Showing results by author "Elizabeth Cadell" in All Categories

Paul took the paper and read the paragraph indicated, and as he read, the kitchen seemed to perform a slow, revolving movement and come to rest with a grinding jar. It looked like a very nice announcement. The engagement is announced between Sir Paul Saxon, Bt., elder son of the late Sir Bartholomew Saxon, Bt. and of Lady Saxon, of 16 Lowndes Crescent, S.W. 1 and Helga, only daughter of Madame de Brulais, of 89 Selcourt Street, S.W. 3.

Elaine Tracy wins a luxury cruise to Las Palmas for her fiancé and herself. They quarrel, and Elaine breaks off the engagement but decides to go on the cruise alone. Attractive and unattached, once on board she inevitably draws a certain amount of masculine attention and for her, the holiday promises to be extremely diverting. But not all her fellow passengers, she discovers, are quite what they seem.

Old Mrs. Lauder was as loathsome as her lilies were lovely. Every year, the vicar had hoped for a change of heart in this sinister woman whose murder brought fear and suspicion to the village, to the church, and the lilies she had denied them every Easter while she lived. But somewhere in those waxen blooms, there was a message and a danger signal.

Jessica de Vrais was 22, the only child of an elderly and irritable widower. Though they thought alike on almost all matters, they agreed on none; least of all did they see eye to eye on the subject of men. Jessica, pretty and popular, invited them to come and stay; Mr. de Vrais, irritable and suspicious, invited them to go away and stay away. Fortune-hunters all, he said furiously to his daughter. One and all, they were after her money - his money. One look, he shouted, and he could smell them a mile off. Hangers-on. Yahoos. Parasites.

After a short but happy marriage, Lorna and Roderick quarrelled, and separated, and Lorna, all too hastily, left her husband and two sons and fled to Spain to start a new life. Lorna is a person people come to when in trouble, and one day her son Nicholas, now a handsome Naval Officer, appears at the beautiful Casa de Nuestra Señora del Carmen to ask her for advice regarding a lovely Spanish girl whose father is a friend of Lorna’s...and also a well-known smuggler.

For Anabelle Baird, the fortnight’s holiday with her fiancé, Philip Ancell, in Lisbon has not been a happy one. At the Lisbon airport she has a surprise encounter with Angus Pemberton, whom she had last seen seven years ago when he left Steyne under a cloud and went to Brazil. Anabelle’s reunion with Angus and her strange meeting with Luis, a small Portuguese boy, are but portents of her involvement in a mystery which pursues her to Steyne and finds its roots there in the home of Angus’ eccentric old grandmother Lady Evelyn Pemberton.

Mrs. Belchamber was not invited but Mrs. Belchamber came to stay. The changes she introduced into Scotty’s topsy-turvy Kentish farmhouse were past belief. But though Christopher could not help feeling some concern that he had landed on his friend a woman of character as well as three lively French children, the Belchamber influence on his own friendship with Cressida was admittedly an almost unmixed blessing.

Edmund Forth, a handsome young man in his mid-30s (though admittedly, a bit stogy and sober for his years) is engaged to the beautiful but selfish Angela Wilde. His world seems perfect until lovely Fran Nash comes riding into his life on the back of a Portuguese donkey. Fran’s sunny personality melts Edmund’s reserve, and when she changes a few words of a telegram he had entrusted to her, Fran also alters the whole course of his settled existence.

This is the diary of an English girl who falls in love with an eligible young Portuguese, Afonso. The bride recounts, vividly and hilariously, her and her mother's plans for an English country wedding, how they dealt with Uncle George (The Head of the Family), and their success in making sure that on her wedding day the church was filled with music and flowers (both officially banned due to the “mixed” marriage of a Catholic bridegroom and a Church of England bride). She subsequently finds herself living on a horse-rearing estate in a rural part of Portugal, coping with a truculent cook and a primitive kitchen....

Narrated by the great-granddaughter of Elizabeth Cadell! At Edmund Brooke's insistence, his 10-year-old daughter, Vitorina, leaves the closed world of her old and strait-laced great-aunts and their Portuguese mansion - complete with chapel - and journeys to a boarding school in England. Edmund readily accepts the offer of a golfing acquaintance to act as chaperone for Tory. Tory is called upon to let down her facade of meekness and to reveal her real nature: she is shrewd, imaginative and - as the situation calls for - brave.

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.

At Rushing Farm, the Manning household — with Aunt Flora at its head — lives in harmony. With the appearance of George Manning, however, peace is at an end. George is a successful actor, spoilt and selfish. He sees nothing at Rushing but discomfort and boredom, and his relations hope that he will carry out his repeated threat of departing by the next train. But with the arrival of Brian Lorimer and the enchanting Angela Reynolds, George finds something at Rushing which proves a greater attraction than his comfortable existence in London.

Rae knew a good deal about Richard Ashton. Sharing his sister Judy’s flat, she'd lived for a year with his photograph: a dark, handsome, somewhat commanding young man. She'd listened to long extracts from his letters and built up a picturesque if inaccurate picture of his life in Kenya. She knew he declared himself heart-whole and had instructed his sister to find him a wife.

Three girls decide to share a flat in Chelsea: Denny, the sensible daughter of a famous actress; Chess, the long, lean, temperamental daughter of an Earl; Marya, the beautiful daughter of an Argentinian millionaire. The light-hearted story of their life together and of the men they meet is suddenly interrupted by the death of Mr. Flower, their meek little landlord.

When Jeanne spent her summer holidays there as a child with her school friend, Parson’s House on the cliff top had been a seaside haven, and the small Devon village a sleepy, tranquil place where nothing much ever happened. Now, years later, returning there from Canada, divorced and with twin four-year-old daughters, she could hardly expect the place or the people to be the same. But she was quite unprepared for the bustle of the modern town which greeted her, for the shadowy rumors and mystery surrounding the old house....

Nether Stapling Manor nor any of the fine family possessions of this stately home really belonged to Lady Laura, but for more than 20 years she had enjoyed them undisturbed. Many people in the nearby little town of Rivering were well aware of the situation. No one was worried except nice old Cosmo Brierley, trustee of the Estate, and he had no control whatever over this eccentric aristocrat. His one comfort was that Lady Laura was a wonderful custodian of the place, keeping all intact and cherished, even making money by son et lumière in summer.

Tourists found it hard to imagine a quainter, more lovable spot than Deepwood Village; but the villagers were not quite as lovable as their surroundings. Deepwood House, too, was chiefly known as the home of three wicked and rich Stirlings. So one summer, Deepwood attracted some rather strange visitors, as well as the tourists. Like the eccentric new gardener, who let the flowers scorch and talked to people nobody else could see.

On holiday in Portugal to take their daughter's mind off a troubled love affair, the Channing family is befriended by the hospitable Baronesa Narvao - but they soon find her hospitality something of an embarrassment.

Although this story's particular events could not have happened anywhere except in British-India, everyone will feel at home in its sunny atmosphere. The three girls who lived these adventures were completely different, but they formed a close-knit trio and shared all of each other's joys and problems. Poopy possessed a face that seemed blank to everyone but her two friends, who read it with ease.