Ladies in Love

Polly was a bewitching young girl, that pretty Polly Marsh, and she knew it. She also knew that beauty could be her passport into the castles where she had always known she belonged. So she set her sights for a duke and joined the firm of Westerman's as a stenographer. Surely one of that noble family would notice her and then all of her dreams would come true!

Poor Ginny Bloggs! She had inherited a fortune, a magnificent country estate, and her benefactor's disgruntled relatives - a quartet of querulous schemers - who were horrified to find themselves suddenly at the mercy of a low, common girl; a total stranger - the coal merchant's daughter! The handsome Lord Gerald de Fremney himself had pledged to keep the more unruly relatives in line.

The Beast; that was what they called her. With her plump body and rough tomboy ways, she felt more like a clown. It was hopeless. Poor penniless Tilly could only sit among the chaperons as a paid companion to the spiteful Lady Aileen. The best she could do was sit; sit and dream. But suddenly Phillip, Marquess of Heppleford, the most eligible bachelor of all - decided he wanted her for himself, to be his wife, and they were married. His intent was to keep his freedom, fulfill the conditions of his father's will, and shock his aunts.

Poor little Susie. A beautiful dreamer, she imagined herself happy in a rose-covered cottage, only to find herself mistress of a great damp castle and wife to the elderly Earl of Blackhall. Luck, not the lecherous earl, contrived to spare her, and by her wedding night she was transformed to a wealthy young widow. But her trials had just begun.

Daisy Jenkins never expected to be anything more than a trespasser on the idyllic lawns of Marsden Castle. Then suddenly she was admitted into the seemingly magic circle of the Earl and Countess of Nottenstone, where she awaited the arrival of the notorious Lord Chatterton; her father - a stranger whose very name was foreign to her. She was suddenly Daisy Chatterton, surrounded by aristocratic sharks who seemed to both court as well as mock her. And why did the elegant Duke of Oxenden offer his protection to this newcomer who made him laugh at the very word love?

Maggie Macleod was weary of life with a soul sickness that ate into every fiber of her being. In a mad way, it did not seem strange to her that she should be on the way to High Court to stand trial for the murder of her husband. Her marriage seemed to have been one long dreary desert lit by flares of cruelty.

She was the flower of an East End slum who rose to become a star. But Poppy Duveen quit the stage to marry Freddie Plummett, the only real gentleman she had ever known - the bounder who died. When Freddie died, Poppy was left the castle, but she was also left in the clutches of Freddie's formidable uncle, Hugo, the dazzling duke of Guildham. How could she admit, even to herself, this dangerous attraction? Instead Poppy tried to turn her back on it - but it was no use.