Showing results by narrator "Helen Taylor" in All Categories

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.

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.

Big Cats opens with "Charlotte", in which a young girl with a broken pelvis spies on her voluptuous neighbor during a long, hot summer night, setting the tone of irrepressible curiosity and yearning that is evident throughout the collection. In "Get Away from Me, David", a bank manager tries to overcome his haunted past as he deals with the aftermath of a minor earthquake and the body of a customer who died in the lobby.

Angelique, living with the Duke and Duchess of Saith and their daughter beautiful Rosalind feels too distant from hope to want anything. And then she sees handsome, wicked Sir Rafael Villiers, and she knows her Destiny. It is time for the plain and timid Miss Torrington to remember she is also a de Chabernet, and her grandmother's daughter. But Villiers is interested in her beautiful cousin - so how can she get his attention?

A Baker’s Dozen - A collection of 13 classic Christmas stories.

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.

After twenty years of looping frustrations Kathryn walks out of her marriage and washes up in her childhood home determined to write her way to a new life. There she is put to work by her aging parents sorting generations of memories and mementos as biblical rains fall steadily and the house is slowly cut off from the rest of the world.

Robin and Eleanor meet in 1811 at the British estate of Eleanor’s rich aunt Clara. Robin is about to leave to fight in the Napoleonic Wars, and her aunt rules out a marriage between them. Everyone Eleanor knows, including Robin, believe they’ve always lived in these times. But Eleanor has strange glimpses of other eras, dreams that aren’t dreams but memories of other lives. And their time jumps start as their romance deepens. Robin fights in the Boer War, the First and Second World Wars, in Vietnam and Iraq.

For seven-year old Angela, happiness is exploring the lush countryside around her home in western Ukraine. Her wild imagination takes her into birds and flowers, and into the waters of the river. All that changes when, one morning, she sees her mother crying. As she tries to find out why, she is drawn on an extraordinary journey into the secrets of her family, and her mother's fateful choices.

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.

Handsome and charismatic, Miles Gilham, Earl of Allerdale, has a reputation for being a little wild. After spending months running his father’s estate in Yorkshire to make amends for disgracing his family the year before, he reluctantly returns to Town. He has promised his mother that he will find a bride this season, but his heart is not in it. The only eligible lady that amuses him is not looking for a husband and is the sort of headstrong girl that would make an uncomfortable wife.

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.

Alexander Wraxall, sixth Marquess of Eagleton, worries he may be cursed. Those close to him tend to die, and he believes he is, in part, responsible for their deaths. When he receives a packet of letters from a relative he thought long dead, he embarks on a journey that will change his life forever. Since washing up on the shores of Lake Garda, Nell Marsdon has put her nightmarish history behind her and, in the house of Angelica Montovani, has found some peace. It is shattered by the arrival of the Marquess of Eagleton, a man who represents everything she has learned to despise.

Lady Georgianna Voss bids adieu to her friend Marianne with a heavy heart. Before their friendship blossomed, she had been a stranger to affection. She returns to her home uncertain of her reception. She has spurned the advances of the eligible but dull man her mama wished her to marry. Having witnessed the cold, unhappy union between her parents, she is not at all eager to follow their example. Enraged, Lady Westbury sends Georgianna to her impoverished aunt, hoping that she will realize just how much a lady needs a wealthy husband, regardless of her feelings for him.

At the age of just 20, Francine has been working for 10 years. From the meanest streets that Victorian London possessed, she traveled Europe, learning how to survive and even prosper. Now back in London, in the new Edwardian era, she runs an agency saving young ladies from false suitors. With the help of her friends - ex-governess Miss Philpott, her footman fiancé Gilbert, and the feisty, tiny ex-kitchen maid Tilly - Francine changes all the lives she touches.

Lady Lewisham is an independent woman of means who has just emerged from her year of mourning. But as a young, beautiful, single widow (with an intelligent mind to boot), it seems she is a target for unwanted attention from ill-fitting suitors and mindless tittle-tattle from the gossip-mongers. Little does Sophie know, however, that when she encounters the handsome but devout bachelor Sir Philip Bray, her life is about to change. Could Sir Philip be the hero she thinks she does not need or want?

When Bethany is saddled with an unwanted, unrefined, and decidedly common guardian, she must polish him up before he’s fit for good society. As for Willoughby Winter, all that stands between him and his inheritance is to marry Bethany off. Can he succeed in his efforts before his past becomes known, or will she manage to distract him from his goal - by hook or by crook?

Dignified, reserved, and every inch the gentleman, Laurence Westerby, the fifth Viscount Carteret, finds his ordered and predictable world turned on its head when a mysterious lady steps into his private parlor. He thinks her spirited, reckless, and undoubtedly in need of his protection. Confident, frank, and used to managing her own affairs, Miss Cassandra Fenton does not like the role of damsel in distress. Laurence seems determined to help her out of her immediate difficulties, however. His chivalry reminds her of all the reasons she is so unsuited to marriage.

Captain Charles Bassington of the 13th Light Dragoons is famed for his good luck, high spirits, and devil-may-care attitude. He escapes serious injury at Waterloo only to succumb to an inflammation of the lungs. When he returns home to recuperate, cracks begin to appear in his cheery façade. Lady Selena has adored Charles all her life, but when she receives a letter from him suggesting his friend Lord Carteret would make a good husband, she is forced to put aside childish dreams that he might one day love her.

After fleeing her home, Lucy has spent the last two years at Ashwick Hall under Lady Westcliffe’s protection. Now that her godmother, Lady Frampton, has returned from abroad to take charge of her, the time has come for her to be reunited with her twin sister. Abby betrayed her, however, and she is unsure if she can forgive her. Lucy knows nothing of the world, and when she steps into it, she discovers far more than she ever imagined, not least that things are rarely quite as they seem.