Showing results by author "M.C. Beaton" in Historical

Lovely, wealthy and well bred, Clarissa Vevian has been unable to find a suitable husband because of her terrible clumsiness. Her petite and fastidious mother has tried to mould Clarissa into a dainty miss to fit the fashion - but all her efforts are doomed to failure. And when Clarissa enters the Tribble sister's home, they fear that their reputation for matchmaking success may be destroyed - along with their carpets and furniture!

As the youngest of four unmarried vicar's daughters, Frederica feared her destiny was to die of boredom in the sleepy village of Barton Sub Edge. Her looks were deemed unfortunate, and her wilful manner labelled her difficult. She never dreamt the arrival of a stranger would be a twist to her fate. But Frederica and the worldly gentleman from the city, Lord Granton, had something in common: boredom. So it was that the two formed a secret friendship.

With little to live on but her romantic daydreams - which frequently starred the dashing Marquess of Fleetwater - Jean Lindsay lived a rather dismal life with her nasty, drunken uncle. Jean was always the object of ridicule, that is, until news of her unexpected inheritance spread. Suddenly, her worn dresses became "quaint" and her forthright manner turned magically to "charming", but to Jean's horror, someone wanted her dead!

Whether dressed in her finery or disguised as a frump, he wanted her just the same! How can plain Frederica withstand a Season's scrutiny after the five beauties before her have married so magnificently? The only solution is to run away from home...

Miss Jennie Bemyss was in a position that any intelligent young lady would envy. The wealthy, worldly Marquis of Charrington proposed a marriage of convenience that would leave him free to pursue his pleasures and leave Jennie free of his undoubtedly depraved desires. At the same time, handsome, charming Guy Chalmers, whom Jennie had loved since childhood, proposed to aid her in enjoying her freedom to the fullest.

The local society could only speculate how a pair of turtledoves would cope as the guests of the scandalous Lady Dacey. Surely she would attempt to corrupt them - an act that both Pamela Perryworth and Honoraria Goodham would see as welcome entertainment in their rigid, joyless lives. Though Mrs Perryworth is married - most unhappily - and the young Honoraria has a cloying tendency to read too much Scripture, the purity and loveliness of both ladies nonetheless inflames the senses of two notorious lords.

London was all on edge and astir to have in its midst the exquisite Princess Felicity of Brasnia. What scandal would ensue should society discover that the bejeweled heir to a royal throne was in truth Miss Felicity Channing of Cornwall, fleeing a match she did not want and that had been arranged by her conniving stepfather! But how long could Felicity carry off this lively masquerade before she would falter?

Destined for Dover, Miss Pym has her matchmaking work cut out for her when she encounters the pretty but hoydenish Lady Deborah Western! Encouraged by an unruly twin brother, the spirited, golden-haired Deborah seems set on dressing and acting the tomboy, much to the dismay of her handsome neighbour, the Earl of Ashton....

Lady Beatrice is fleeing an arranged marriage by stagecoach to Brighton, where the proud beauty meets her match in Miss Hannah Pym who is determined to find her a proper beau.

A woman of independent means with a healthy dose of cynicism about the male persuasion, Harriet Tremayne is content with her circle of spinster friends and their devotion to literature, women's rights, and intellectual interests. However, when she determines to undertake a London Season for her beautiful but featherbrained niece, she concedes she must appear less a bluestocking and more fashionable to successfully sponsor this impossible young lady whose only real desire, it seems, is to consume chocolate.

Just when he'd fobbed off the last brat, another appeared to take her place! Poor Lord Anselm! The dashing bachelor was forever plagued with dying relatives leaving their female children to his care. Indeed, he had squired so many a silly miss from schoolroom to marriage mart that he had sworn off women altogether. The current ward was far and away the worst. Cheeky as only a French girl could be, Yvonne de la Falaise had surely sent her papa to an early grave with her melodramatics and mischief. Thank goodness for her governess, Patricia Cottingham, so calm, so competent.

The haughty Beverley family is obsessed with regaining Mannerling, the exquisite 17th-century mansion gambled away by their now-deceased father, Sir Beverley. Three of the six Beverley daughters have failed to win back their ancestral estate - settling for love matches over mere bricks and mortar. Now it is Rachel's turn to woo the latest eligible bachelor-in-residence, handsome widower Charles Blackwood.

As scandal and intrigue swirl around her, Jessica must discover where the heart finds true happiness. Mannerling, the splendid family estate gambled away by Sir Beverley, remains the passion of his daughters. Beverley himself has died; the eldest daughter, Isabella - having failed in her bid to reclaim the family home - is blissfully wed. The mantle of saviour now falls to the next eldest daughter, Jessica. How fortunate then that the new owner of Mannerling had a marriageable son.

Arranging a season for an unruly young lady whose habit was to enter drawing rooms by sliding down banisters presented a challenge at best - especially since the hoydenish Mira had a sister of incomparable grace and beauty. Mira wasn't daunted at all by the local society and its ridiculous marriage mart. Her heart belonged to Lord Charles, who had been the object of her dreams ever since she was a child. Alas, Charles had eyes only for her ever-perfect sister, Drusilla.

Lovely Alice Lacey was a true Incomparable, and her marriage to the Duke of Ferrant was the event of the Season. But almost none realised, however, that Alice was secretly in love with someone else - or that she had confided her feelings to a clever talking mynah bird who determined to announce these intimacies at the moment of the couple's wedding!

When one of her sisters is attacked by Harry Devers, the lecherous son of Mannerling's present owner, Abigail Beverley puts her obsession with reclaiming the mansion on hold. Then Abigail meets the dashing and extremely eligible Lord Burfield, fresh back from the army and in full-time pursuit of a bride. Yet unexpected circumstances force the insufferable Harry Devers to recuperate from a riding accident in the Beverley home, where Abigail's twin sister Rachel nurses him back to health - and into betrothal.

In any given glittering social season, Edwardian London's dizzying whirl had its share of surprises. The latest was Kitty Harrison, once achingly poor, suddenly an heiress and now, thanks to her determined mother, she was about to become a Baroness. From the moment Kitty set eyes on Lord Chesworth, she found him to be the most exciting man she had met. But Kitty was young, innocent, and easily dazzled.

Blessed with beauty, Mrs. Manners never bothered with the lesser skills of grammar and spelling. So, in order to entrap a second husband, namely the dashing duke of Denbigh, she needed Miss Verity Bascombe. Surely the modest chit would be honored to write her love letters. Poor Verity! Her old schoolmate was as selfish as ever. The lovely girl's gilded pen soon had the duke most intrigued by the poetic Mrs. Manners! But alas, what began as a tiny deception became troublesome indeed - for Verity soon found herself enamored by the handsome duke!

I am going to die, Polly thought. The crowd clamored for a speech. Polly raised her hands, and the crowd fell silent. From the foot of the gallows, she asked the spectators why she, a poor woman, should hang for theft while the abbess of Covent Garden could commit murder on the souls of innocent country girls over and over again and yet go free - and then she condemned them to hell.

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.