Showing results by narrator "Anne Cater" in All Categories

For Olivia Harding, the offer of employment at a small private school came as something of a godsend. With no qualifications, she hadn’t expected to find a job so easily, let alone one that still brought her into contact with the eminent surgeon Haso van der Eisler. Of course, his frequent visits to the school had more to do with his small goddaughter, Nel. That Haso should marry the child’s glamorous mother seemed obvious to all but Olivia’s stubborn heart.

Harriet had met the man of her dreams, the one she’d always imagined herself marrying. But Dr Friso Eijsinck was very attractive, and he seemed to be surrounded by pretty girls. Harriet began to feel that, as far as Friso was concerned, she was only one of many. What she didn’t know was that Friso had met his dream wife, and he was going to make sure that he married her.

Sister Maggy MacFergus was tall and she discovered most men found this offputting. When Dr Paul Doelsma offered Maggy a nursing job in Holland, she took it. There was something special about Dr Doelsma and it wasn’t just that he was taller than her. She was sensible enough to realise that he would never love her back, after all, Paul said he had already chosen himself a wonderful wife. But who was the lucky girl?

A marriage to secure true love. Having fallen in love with Sarah at first sight, Litrik ter Breukel vowed to go slowly because of her youth and innocence. But perhaps he simply needed to propose!

Amelia and Tom had been engaged a long time. Too long - and she had begun to worry about why he should be so reluctant to set a date. So when her father first suggested that the three of them should have a holiday in Norway, Amelia thought that in such relaxed surroundings, she would be able to discuss things once and for all with Tom. Instead, Amelia found Gideon van der Tolck often at her side, and his company became increasingly appealing.…

Serena gave up all hope of getting married when her fiancé jilted her. She was determined to be sensible about the whole thing, that was, until Gijs suggested that she marry him instead. She liked Gjis very much, and knew he was fond of her – that seemed as good a basis as any for a marriage. But it turned out that Gjis was in love, and Serena couldn’t work out who the lucky woman was.

When Doctor George Pritchard asked her to marry him, Phoebe hadn’t needed much persuading. After the death of her aunt, she was penniless and without a job. Besides which, she liked him. And she liked his home, and his life as a GP. And if he had made it plain that he wasn’t in love with her - well, at least she knew where she stood. It wasn’t until after the wedding that she began to wonder if liking was going to be enough….

She was not going to exchange one dull life for another! Far from being brokenhearted when her long-standing and rather dull engagement to Tony came to an end, Prudence welcomed it as an opportunity to break out of her comfortable shell, to make a new and exciting life for herself. So the job that Benedict van Vinke offered - acting as his secretary and looking after his little daughter - had come just at the right time. It would also give Prudence a chance to visit Holland. But would she have such an exciting life, after all, if she accepted Benedict’s cold-blooded proposal?

The lively Barleybridge Veterinary Hospital is bustling with energy, everyone is working hard to ensure that all the animals are looked after. At the same time, the staff are coping with crises in their personal lives. Rhodri, the Welsh vet, is deeply in love with Megan but is struggling to find a solution to their problems with her invalid father. Kate is worrying about her A-level results and getting into veterinary college.

It is 1919 and poverty in the mining village where 16-year-old Megan Williams lives, forces her to leave her loving family to work as a kitchen maid in Bristol. Her sly cousin Lizzie, already a parlour maid at Redcliffe House, is determined to make things difficult for Megan. It was never going to be easy, for both upstairs and downstairs it is a maelstrom of feuds.

The year is 1909, and 15-year-old Rhiannon Hughes and her young stepsister, Mair, find themselves abandoned and alone. They are forced to leave their cottage in the Welsh Valleys and take refuge with Rhiannon’s aunt, a popular music hall star. Rhiannon is instantly dazzled by this glamorous new world, and by the handsome young master of ceremonies, Gus Davenport. But Mair’s feckless mother, Nellie, unexpectedly returns and lures Mair into Cardiff’s sleazy underworld.

In the chaos aboard the sinking Titanic, Mair Parsons is separated from her infant daughter, Catherine, and her travelling companion and future mother-in-law, Ethel Jenkins. The disaster changes all their lives. During her repatriation to Britain, Mair has time to reassess her life and knows that before she can find happiness she must find the truth about her absent mother, even if it means leaving her beloved Wales and Catherine behind.

It was Mrs Croyden who had been taken by the idea of digging up the history of the family. It seemed to be the kind of thing that everyone was doing nowadays. And once started she became more and more enchanted by the project. Even her husband, George, having seen the ancient photograph of a most attractive girl, long since dead, was taken by the project. The snag was that even Great Aunt Maud, the owner of the photograph, had no idea what had happened to the beautiful girl named Isabella. Apparently she had completely vanished and to the rest of the family had simply become “The Unknown”. Would the mystery ever be solved?

When obscure crime writer Ethelred Tressider vanishes, his dogged literary agent, Elsie Thirkettle, is soon on his trail. Finding him (in a ramshackle hotel in the French Loire) proves surprisingly easy. Bringing him home proves more difficult than expected - but (as Elsie observes) who would have predicted that, in a hotel full of stamp collectors, the guests would suddenly start murdering each other? One guest is found fatally stabbed, apparently the victim of an intruder.

Set in the reign of Queen Anne, this is the bold yet touching story of Magda, a young girl partially disfigured by a childhood riding accident who grows to an otherwise beautiful womanhood. Her savage stepfather Sir Adam Congrayle tricks handsome young Esmond, Earl of Mornbury, into marriage with Magda without first allowing them to meet. And the night of the wedding, when Esmond sees Magda for the first time, brings its inevitable crisis…

Evangeline Granby is so tired of her aunt's lectures on morality that she allows a handsome young gallant to take her to an inn where they indulge in a desperate and very improper flirtation. Never expecting to see him again, Evangeline is horrified to discover that he is the Reverend Michael Buckleigh, the newly appointed curate for the village where she lives. The attraction between the pair flares at subsequent meetings but Michael knows that, however spoiled Evangeline may be, her father will never consent to their blossoming love.

On a visit to the ruins of Madderstone Abbey, Penelope Lambe suffers a bad fall and before she slips into unconsciousness, manages to say, “I saw her… It was her”. Some take these words to mean that Penelope saw the Grey Nun, the ghost reputed to haunt the abbey, but Miss Dido Kent is unconvinced and is determined to find the real cause. Dido directs all her mental energy to solving the mystery and revisits the ruins looking for clues.

When Eustacia Hope is jilted at the altar, her parents decide to save her reputation by sending her to stay with her godmother, Lady Agatha Rayner, a clergyman's widow. Eustacia's mother warns her to have nothing to do with Lady Agatha's brother, the notorious Lord Ashbourne, nor with his son, Lord Ilam.

Miss Dido Kent has developed a taste for mysteries and is finding the quiet holiday at her cousin Flora's home rather unchallenging to say the least. So when a neighbour dies suddenly, leaving her entire estate to her young nephew, Miss Dido can't help but be suspicious. When the local doctor pronounces an overdose as the cause of death and publicly accuses the nephew of killing his aunt, Flora prevails upon her cousin's mystery-solving capabilities to prove the nephew innocent. Miss Dido can hardly refuse....

Althea, Cressida and Phoebe have been friends since their schooldays. Now a successful artist, Cressida has never married. Phoebe has a career as an actress, but she has always given priority to her married lover, and never achieved stardom. Only Althea ever married, swept off her feet by businessman Geoffrey Lewis. As is their custom every summer, the Lewises are preparing for their annual fête.