Showing results by author "Barbara Cartland" in All Categories

When John Chester returned to England after suddenly inheriting a Dukedom he knew his life had changed forever. But he didn't know just how much. Gina Wilton was like a breath of fresh air. But she was also everything John disapproved of in a young woman, independent, assertive, always ready to contradict him. Yet she had ideas about restoring his dilapidated castle, and he found he needed her help. The more they were together, the more he noticed how pretty she was, how witty and sparkling.

The Marquis and Marquise de Castillon, together with their young son Jean-Pierre, were forced to flee France for England when the French Revolution broke out in 1789. Jean-Pierre was educated at Eton and only returned to Paris when Napoleon came to power. It was not long before he joined Napoleon's Army, survived the Retreat from Moscow and was badly wounded at the Battle of Waterloo. Whilst in hospital, he became friends with Colonel Hubert Dawlish who was in the next bed.

When the Balkan Prince Stanislaus demanded an English bride, Queen Victoria decided to send him Lady Lavina, whose family had a slight connection with royalty. Determined to avoid this fate, Lavina threw herself on the mercy of the Marquis of Elswick, a disagreeable man who had turned his back on the world following betrayal by the woman he had loved. Surprisingly, he agreed to help by pretending to be engaged to Lavina, and, with her father, they left to visit her relatives in Scotland.

Robert Lyndon, heir apparent to a dukedom and newly spurned lover is desperate to save face amongst the young dandies and court ladies of Regency London society. Handsome, wealthy and decorated for his bravery Robert is recognised as one of the most eligible bachelors in Society. Yet despite his success with the ladies, it seems that he cannot find the perfect wife. Beautiful Rania Temple is living in impoverished gentility in the country. Away from the fashions and trends of the city, she is devoted to her family home and much loved horses.

When Rena's father dies she is alone in the world, forced out of the vicarage that has been her home, with nowhere to go and no money. She seeks help at the large wooden cross standing in the nearby grounds of "The Grange". And there in the earth she finds three golden coins, which she hands over to the new young Earl of Lansdale. They form a friendship, the sweetest one of her life. But her new happiness is threatened by Mr. Wyngate, a wealthy man determined to force the Earl to marry his daughter.

On a hot summer’s day in 1880 the beautiful Lady Rosella is cutting a basket of blooms in her beloved Rose Garden at her aunt’s house in Hampshire. It is her seventeenth birthday and no one remembers it except for Thomas, the gardener’s boy. Later she is driven to Winchester and has an unpleasant encounter with two raucous gentlemen in the local tavern before going on to fit her first ball gown that her aunt has given her the money for just before she died. But who is the lovely masked woman she glimpses in the mirror at the dressmakers, a glorious vision clad in rose-pink silk?

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.

The Duke of Norlington and his sister Lady Latasha are living quietly in the country very happily with their horses. The Duke receives a letter from an old Oxford friend who is now His Royal Highness Prince Kraus of Oldessa, a small Principality in the Balkans. The Prince asks the Duke if his sister would consent to marry his brother, Prince Stephan, as she is related to the Royal family, thereby giving Oldessa British protection from the Russians who are vying to take over as many States as they can in the Balkans.

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.

Can you fall in love with someone before you meet them? Valona, the eighteen-year-old daughter of the deposed Prince of Piracus believes she can. Beautiful, spiritual and aching for adventure Valona is convinced that the perfect man exists because she has seen him in her dreams; all she has to do is find him. With no royal bride to offer the elderly King, it seems the only way to save Larissa from the threat of the encroaching Russian army is for Valona to take her place.

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.

Viola Brookfield has not a care in the world until the awful day when her parents are tragically killed in a road accident, leaving her all alone in the world. So when her Aunt Mary, Lady Wakefield, writes to invite her to come and live with her in India, Viola decides to accept. But when she arrives, she finds a country fraught with unexpected dangers and that her uncle, Lord Wakefield, behaves as if she is not welcome. Viola's life is further complicated when she meets the handsome but enigmatic Earl of Devonport.

The beautiful Aurora Hartnell has just left her Finishing School in Paris and returns home to Hadleigh Hall. It is Christmas Eve and she hears that an eligible bachelor, Lord Moreton, has moved into nearby Elton Hall. Aurora dreams that he is handsome, tall and exciting - until she meets him and finds that he is none of them. In no time Aurora has received an unwelcome proposal of marriage from Lord Moreton, but he appears to be strangely close to her intimidating stepmother, Lady Hartnell.

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.

Narina Kenwin is the only daughter of the Bishop of St. Albans and since her mother's death she has been living with her father. She is very beautiful and is happy, but when riding in the woods she wishes she had someone special with her. Narina receives a letter from her great school friend, Louise, who is married to Prince Rudolf, the Ruler of the small Principality of Alexanderburg in the Balkans. Louise begs Narina to come to stay with her immediately and is sending a Battleship to take her to Alexanderburg.

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.

Justina Mansell, the youngest daughter of Lord and Lady Mansell, is told that her sister has been invited to visit India, but cannot accept. So Justina jumps at the chance to go in her place. Her aunt arranges for her to be chaperoned on board ship by the stately Mrs. Arbuthnot, who is travelling with her two daughters and her little terrier, Muffin. Justina is quickly attracted to the good-looking Sir Thomas Watson who is most attentive and much admires her beauty when he joins the Arbuthnot table for dinner.

The beautiful Princess Vasila, an orphan, who has been looked after by Baroness von Bergstein in a Grace and Favour house, is astonished when an Equerry arrives to take her to Windsor Castle to see the Queen. She is not told until she arrives that Prince Gadelov of Saralovia, which is a small Balkan State, has appealed to Queen Victoria to give him a Royal British wife so that he can be protected from the grasping Russians. When the Queen tells Vasila that she is to marry Prince Gadelov immediately, she is horrified and very frightened.

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.

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.