall madly passionately in love and refuses to think of marriage to anyone until then.

The Earl of Bracken is meeting his good friend Captain Charles Kenwood at his Club in St. James's Street. He has just returned from a visit to Syria where he had been introduced to Sheik Abu Hamid, the owner of the most magnificent Arab horses the Earl has ever seen. They are both keen to buy horses from the Sheik who is reluctant to sell unless his greatest wish can be fulfilled.

The Earl of Cariston is faced with insuperable problems as he has completely run out of money. He has sold everything on his estate that he can, but even so there is nothing he can do to support those who rely on him and they are on the verge of starvation. In desperation he calls into his Club to find an old friend, Lord Shield, and tells him all his woes. Lord Shield is in a bad way himself, but does suggest that he visits a certain Mr. Randon who is temporarily in London and beg for his help.

Dorina's father had been an industrialist, an inventor and a genius who trained her to be his heir, sending her abroad to learn many languages. While she was in France she learned that he had died and she must now take over his business. But she does not feel ready, especially as she knows he has been trying to design a horseless carriage. For a while she keeps his death a secret, to give herself time to learn, and goes to work for his great rival, the Earl of Kennington.

Davina is the younger daughter of Lord Shelford and she has fallen for an actor who did not meet her father's approval. He has banished her from London to his newly acquired country seat, Priory Park, where Davina felt lonely, but not for long. She soon meets the Delverton brothers who live nearby, and also their mysterious companion, Jed Barker. There are dark secrets surrounding Priory Park and the Delverton family, but Davina cannot help becoming attracted to the handsome Lord Delverton despite his indifference to her.

Shana, the beautiful daughter of Lord Hallam has not yet been a debutante as she has been helping her father write his autobiography. Although retired from the Foreign Office, Lord Hallam agrees to go abroad leaving his daughter alone in the country. Before he leaves, he asks Shana to run an errand to the landlord of the village inn known as the Rose and Crown, where she finds there is a crisis in the kitchen and offers to cook luncheon for the Marquis of Kilbrooke and his shooting party.

Australian soccer mum Sarah Calhoun keeps the terrifying secrets of her time as an overseas aid worker from everyone she loves. Until two men from Northern Ireland hunt her down - one an obsessive policeman with demons of his own, the other a brutal IRA executioner, too closely connected to her past. She is forced to return to Belfast to testify at a murder trial. But she faces an impossible choice - lie on the stand and allow a vindictive killer to run free, or tell the truth and place her children in the line of fire.

Returning from finishing school in France, Louisa Hatton was full of enthusiasm for the life ahead. She was convinced it would be exciting and romantic. But her parents had already planned a very suitable marriage for her to Lord Westbridge, their new neighbour. He was a cold, hard man and he wanted Louisa despite her protests. Her parents would not support her. Her father owed Lord Westbridge money.