LITMIR.BIZ

When a startlingly beautiful young girl with brilliant red-golden hair falls at speed from her horse before him, the dashingly handsome Osric, Earl of Helstone is uncharacteristically caught off his guard. Not only one of the richest men in England but also, in many women's opinion, by far the best-looking, 'The Elusive Earl' as he is known, is accustomed to Society Beauties falling at his feet – but not in so literal a fashion! Rushing to her aid, he finds that the girl has not fallen – but made her horse throw her deliberately in a cunning ruse to talk to him without her groom being aware. She introduces herself as Calista, the headstrong daughter of Lady Chevington and warns the Earl he must decline her mother's invitation to stay at her estate for the duration of the Epsom Races, claiming that her mother is bent on duping him into marrying Calista. Laughing at the claim, the Earl accepts the invitation to Chevington Court – and in no time finds himself tricked into a compromising position, the only escape from which is marriage to Calista – just as she warned. But just he begins reluctantly to accept he must marry the young beauty who, after all, shares his passion for horses, Calista disappears and, at the request of a surprisingly frantic Lady Chevington, the Earl goes in search of her. Finally finding her and her beloved horse performing in a circus, he tries to bring her home but falls foul of a vicious «Strong Man» and is terribly injured. And as she patiently nurses her saviour back to health, Calista realises that she is in love. If only the Earl felt the same way too.

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After her young nephew and two nieces' parents are drowned in a tragic sailing accident off the coast of Cornwall, the beautiful red-headed Tamara is devastated by their loss and realises almost at once that she is the only person who can look after the three children as she loves them so much. She speaks to the local Solicitor, who tells her that there is no money left in her brother-in-law's estate and so she has no choice but to take the three children to their uncle, the Duke of Granchester, who lives in splendid isolation in a vast sprawling but intimidating Castle in Gloucestershire. The prospect at once appals Tamara. Firstly because she despises the Duke for the way he had cut off all contact with her sister and brother-in-law as he disapproved of their marriage, thinking that she was an actress when in fact she was a renowned opera singer. Worse still, Tamara has written a somewhat scurrilous novel portraying the Duke as the vile character she believes him to be! And the novel is just about to be published in London! Arriving at Granchester Castle in the guise of the children's Governess, she finds the Duke to be as arrogant, high-handed and annoyingly handsome as her fictional portrayal of him and she hates him even more bitterly. Until a touch of love intervenes and changes everything forever.

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Although Scottish born and bred, beautiful young Vara McDorn speaks with a refined English accent thanks to her education in the South, which is why she is called upon to become Reader to the new Chieftain of the McDorn Clan, who has been blinded by an Indian Fakir's curse while protecting the Viceroy at a Fort on the North-West Frontier of India. Troubled by his affliction and frustrated by his inability to understand the local Scots' brogue, the Chieftain, the Earl of Dornoch, soon comes to rely on Vara as his tutor in the customs and attitudes of his people as well as being his eyes on the estate. And, although he is terse and resentful at first, Vara finds herself warming to this haughtily handsome Nobleman. After taking him on an adventure that she hopes will restore his sight, Vara catches Hamish, the Earl's murderous relative, a rival for the title of Chieftain, attempting to stifle him with a pillow over his face and shoots him with her revolver, saving the Earl's life. Already Vara knows that she is in love with the Earl, but even as she prays frantically for his blindness to be cured, she frets and worries that he could be disappointed when finally he is able to see her.

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When their father, the Duke of Northallerton, offers his daughter Caroline's hand in marriage to his neighbour, the Duke of Lynchester, purely as a means of settling once and for all an ancient land dispute, she is appalled. Not only because she does not love the Duke but also because she is already madly in love with another, the charming and handsome Edward Dalkirk. Desperate to help her older sister, the aptly named young 'elfin' beauty, Lady Elfa Allerton, secretly waylays the Duke of Lynchester in his chaise and begs him to marry her instead and to leave her sister free for the man who she truly loves and adores. Elfa from her childhood is fascinated by woods and goes to a wood to talk to the trees and immerses herself in the magic all around her and in times of difficulty she prays to the God of trees, Sylvanos, for his help and guidance and he always helps her. Something about this young woman, Elfa, fascinates the Duke and reluctantly he agrees to do as she asks of him. And despite the constant attentions of Society beauty, Isobel, the Countess of Walshingham, who is determined to keep him for herself, the Duke finds himself becoming enchanted by Elfa's quiet intelligence, innocence and beauty – just as she is spellbound by him.

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Now she is sixteen and a half, the beautiful young Lady Imeldra is eager to leave school and resume her exciting life with her father, the Earl of Kingsclere. He is renowned in Society as something of a 'man about town', but when he goes on his frequent extensive travels round the world, he always takes Imeldra with him and she just loves being with her father. She is dismayed when he announces that his rather decadent lifestyle is not conducive to the necessary task of presenting Imeldra to Society and at Court and finding her an appropriate suitor for her hand in marriage. And he is intending to send her to live with her strait-laced and disapproving grandmother, where she will lead a very dull and formal life Rebelling, she enlists the help of an old family friend, William Gladwin, who is currently building an ornate orangery at the neighbouring estate of Marizon and passes herself off as Mr. Gladwin's grand-daughter so that she can stay at Marizon and perhaps explore the house that is renowned for its superb collection of pictures by great artists. Although the house and its estate is incomparable in its beauty and grandeur and its brooding cynical Master, the Marquis of Marizon, is equally handsome, Imeldra has the distinct feeling that something is amiss and that the Marquis is hiding some dark secret from everyone around him including her. And, seeking to know more of the mysterious Marquis, she finds to her surprise that she has fallen in love.

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Neil, the handsome Earl of Wynstock, is expected back from the English Army of Occupation in France where he has been with the Duke of Wellington since the Battle of Waterloo. And the people of his estate, Wyn Park, await his return to them impatiently. Vanda Charlton, his beautiful childhood neighbour, waits with more concern than the others because, unbeknown to anyone else, a dangerous gang of highwaymen have moved into the West wing of the Earl's ancestral home after intimidating and threatening the caretaker and his wife. Vanda fears that on the Earl's return the highwaymen will capture him and hold him to ransom. Intercepting him at a local inn, she warns the Earl and persuades him to enlist the support of the soldiers at the local Barracks. But before the Military can implement their plan of action, the ruthless renegades kidnap Vanda, threatening to kill her if they do not receive one thousand pounds by the next morning. Disguised in a highwayman's mask, the Earl arrives in the enemy's woodland camp in the dead of night with a cunning plan to rescue Vanda. Posing as another highwayman he enlists the local Parson and stages a Wedding claiming that he is marrying Vanda for her huge fortune, which he promises to share with the villains. Little do they, or even Vanda herself, know that he is as deeply in love with Vanda as she is with him. And that this marriage is completely legal and utterly real!

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At her father's request and on the instructions of the Royal Council of Scotland, flame-haired young Scottish beauty, Sheena McCraggan, sails in Junre1554 to France to become a companion to the fourteen-year-old Mary Stuart – Mary Queen of Scots – at the Court of the French King Henri II. Once there she is to report on the young Queen's intentions and those of the French Court regarding the future of Scotland and specifically whether it will support Mary's rightful accession to the Throne of England. When she arrives, Sheena finds that her mission is far more difficult and dangerous than anyone at her home had ever imagined. She is overwhelmed by the intrigues of the Courtiers and everybody seems to be hating everyone else in a very unhappy Palace. Not only is the French Court a seething nest of depravity and corruption, the deceitful aristocrats close to King Henri exploit innocent young Sheena in an evil Black Magic plot to ensnare him. Amid the darkness, as she finds herself prone on the Satanic sacrificial Altar, the one light of hope is the Duc de Salvoire to whom Sheena has lost her heart. But will God answer her prayers and send him to her rescue in time to save her soul?

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Hoping to surprise and impress the horse-loving Empress Elisabeth of Austria during her imminent visit to his ancestral home, the Duke of Buclington decides that he must invest in some of the best thoroughbred Hungarian horses. He had planned to take his lovely young daughter, Lady Aletha, to Hungary with him to buy them, but, when Queen Victoria sends him on an important errand to Denmark, he is then forced to send in her place his equestrian stalwart, Mr. James Heywood. Bitterly disappointed by this as she loves her father, Aletha slips away, secretly intending to catch up with Mr. Heywood on the Calais to Vienna train when it is too late for him to order her back to England. Beautiful as she is, she quickly attracts the unwanted attentions of a lecherous German traveller, but luckily a flabbergasted Mr. Heywood comes to her rescue just in time. After much cajoling, he is persuaded not to return her to her father but to take her with him, pretending that she is his granddaughter. Their mission is a great success. They find all the superlative horses that they were seeking, but Aletha loses her heart to a handsome and charming Hungarian Prince. And it seems that her deceit will become her undoing when he tells her that he can never marry her because she is not of noble blood.

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Returning to his family estate after a long absence in India serving under the much-loved and now-deceased Viceroy, Michael, the handsome Earl of Rayburne, is appalled to find that his estate and the local village have gone to rack and ruin. It seems that his uncle to whom he had entrusted them has embezzled everything that the Earl owns, including the contents of Rayburne Castle and has decamped with his loot to America. Penniless and unable to pay the estate's workers and pensioners, who are on the verge of starvation, he has no choice but to throw himself on the mercy of Lord Frazer, the owner of the neighbouring estate and his family's bitter enemy in an age-old land dispute over a wood. To the Earl's astonishment the hateful Lord Frazer offers him not a loan but a gift, amounting to fifty thousand ponds, in order to combine their two estates. But there is one other condition. The Earl must marry Lord Frazer's young daughter, Ansella, whom he has never even met. Although now he can begin to rescue the estate and its people from ruin, the Earl is in despair, certain that Lord Frazer's daughter will be an ugly harridan who can never become the beloved 'Lady in the Castle' like his late and much-loved mother. But everything changes when he finally sees his bride after their Marriage Service. She is beautiful! Her face is heart-shaped and her hair is pale gold like the sun at dawn – little wonder that soon the young Earl of Rayburne realises that he is falling in love.

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With the death of her mother, her father's subsequent suicide by drowning in the English Channel, all in the foreboding shadow of imminent war, the beautiful young Fleur Garton is vulnerable to say the least. Even more so when her new love, Lucien, a French airman, is killed just two weeks after the Second World War is declared and followed after by the death of his mother. Left bereft and alone at a remote Château in German-occupied France, Fleur has to find a way home to England before the Germans discover her and in a French Resistance safe house she meets and falls in love with another airman, Royal Air Force pilot Jack Reynolds. Sadly her heart is about to be broken once more on arrival in England after a gruelling voyage of escape from France. Desperate to escape Jack's family home, Fleur seeks employment at Greystone Priory as housekeeper-companion to the ailing mother of the renowned motor car tycoon, Sir Norman Mitcham. Instantly she falls in love with the grandeur and beauty of the house and with the arch but kindly Mrs. Mitcham. But, although she takes an intense dislike to Sir Norman, who seems cold, ruthless and aloof, she decides that this is where she will achieve her aim, 'to hate all men, to dispense with love in her life and forget about it'. Gradually, though, as she begins to discern the man behind the façade, she warms to Sir Norman. And perhaps her heart is ready for a different kind of love from a man who will never ever break it.

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