Showing results by publisher "W. F. Howes Ltd" in Historical

It was indisputably love at first sight. But Victoria Lyndon was merely the teenaged daughter of a vicar...while Robert Kemble was the dashing young earl of Macclesfield. Surely what their meddlesome fathers insisted must have been true—that he was a reckless seducer determined to destroy her innocence...and she was a shameless fortune hunter. So it most certainly was for the best when their plans to elope went hopelessly awry.

Christmas may be the season of goodwill and festive cheer, but not for the poor of 1950s Liverpool. And for St Angelus Hospital in Lovely Lane, it is frantically busy. There are the old, the dying, the children and the emergencies.

The nurses, known locally as the Angels of Lovely Lane, are run off their feet. Dana, Beth, Pammy and Victoria hardly have time to catch their breath, let alone have a Christmas of their own.

Britannia, AD 117: Roman centurion Flavius Ferox is trying to live a quiet life of dignified leisure, overseeing his wife's estate and doing his best to resist the urge to murder an annoying neighbor—until someone else does it for him. Dragged back into a life of violence, Ferox finds himself chasing raiders, fighting chieftains and negotiating with kings, journeying far into the north just as war breaks out. With the new emperor, Hadrian, sending agents from Rome, the whole world seems to be changing.

The war has ended, and Rita Fairweather is waiting for George Bolton, her childhood sweetheart, to return home to Devon. She wants their future to be a continuing reassurance of their past. But George comes back as a man changed by the horrors he has experienced. Unable to settle back into a small-town life, George decides to travel to Argentina. And Rita promises to wait. But George faces irresistible temptation and an agonising choice. As the years pass, Rita keeps her word, but how long should she wait for the love of the life?

Alasdair Cynster, known to his intimates as Lucifer, decides to rusticate in the country before the matchmaking skills of London's mamas become firmly focused on him. But an escape to Devon leads him straight to his destiny in the irresistible form of Phyllida Tallent, a wilful, independent beauty who brings all his masterful Cynster instincts rioting to the fore. Lucifer tries to deny the desire Phyllida evokes, but destiny intervenes....

The Royal Society of Unnatural Philosophers has long been tasked with maintaining magic within His Majesty's lands. But lately, the once proper institute has fallen into disgrace. Zacharias Wythe ventures to the border of Fairyland to discover why England's magical stocks are drying up. When his adventure brings him in contact with a woman with immense power, he sets on a path which will alter the nature of sorcery.

As an illegitimate child, Frederica Bracewell was treated by her uncle like a servant. But when she encounters the new gamekeeper, shy Frederica starts to feel like a true lady... After a debauched existence, Lord Robert Mountford revels in the simplicity of a gamekeeper's lifestyle. Until temptation strikes! Frederica is a far cry from the ladies of the ton, but she may just be his undoing... and unmasking!

October 1943. Nancy Dalton, working at the RAF base at Scampton in Lincolnshire, has been holding vigil for the Lancaster bomber pilots whose missions seem endless. But her watchfulness has not prevented her own pilot brother from failing to return. In the midst of mourning him, fresh recruits arrive to continue the war effort, among them charismatic Canadian Steve Allard. The months ahead will be long and hard, with danger a constant companion, and although both Steve and Nancy never intend to complicate wartime life with romance, their attraction becomes impossible to ignore.

In the sweltering summer of 1911, suffragette Connie Callaway is introduced to Will Maitland, cricketer and rising star of his county. Despite parting on uncertain terms, they are destined to meet again, their lives inextricably entangled. Combining national drama and private tragedy, this is a story of love, sacrifice, suffrage and county cricket, projected against a vivid backdrop of England in an extraordinary age of turmoil and violence.

Kayla Sinclair knows she's in trouble when she almost bankrupts herself to buy a portrait of a mysterious eighteenth century man. Jago Kerswell, inn-keeper and smuggler, will take any risk to be with Lady Eliza Marcombe. Over two centuries separate Kayla and Jago, but thanks to a gypsy's spell, their lives become inextricably linked. Kayla finds herself on a quest that could heal the past, but will she find heartache or happiness?

St Angelus runs like a family: the workers take care of their own - a lesson the mysterious new assistant matron, Miss Van Gilder, is about to learn the hard way. Little Joe has had trouble breathing but the doctors don’t take his sister Lily’s concerns seriously, least of all Miss Van Gilder. The nurses of Lovely Lane have a secret which is dividing their close knit group and when Nurse Pammy Tanner once again breaks the rules, her actions threaten them all.

July 1914: The ties between Kezia Marchant and Thea Brissenden, friends since girlhood, have become strained - by Thea’s passionate embrace of women’s suffrage, and by the imminent marriage of Kezia to Thea’s brother, Tom, who runs the family farm. When Tom enlists to fight for his country and Thea is drawn reluctantly onto the battlefield, the farm becomes Kezia’s responsibility. They must all find a way to endure the ensuing cataclysm and turmoil.

Devon, 1887. Life has not been kind to dairymaid Tresca Ladycott. She can’t rely on her flighty farmhand father, Emmanuel, so she relies on herself. Then comes a devastating blow. Tresca is sacked from the dairy, and the pair lose their home. She and her father seek a new life in bustling Tavistock. More hardship lies ahead. The only work to be found is hard labour on the London and South West Railway. Before long, Emmanual is out of work yet again, and Tresca is faced with keeping them both in their tiny garret home.

Martha Wallace came to Dublin from her home in America to find her birth mother. But instead she has lost her heart to the impossibly charming JP Deverill. Bridie Doyle, now mistress of Castle Deverill, is determined to make the castle she used to work in her home. But her flamboyant husband, Cesare, has other ideas. Kitty Deverill has come to terms with her life with her husband, Robert. But then Jack O'Leary, the love of her life, returns to Ballinakelly....

Christmas 1926: the Forbes family are hosting a celebration at Eden Hall. Eighteen-year-old Daisy is preoccupied by a sense of change. Overnight, her relationship with Stephen Jessop, the housekeeper’s son, has shifted, and every encounter seems fraught with tension. Before the festivities are over, Daisy has received a declaration of love, a proposal and a kiss - from three different men. Unable to bear the confusion, she flees to London. By the following summer, Daisy has bowed to the persistence of the man who proposed to her.

Susanna Weber is the best dress maker in Imperial Vienna. Through skill and hard work, she now owns her own dress shop, looking out over the beautiful Madensky Square. To do so, she has left her past behind, if not without regret, at least resolutely. Looking around her, at her customers and friends, Susanna is aware that she has more than most - but a few small changes cause her to realize just how precarious her situation is.

Julie and Dicky Otterman arrive at Grundy’s fair with an extraordinary new act: the motorcycle extravaganza The Wall of Death. This seemingly happy couple are the talk of the town, but all is not as it seems, and Dicky’s dark and violent nature means Julie lives in constant fear. There's always plenty happening at Grundy’s fair: Gemma knows Velda's secret. Renata is finally with Donny. New member well-spoken Tom catches the eye of Jenny, the Grundys' lost daughter, returned to the fair very recently....

The FitzDeanes are wealthy. They have Ballyford Castle in Ireland and a growing shipping business in Liverpool, but a previous generation made a terrible mistake and now there are whispers that the family is cursed, unable to produce a living heir.

When young Ruby Flynn arrives to work at Ballyford, rumours start swirling around this beautiful girl with a mysterious past. Who is she really? And what will her arrival mean for this powerful family divided by tragedy?

The First World War is over, and in a quiet Hampshire village, artist Stanley Spencer is working on the commission of a lifetime, painting an entire chapel in memory of a life lost in the war to end all wars. Combining his own traumatic experiences with moments of everyday redemption, the chapel will become his masterpiece. When Elsie Munday arrives to take up position as housemaid to the Spencer family, her life quickly becomes entwined with the charming and irascible Stanley, his artist wife, Hilda, and their tiny daughter, Shirin.

1942. When Helda Dahlstrøm flees her abusive husband and Nazi-occupied Norway with her eight-year-old son she doesn't know if they'll make it out alive. In her desperate journey to safety she'll find safety on the rocky shores of the Shetland Islands, rescued by Canadian Flight Sergeant Bill Gauthier. As WWII's destruction rages at their doorsteps, can love find its way through the rubble?