Showing results by author "M. C. Beaton" in All Categories

Morag Fleming, the Countess of Murr, had been bride to the most lecherous lord in Scotland - yet the ravishingly lovely girl had never been touched. So it was that Morag had never borne a child - yet as a young widow, she arrived in London with a fine son in tow. Her background had left her ignorant of the follies and fopperies of fashion - yet soon all of society was at her feet.

Whether dressed in her finery or disguised as a frump, he wanted her just the same! How can plain Frederica withstand a Season's scrutiny after the five beauties before her have married so magnificently? The only solution is to run away from home...

Raven-haired Minerva, eldest daughter of an impecunious vicar, When the Reverend Charles Armitage, an impecunious country vicar in Regency England, announces that raven-haired Minerva, the eldest of his six daughters, is to have her coming-out in London, the news is not well received by the rest of the family. Mrs. Armitage has one of her Spasms and has to be brought round by burning a quantity of feathers under her nose. Annabelle, the nearest in age to Minerva, is clearly jealous, the boys are all surly, and the other girls just start off crying.

Agatha has fallen in love - again. This time it's the local gardener, George Marston, she has her eye on. But competition for his attention abounds. With her shameless determination Agatha will do anything to get her man - including footing the bill for a charity ball in town just for the chance to dance with him. But when George is a no-show Agatha goes looking for him - and finds he has been murdered, having been bitten by a poisonous snake and buried in a compost heap.

The haughty Beverley family is obsessed with regaining Mannerling, the exquisite 17th-century mansion gambled away by their now-deceased father, Sir Beverley. Three of the six Beverley daughters have failed to win back their ancestral estate - settling for love matches over mere bricks and mortar. Now it is Rachel's turn to woo the latest eligible bachelor-in-residence, handsome widower Charles Blackwood.

Kind-hearted Miss Hannah Pym is off to Portsmouth in the company of the beautiful but practical Miss Penelope Wilkins. Miss Pym quickly realises that Penelope needs someone to enliven her sheltered life, someone perhaps like their handsome travelling companion, Lord Augustus Railton. Penelope, however, thinks Lord Augustus is a ne'er-do-well...Hannah's hopes for adventure, on the other hand, are fulfilled when the coach happens upon a footman who faces hanging for a crime he didn't commit.

She was a lady's maid who longed to be a lady. How else could Lucy Balfour hope to win the favor of Andrew, Viscount Harvey, the toast of the town, who seemed ready to take a bride at last? There was only one way to do it, and that was to command his attention. It seemed an impossible dream; first she had to become the peer of her own mistress, the coldly beautiful Lady Angela, who was determined to claim Andrew as her own.

Every Season the beaux mondes of the Regency would hire a house in the heart of London's fashionable West End at a disproportionately high rent for often inferior accommodation and yet No.67 Clarges Street, a town house complete with staff, remains vacant from year to year.

With little to live on but her romantic daydreams - which frequently starred the dashing Marquess of Fleetwater - Jean Lindsay lived a rather dismal life with her nasty, drunken uncle. Jean was always the object of ridicule, that is, until news of her unexpected inheritance spread. Suddenly, her worn dresses became "quaint" and her forthright manner turned magically to "charming", but to Jean's horror, someone wanted her dead!

Kate Hibbert is all too eager to lend a hand to her neighbors. Although she has been a resident of the sleepy village of Lochdubh for only a year, in that time Kate has alienated one too many of its residents with her interfering—and not entirely well-intentioned—ways. When Kate’s neighbor sees her lugging a heavy suitcase to the bus stop, he hopes that the prying woman is gone for good. But two weeks later, Kate’s cousin arrives in town with the news that Kate has gone missing.

Stunningly beautiful, the dazzling Delilah has had plenty of marriage proposals but having once been spurned by Sir Charles Digby, the only man she has ever loved, she is now a hardened heartbreaker who toys with all her suitors. And so it is up to the eccentric Tribble sisters to teach her the meaning of true love again.

When Amy and Effie Tribble, two charming but impoverished spinster sisters, lose out on an inheritance, they place this advertisement in The Morning Post and hire themselves out as professional chaperones. Fiona has been sent to them by her guardians as a last resort, for at 19, the beautiful and wealthy Scottish heiress still has no prospect of a suitable marriage. The Tribbles are puzzled, however, by their charge's demure perfection, until they take her to her first ball and they are forced to confront the truth about her past!

Poor Lucy was living a dream. She had married a gambler, a womaniser and a drunkard. And she refused to admit that his frequent overnight absences were of any significance. The sting came when it was revealed that Lucy's parents had bought her husband for her. And then one night at a ball, Lucy met the charismatic Duke of Habard, and suddenly anything seemed possible.

Lovely, wealthy and well bred, Clarissa Vevian has been unable to find a suitable husband because of her terrible clumsiness. Her petite and fastidious mother has tried to mould Clarissa into a dainty miss to fit the fashion - but all her efforts are doomed to failure. And when Clarissa enters the Tribble sister's home, they fear that their reputation for matchmaking success may be destroyed - along with their carpets and furniture!

Agatha is going through a man-hating phase and so is unmoved by news of the captivating new curate. But when she meets the golden-haired, blue-eyed Tristan Delon, she is swept off her feet . . . along with every other female in the village. She is positively ecstatic when he invites her to dine with him but the next day Agatha is left with a hangover from hell - and his cold corpse suggests that, once again, she's in the frame for murder!

"I am Miss Lamberton. Miss Constance Lamberton. I hoped that you would employ me as your companion." So it was that quiet, reserved Constance came to the household of the haughty but beautiful Lady Amelia. She would serve as the lady's chaperone throughout the season's many festivities, finding herself an unwitting accomplice in Lady Amelia's scheme to trap the very eligible Lord Philip into marriage. But it was not Lady Amelia who won Lord Philip's heart.

Isabella Beverley is blessed with unparalleled beauty but, unfortunately, has been raised in the most snobbish and haughty of families. And when her father gambles away their fortune - including Mannerling, the exquisite family mansion - Isabella discovers that there is very little sympathy for her plight. As the eldest, Isabella is chosen to court Mr. Judd, the roguish bachelor who won Mannerling. Surely no sacrifice is too great to regain Mannerling? But tempting her away from Mr. Judd is Lord Fitzpatrick....

When the boy entrusted to an earl is really a girl, the complications are delightful. The 10th earl of Berham does not know what to do. An attractive 32-year-old bachelor, he has been appointed guardian of the young Freddie Armstrong, the 18-year-old grandson of his late father's dear friend. That's bad enough. Then he discovers that the boy is really a girl! It is against all convention and against his personal code to keep a young lady concealed in his own home. He must find a solution.

"I do not think I want to be married at all. I want to be rich. Very rich...." When Henrietta Bascombe opens a confectionary shop in order to turn her pittance of an inheritance into a fortune, her friends are shocked to hear of such a well-bred lady going into trade. The earl of Carrisdown is both drawn to and repelled by her shopgirl status.

No young lady can be more devoted to the teachings of the infamous blue stocking Mrs Waverley than Felicity, her adopted author. Yet Felicity leads a secret life: that of an author of a scandalous new novel - the tale of a lady 'rake' and her passionate exploits. Yet there is one titled gentleman who is intrigued with this mysterious, headstrong young woman who is taking Society by storm - and Felicity soon learns that real life is infinitely more interesting than fiction!