Showing results by narrator "Joanna Stephens" in All Categories

An out-of-work governess tries to start a school in the village. Deborah Hollingsworth, grand-daughter of a baron, has come down in the world, reduced to acting as unpaid governess for her relations. When even that option closes, what is she to do? She has a secret plan, but until she can achieve her heart’s desire, she’ll start a modest village school to make ends meet, and bring a little happiness to the local children. What she doesn’t expect is to find a lonely young man even more in need of a little happiness.

Cameron Saxby is contented in his life as a bank clerk in Edinburgh, knowing that if he works hard, he has a good career in front of him. But fate has a different plan for him—as heir to the late Lord Saxby. Inheriting the title drags Cameron away from his unassuming Scottish roots and drops him into the wealthy estate of Maeswood Hall, surrounded by deferential villagers and the resentful family of the late baron, a man who left such a trail of misery in his wake that someone murdered him.

The sinking of the Brig Minerva results in many deaths, while for others, the future is suddenly brighter. But it’s not always easy to leave the past behind.... Evie Parfitt is almost 30, penniless, and with no prospect of ever marrying. She has her hands full helping turn a jewel merchant’s willful heiress into a lady able to move in good society. When the sinking of the Minerva leaves her charge an orphan and she selects a notorious rake as her guardian, Evie is determined to protect both of them from his attentions.

Angie Fletcher is the lively, mischievous daughter of the family. All she wants in her life is music and dancing, plenty of pretty new bonnets, and perhaps just the occasional trick played on her tolerant family. She’s been unusually well-behaved during the season in London, in dread of the least transgression curtailing all those glorious balls.

A destitute man comes looking for help from his cousin, and uncovers some mysteries. Phyllida Beasley is 40 years old, a mousy spinster who devotes her life to caring for her brother, and doing good works in the parish. She’s in a rut, but too timid to set herself free from her domineering friends and her own sense of duty. When a newcomer to the village draws her into his schemes, he challenges her to take a new direction. Can she summon the courage to step out of the shadows, when it means facing up to her terrible secret?

Miss Fanny Winterton has only one wish in her romantic heart: to surrender to overwhelming love. She will accept nothing less than to be struck by the thunderbolt of everlasting passion. Real life isn’t quite so obliging, however. So, while she waits for the fires of love to ignite, she is content to ply her needle as a lowly seamstress for her noble patroness. The honorable Ferdinand Makenham has no wish at all to marry, until one glimpse of Fanny’s sweet expression convinces him that he has found the love of his life.

The dramatic conclusion to the series! Ten years have passed since the sisters of Woodside found happiness. Their grief for their young brother, Jeremy, tragically drowned at the age of 12, has faded. The sadness of losing their home, Woodside, to strangers is but a memory. They no longer wonder just what became of their mother’s fabulous jewels, which should have guaranteed their dowries. They are looking forwards, not back into the past. But the past is not always willing to be left behind.

Dulcie’s sharp tongue has got her into trouble many times and set her at odds even with her own sisters, but when she falls out with a neighbor, he challenges her to swap places with his ailing sister - she will go to Allamont Hall to recover in luxury, while Dulcie must manage the chores of a small cottage. As she learns to milk the goat and cook meat without burning it, she also learns a great deal about humility and honesty - and about love.

Lord Randolph Litherholm has spent a year coming to terms with the death of his twin brother Gervase, the 7th Duke of Falconbury. Now it’s time to set aside his mourning and accept his role as the 8th Duke of Falconbury. It’s not the management of the vast Litherholm wealth that bothers him, for he’s been running the estate for years. No, his reluctance is all due to the marriage that was arranged for his brother, and the expectation that Ran will take on his brother’s bride as well as his title.

Julia Fletcher is the unimportant daughter of the Fletcher family, with neither beauty nor wit nor accomplishments, but always in a scrape. Somehow she never manages to get through the day without breaking or spilling or tearing something. She’s quite the despair of her stepmother. She’s looking forward to their grand new home because it will give her a vast estate to roam over without getting into too much trouble. Or so she hopes.

Mr Kent Atherton isn’t too worried about the sudden discovery that his parents’ marriage was invalid and he is illegitimate—he loves machinery of all types, so what would be more perfect than a career as an engineer? The industrial future is so much more interesting than the traditions of the past. But the son of an earl isn’t supposed to work in trade, and besides, he’s loyalty-bound to support his brother’s little enterprise. Will he ever escape his family’s hold on him?

Susannah Winslade is 26 and drifting into perpetual spinsterhood as she tries to care for her sick stepmother, look after her young brothers and sisters, and keep her father sober and solvent. Her brother Henry isn’t much help, either. She doesn’t mind. Once upon a time, she met the perfect man and until someone like him comes into her life again, she’s happy at home, with her wildflower painting for solace. Samuel Broughton has come to Great Maeswood to make a new start as a country physician.

Annie Dresden is 26 years old, with no fortune, and nothing but a quick, practical mind to recommend her. Taken in by her apothecary uncle after her father’s death, she’s happy to be his assistant, but there’s no future for her as an apothecary. The only proper career for a woman is as a wife and mother, but for Annie the possibility is dwindling. When a long-forgotten suitor returns, it seems fate has given her another chance.

Caroline Milburn and her younger sisters live in two cramped rooms, struggling to survive by their skills in lace making and weaving. When their previously unknown grandfather drowns on the Brig Minerva and bequeaths them a cottage in the country, their lives seem set to improve. But where will the daughters of a linen draper fit into rural life, now that they are better off? How will Caroline find husbands for her younger sisters? Why have purses of money been buried in the garden? And why are the neighbours so interested in them?

Poor and widowed, Lucy finds a post as chaperon to two young ladies...It sounds like easy work, well suited to her sociable nature, but the sisters squabble over their suitors, and there are tensions below the surface of the seemingly happy family. Then there is the charming Mr Audley, who is more interested in flirting with Lucy than in discovering where his sisters have disappeared to. And as for Lucy’s uncle, she’s quite convinced he is hiding something. Curiosity is Lucy’s abiding sin, and one day it will get her into trouble.

Mr Bertram Atherton has one foot in the Ancient World, emerging from his library only to eat and sleep. But when the chaplain of his uncle, the Earl of Rennington, is brutally murdered, it is revealed that he was never ordained and so the earl’s marriage was invalid, and his children rendered illegitimate. Bertram’s father is now the heir to the earldom, and Bertram after him. It’s a horrifying change of circumstances for a man only interested in intellectual pursuits.

Johnny Fletcher is exactly where he wants to be - a Fellow at Cambridge, with a lifetime of scholarly pursuits in front of him. He’s not allowed to marry, but he has no need for a wife when he has his books for company. But his beautiful sister is on the brink of a wonderful marriage to an earl’s son, so he joins his family for a house party at the earl’s estate. At least there will be a decent library he can hide in. But when he intervenes to protect a young woman from unwanted attention, he finds himself caught up in scandal.

Margaret is the quiet one of the Winterton family, happy only in her own home with her sisters protectively gathered around her. But her father’s death and mountain of debts tear the sisters apart and uproot them from Woodside. As a poor relation, Margaret must become a lowly paid companion to two elderly aunts she has never met. There is no welcome for Margaret at their gloomy house, Pendarreth, but the surrounding woods bring her solace - and unexpected danger.

One man with a secret. A family torn apart by the consequences. Miss Teresa Nicholson, daughter of an earl’s chaplain, has suffered two dreadful shocks. First, her father was brutally murdered, and then his will bequeathed her his entire fortune, but only if she marries a gentleman. Tess knows the reason for that — she loves a man who works with his hands, and that’s unacceptable for the niece of an earl. But if she can marry a compliant man who won’t interfere with her life, she’ll be free to do as she pleases, won’t she? If only she could find this mysterious fortune…

Michael Plummer has never forgotten the woman he fell passionately in love with a few years ago. He was courting a beautiful heiress, in the hope of rescuing his family from financial ruin and the loss of their home, but it was her companion who won his heart. When she ran away from him, Michael was plunged into despair. Now both women have returned, and he has a chance to correct the mistakes of the past. But does he have the courage to do the right thing this time?