Showing results by narrator "Helen Taylor" in All Categories

Marianne’s brief time at Miss Wolfraston’s Seminary for Young Ladies is coming to an end, which is a relief for both of them. She has disconcertingly open manners and a liveliness that Miss Wolfraston deplores. When her aunt invites her to join her in Cheltenham for the summer, these traits inevitably lead her into a series of scrapes. After being disappointed in love seven years ago, Lord Cranbourne has acquired the reputation of being dangerous, heartless, and selfish.

In an inn, on the way to her first London Season, Katerina Fortune hears something that gives her a chance to escape her fate. Acting on impulse, she hires a gig and presents herself to a reclusive gentleman to offer herself as a bride. For Katerina, the eighth daughter of Castle Fortune (her Yorkshire home) has no intention of letting her father sell her to the highest bidder in town.

Lucille Abbey runs her London secretarial agency with utmost efficiency. When, therefore, a certain Professor Hallam rejects three girls sent by her to apply for the post of his secretary and they each pronounce him "impossible", Lucille herself sets out to interview the Professor at his home in Hampshire. He is, she finds, eccentric—even impossible; but he represents a challenge and, what is more, an excuse to delay what promises to be a trying holiday in Paris. She stays on to tame and to organize him—a less formidable task than she had imagined; in fact, she grows fond of him.

When the eligible Mr. Allison is to come to Fenton Manor to woo Honoria, there is a problem. She doesn't remember what he looked like. Crippled by her timidity, she hardly looked at him when they'd met during her first London season. But he had spoken to her father, determined to ask her for her hand. Her siblings, Serena and Benedict, find this highly amusing, but after Honoria overhears a conversation between her parents about their finances, she realises she must marry Mr. Allison.

Miss Abigail Nash is no stranger to loneliness. Her mother died giving birth to her, her father's business dealings took him away more often than not, and her ailing great-aunt, unable to provide much in the way of companionship, was a lack-luster guardian at best. When her dear friends offer to launch her into London society, her life takes a turn for the better.

London 1818: Destitute, disillusioned, and desperate, Lady Rosalind Marlowe sets the tongues of Regency London wagging when she becomes the "Mayfair Thief". Targeting only those who had won large sums of money from her father, bleeding him dry and causing him to take his own life, she decides to teach them a lesson. She takes something valuable from each, leaving her calling card with a bible quote behind. On her last outing, she is caught red-handed.

Soon after her twin Leonora's marriage a bereft Marguerite Fortune is going home to Castle Fortune, with only her self serving male relatives for company. But Baron Fortune, her papa, has a diversion planned on the journey…one that concerns getting his last daughter wed.

London, 1860. Midnight Gunn is no ordinary detective - born during a solar eclipse as Halley's Comet blazed a trail through the sky, his supernatural birthright is both a help and a hindrance when solving crimes. Detective Inspector Arthur Gredge of Scotland Yard is the only one who knows Gunn's secret. When the body of a young aristocrat is discovered in a backstreet alley, Gredge enlists Gunn’s help in a race to discover the identity of the notorious Spring-Heeled Jack - the monster that is terrorizing London.

One day Jody was found lying at the foot of a staircase on her way to give a client a beauty treatment. When she recovered and talked of a man with a goat and a yellow-and-black front door, her brother-in-law and Charles, her fiancé, told her she was imagining things. But Jody was unconvinced, and determined to find the man she remembered, leading a small goat.

When her sister decides to throw an impromptu summer house party, Sophia reluctantly agrees to help. What she doesn’t realize is that her sister has plans of her own — plans that would bring a certain childhood friend back into Sophia’s life. It’s been nearly a decade since Sophia has seen Hugh Quinton. He’s grown into a handsome, charming, and successful — yet completely unacceptable — tradesman. Her mother looks down on him, her father detests him, and society would snub him in an instant. Sophia shouldn’t even consider him.

For as long as Prudence can remember, it has been understood her sister will one day wed the eldest son of their nearest neighbor. Prudence, an aspiring romance novelist, believes her sister is mad to consider marrying a man she hardly knows, even if he will one day make her a countess. Unable to stand by and do nothing, Prudence sets out to help the awkward couple discover the best in each other with the hope they will eventually find love. What she neglected to foresee, however, was the possibility she might fall in love with Lord Knave herself.

Katy Touchfeather is a carefree, red-headed airline stewardess who is actually a top British spy. She's lethal, seductive, and as ruthless as any double-O. Her latest assignment is to track down a scientist suspected of selling secrets to the Russians. It's a high-stakes, global escapade that takes an unexpected violent turn that shatters her life...and ultimately pits her against a billionaire industrialist with terrifying intentions.

There was no doubt about it, Felicity Oldfield’s grand London adventure had commenced. First, she had been abducted by a peer of the realm, released, then in less than a few hours she had arrived in London for the post of governess, been cast off without a sou, walked the streets of London alone, been pursued by a young gentleman, met a man of bad character who might have led her onto a path of ruination, saved by a rich and fashionable couple in their velvet-lined coach, and was even now being taken to her mad Aunt Ellingham where she expected to be treated appallingly....

When Miss Coralynn Notley's father barters her off to the first titled gentleman to come along, she realizes she must flee her home or be forced to wed a despicable man. Driven by desperation, she applies for the position of housekeeper at Tanglewood Manor, the home of the handsome Mr. Jonathan Ludlow. The moment Jonathan sees Miss Notley, he is intrigued. She is far too young and inexperienced, yet there is something about her that that inspires a certain hope within him.

Leonora, one of two beautiful Fortune twins newly arrived in Town for their Season, had one aim in view: The Honourable Linton Carswell. She first met him at her home, Castle Fortune, three years ago, and now at 17, has arrived to claim her prize.

The memory of her late husband's slow and painful death is fresh in Anita Stratton's mind when she finds herself confronted with the high-voltage glare of national publicity when her first novel rockets into the best-seller lists. The furor she arouses leaves her publishers, the staid and respectable firm of Beetham Brothers, as bewildered as she herself is.

She is past the age of falling in love - he does not think he is capable of it. Miss Katherine Lockhart is a woman of sense and reason. She has managed her brother’s household in an efficient manner for years. When he marries she finds her position in his household increasingly untenable and is sent to Helagon, his property in Cornwall. She finds a derelict house, an untamed landscape, and a man with a wild past. Harry, Viscount Treleven has a zest for life and an irrepressible sense of humor.

Detective Inspector Arthur Gredge of Scotland Yard is a changed man, and not for the better, it seems. The prime suspect in a terrible crime he did not commit, Gredge launches an impassioned defense. The problem is that he does not know if he is guilty or innocent. Midnight Gunn must uncover the cause of Gredge’s unsettling behavior before the inspector loses his mind, his job, or very possibly his life. It is a task that must be conducted with the utmost caution, as Midnight’s own conduct comes under close scrutiny from all directions, putting him and those he loves at risk.

Scotland 1862. A murder, a terrifying creature, and a battle for his affections were not what Midnight Gunn expected when he journeyed to Scotland for the summer. Bodies are mysteriously disappearing from the city morgue, Midnight’s growing household is in turmoil, and someone or something lurks in the shadows, watching.

Unjustly labeled a flirt, Kitty Beaucroft is in need of a fiancé. Lord Philip Butler's father wants him to settle down before he can become a landowner. With no intention of following through, Kitty and Philip enter into a temporary engagement as a means to an end. Unfortunately, someone knows the truth and is determined to expose them. Will the ruse turn into a romance before it's too late?