the_maestro

A shy beauty in distress: When Guineveve Holland arrives in London, she's full of apprehension. Mrs. Holland has no great affection for her daughter, but she still has grand ambitions. Guin is to be married off for wealth and position. Guin's own hopes are ignored. Stammering, shy and gauche, Guin does not shine in society. Sir Frederick Hawkesworth pities the beleaguered beauty. He has a soft spot for damsels in distress. As the London Season progresses, his interest in Miss Holland becomes far more personal than he ever anticipated.

It was a ghastly horror of a house party. Miss Penelope Childe and all the others were awaiting the end of the wicked earl's rotten life. The disinherited son, the new heir, the illegitimate son - all of them are there. Murder is done. The centuries-old curse has struck again. Penelope alone heard the supernatural scream and sees the ghosts that no one else can. Penelope is a reluctant bride-to-be, contracted to wed a man she's never met before. She intensely dislikes her betrothed, the rakish Lord Taredell.

Lord Robert discovers his betrothed, Theresa Huntington, in the arms of her childhood friend. He finds it difficult to believe their protests of innocence. He rides off to war, informing her that she is free of their betrothal. But Theresa doesn't want her freedom. She loves him. By Christmas, when she hears nothing more from him, she fears he has been killed. Surely Lord Robert can't be dead!

After a wonderful visit with her sister's family, Miss Judith Grantham is returning home. She anticipates a dull ending to the Christmas holidays. An overturned mail coach blocks the icy road, and she takes up one of the passengers - a young girl who turns out to be a runaway heiress. Judith is astonished when some of the other passengers turn up at her doorstep, in need of shelter from an impending snowstorm. Suddenly, she is hostess to a motley and ill-assorted group.