Showing results by narrator "Wren" in All Categories

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.

Lord Milton should have been a happy man, with an ancient title and a magnificent estate. But he was deep in debt and haunted by memories of the Crimea, where he had once been a soldier and taken part of the Charge of the Light Brigade. To take his mind off the past, he eagerly accepted the suggestion of a friend to become the manager of a hotel in Brighton, called the Paradise Hotel. He was seeking new discoveries, but he could not have guessed how startling his discoveries were going to be.

Venetia was very lonely after the death of her parents. So when her cousin Mary begged her to help to save her from a forced marriage, Venetia was ready. Mary was in love with another man and expecting his child. Yet the Queen wanted her to marry the Earl of Mountwood at a moment's notice and go with him to India. A reckless impulse made Venetia promise to take Mary's place at the altar. She would worry about the consequences later.

Charles, Lord Hartley, was at his wits end. He had spent a fortune on his cousin John, and still the embittered John demanded more money. Charles knew he needed an heiress and he became swiftley attracted to Cliona, who had recently moved in to the neighbourhood. He did not know that she was an heiress. When he found out, he felt there was no way that he could approach her with honour. But Cliona, a spirited girl, had her own ideas.

Riley Black brings listeners back in time to prehistoric seas, swamps, forests, and savannas where critical moments in plant evolution unfolded. Each chapter stars plants and animals alike, underscoring how the interactions between species have helped shape the world we call home. As the chapters move upwards in time, Black guides listeners along the burgeoning trunk of the Tree of Life, stopping to appreciate branches of an evolutionary story that links the world we know with one we can only just perceive now through the silent stone, from ancient roots to the present.

Inspired by Peter Moffat's popular BBC One show, Silk, this compelling courtroom drama returns to Shoe Lane Chambers, but from a different perspective. Rather than focussing on the lawyers, it centres on the people who can make or break their careers—their clerks.

Italy, 1917. Australian journalist Rebecca Quinn is an unconventional woman. At the height of World War I, she has given up the safety of her Sydney home for the bloody battlefields of Europe, following her journalist husband to the front line as a war correspondent in Italy. Reporting the horrors of the Italian campaign, Rebecca finds herself thrown together with American-born Italian photographer Alessandro Panucci and soon discovers another battleground every bit as dangerous and unpredictable: the human heart.

Victoria Carlton invested everything into her dream of becoming a singer - her hopes, her time, her life savings - only to fall victim to the harsh realities of the recording industry. Devastated, broke, and faced with the choice between committing herself and her young son to a world of homeless shelters or entering the seedy world of prostitution, she applies for a job at Pandora's Box, a downtown Philadelphia brothel that bills itself as a "massage salon."

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.

Lady Dorianna Dale is packing her trousseau for her illustrious Society wedding to the rich Lord Buxton. She does not love him, she cannot bear him to touch her and she hates the sound of his loud foolish voice - but unless the wedding goes ahead, she and her Mama will lose everything and will have to sell their beautiful home, Ashburton Hall. Dorianna briefly meets the handsome and enigmatic Earl of Claremont at a London soirée and she longs to see him again. But how can this ever happen once she is married to Lord Buxton? She must take her destiny into her own hands.

Keeping up appearances for her older brother, and his Society lifestyle while also caring for their young brother and sister is becoming too much for the beautiful Minerva as they have very little money and the bills are mounting every day. So when Tony confesses that he owes the terrifying gambling debt of two thousand pounds to his friend, the Earl of Gorleston, with an unsavory and raffish reputation, she is mortified. In utter desperation, Minerva dresses herself up as a highwayman, creeps into The Castle and tries to blackmail the Earl at gunpoint.

"No, Papa! I cannot believe that you no longer want me here." When Marina Fullerton's beloved mother dies in a tragic riding accident, she is horrified when her father sends her away from the family home in Harley Street, saying he is unable to bear her near him. She finds herself packed off to stay with family friends in Paris, chaperoned by her faithful maid, Ellen. Soon Marina finds herself captivated by her French host's good-looking son - but is he what he seems?

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.

The Path is the story of a group of international travellers who walk the Camino de Santiago, the ancient 800-kilometre pilgrimage from the Pyrenees to the remains of the Apostle Saint James in the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostella in Northern Spain. The group are of all ages, all professions, all religious denominations (and none).

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.

A bearded and dishevelled figure in the tattered dress of a Muslim Holy Man struggled to a Fort in India and saves it from attack by tribesmen supported by the Russians. The Holy man is Captain David Ingle, one of the members of The Great Game. In a week or so David arrives back in Calcutta and is sent for immediately by the Viceroy, who tells him he has done wonderful service for his country. At the same time his life is in danger from the Russians and, more important his grandfather, the Marquis of Inglestone, has died in an accident and the family title and estate is now his.

1820 is a worrying time for His Royal Highness Prince Lászlé as the might of the Prussian Empire moves ever closer to the boarders of his independent principality, Opava. Concerned for the welfare and happiness of his subjects, he reluctantly sends his beautiful daughter, Princess Zoleka, on a secret mission to the neighbouring state of Krnov, which is in crisis. Masquerading as Lady in Waiting to Princess Udele, the heir to the throne, Zoleka is horrified to discover that Krnov is in political turmoil.

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.

"I will not marry a man I do not love!" When Lady Verena's widowed father suddenly remarries, she finds that her stepmother is anxious to make a match of convenience for her new stepdaughter and produces a suitor who repels her. Verena has always sworn that when she marries, it will be for love and for no other reason. Feeling that she has no choice but to run away, Verena makes a daring midnight escape from her home.

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.