Showing results by author "Barbara Cartland" in All Categories

Simona Bell, the lovely daughter of Lord Belgrave, has been invited by her friend, Karoline von Honentaal to stay with her family in Berlin. Simona finds that Karoline's father, the Baron, owns an amazing collection of art which interests her greatly. Alone for a moment, she finds her way into the Baron's private Sanctuary, where she admires an unusual Sedan Chair. Hearing voices and frightened she might be discovered, she slips into the Sedan Chair and closes the door.

Accustomed to spending fortunes on fast women and high living, Lord Wynchingham is horrified to lose a fortune in a card game and then finds that he is almost bankrupt. So when Tina Croome, his beautiful orphaned Ward, throws herself on his mercy he says that there is nothing he can do. Unless, she suggests, he uses the last of his credit to launch her into London Society and quickly attract a rich husband. Soon she has a long list of suitors, including the wealthy but odious Lord Welton who Tina reluctantly agrees to marry to save Lord Wynchingham.

Sir Robin Dunstead returns from India after his father's death to find that he now owns two of the largest ancestral houses in the country both containing superb art collections, but the houses and the pictures are in a very poor state of repair. Unfortunately Sir Robin's father had sold everything that was saleable in both houses and everything of value is entailed for future generations of Dunsteads. Robin is left with no income and finds he has not enough money to buy food for himself and sister Alena.

Scotland, 1750, just four years after Bonnie Prince Charlie’s Rising of the Clans, it’s hard to know who’s loyal to the English and who is faithful to the Stuarts. And it’s beautiful seventeen-year-old Iona’s perilous mission to ascertain whether the Duke of Arkrae, head of Scotland’s most powerful clan, is a traitor or is he in cahoots with the English. Iona’s mission is to gain the trust of the Duke and his clan by claiming to be the sister he thought to have died as a child. As all around her doubt her claim and call her a "pretender", Iona struggles to hold her nerve.

Lorena Conway has devoted most of her life to being a secretary to her father, a noted historian. Sir Arthur suddenly dies and leaves Lorena with too little money to maintain her childhood home. Wondering how she will survive, the beautiful Lorena overhears a friend of her neighbour plotting to kill the Earl of Bramfield, who has recently and unexpectedly inherited from his father and whose vast estates lie near her home. Realising that she has no option but to try and convince the Earl of the peril he is in, Lorena sets out to confront him.

After the death of her great-uncle, orphan Lady Rosanna Donnington was overwhelmed to learn he had left her his vast fortune. It was then her life changed and she became the target of unscrupulous fortune hunters. But she was determined to marry only for love. When the loutish Sir Walter Fenwick insisted she marry him, Rosanna decided enough was enough. She fled London and journeyed to Donnington Hall, her new country estate.

Unfairly dismissed from her role as a governess after her lecherous employer forces himself upon her, Druscilla Morley is determined to keep her head down. Dressing drably to hide her beauty, she is surprised to find an old acquaintance staying with her new family. Valdo, Lord Marquis of Lynche, is handsome, charming and an absolute rogue. It soon becomes clear that he is having an affair with the lady of the house and proposes a marriage of convenience to Druscilla to cover his tracks.

Lady Novella Crownley has been teaching at a girl's school far from her ancestral home, Crownley Hall, and one day her mother asks her to return. She leaves at once only to find that so much has changed since her last visit home. Her beloved father, the Earl of Crownley, had died some years earlier, leaving her mother lonely and unable to cope on her own. Unknown to Novella her mother had remarried and the first time she met her new stepfather, Lord Buckton, she did like him at all.

Lady Elvina, theal and in love. Any day now Captain Andreaw Broadmoor would propose to her. But then she overheard him saying that he did not love her and would only marry her for her money. Elvina fled, travelling to Cumberland, where she had heard that the Duke of Castleforde was looking for a governess for his unruly sister, Violet. Concealing her true identity, she presented herself as plain Mrs. Winters and in Violet, Elvina found a troubled, rebellious young girl who needed her help.

Smart, sassy and cynical about men, 21-year-old Syke Standish wants neither a husband nor a life of boring domesticity. She wants freedom, adventure... danger. And in the rugged land of Mariposa, she finds all three when she is kidnapped by the daring South American revolutionary, El Diablo. Imprisoned in his network of secret caves in the mountains, Skye plots an escape. Yet the longer she spends with this Che Guevara -like bandit, the more she learns about his devotion to the local people he fights for.

The Earl of Langdale tells his beautiful daughter, Zela, that, having gone to London on a visit, he has become involved with the Comtesse de Courché, who is one of the famous beauties of the London Season. She is much admired by His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales and many aristocrats.

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.

After Della had been orphaned she came to live in the country with her uncle, Lord Lainden, who rented a delightful house on the estate of his great friend the Duke of Marchwood. She was blissfully happy with her uncle and rode the Duke's horses every day. But a cloud was gathering on the horizon in the form of Jason, the Duke's only son and heir. Jason had returned to his ancestral home having led a very dissolute life in Paris and his father was desperate for him to settle down, make a good marriage and continue the Ducal line.

Shenda, the beautiful daughter of Lord Linbury, finds herself all alone when he dies. She finds a letter he has written to his friend, the Duke of Wellington, asking him to look after and protect her. The Duke is in Paris having just won the Battle of Waterloo and Shenda travels nervously to Paris to meet him and he quickly realises that as she is young and innocent, he cannot have her to stay in his own house. He, therefore, takes Shenda to nurse one of his young Officers who has been badly wounded at Waterloo. Captain Ivan Worth, as he calls himself, is really the Marquis of Kenworth.

King Martiza of Salamos has fallen asleep when he suddenly becomes aware that something is moving in his room. To his astonishment he finds that it is Princess Veria who has come for his Coronation which is to take place the very next day. She, as her father has died, is now ruling the State of Kavolana which is a smaller Balkan country bordering on his.

Lord Waincliffe breaks his horse’s bridle out one day and calls at the nearest house for help so that he can ride home in safety. It belongs to Terence Stourton, a Professor of Literature, and he meets his daughter, Rosetta, who repairs the bridle for him. Not only does he think that Rosetta is the most beautiful girl he has ever seen, but he feels there is something unusual about her. Only when he returns home, does he realise that she bears an extraordinary resemblance to his sister, Dolina.

Some girls can wait a lifetime for one man to fall in love with them, but Selena Norton is so pretty that every man she meets is promptly smitten. Selena longs for someone to see past her beautiful face and appreciate the intelligent, loyal, fun girl inside. Rescued by the chivalrous, but penniless, Earl of Wakefield from the lecherous clutches of yet another unwanted suitor, Lord Tavener, Selena is delighted to finally meet a man who seems to seek only friendship. Selena cannot believe the joy that the Earl has bought into her life.

When Shona became secretary to the Marquis of Chilworth, all she was told was that they were going abroad so that he could write a book. She never suspected the dark secret in his heart or the terrible thing he meant to do. As they travelled on, she learned more about the tragedy that drove him, and she faced the fact that she was falling in love with a man whose heart was in the grave. Haunted by memories of his dead wife, the Marquis tried to shut out the possibility of a new love.

Returning home from France, Robina Melville finds surprises awaiting her - not all of them pleasant. Almost immediately, it becomes clear that the familiar surroundings of Trentham House are not the sanctuary that she hoped for, and she soon feels unwanted and alone. A chance encounter with a childhood friend, the handsome new Earl of Hampton, provides Robina with employment as his secretary and a temporary escape from her stepmother's clutches.

Tania, the lovely daughter of the late Lord Amesly, leaves her school in Paris and is travelling by train to Boulogne when her train crashes into another one. She is helped and befriended by a charming young Englishman - Captain Rupert More - and with him she reaches the ferry and unexpectedly meets two friends of her parents, Charles and Selina Bracebridge. Rupert becomes captivated by Tania, but since he is a soldier he may be sent away to war at any moment and cannot declare his hand.