Showing results by author "Christina Dudley" in All Categories

The formerly spirited—and even wild—naval man Horace Langworthy returns to England, having lost his best friend and two years of his life as a prisoner of war, only to find his childhood sweetheart engaged to another man. And though the promises made to him have been broken, he determines now on keeping his own. He will care for the widow and orphan entrusted to him by his late friend Sebastian Barstow. But his attempt at being a new man meets unexpected obstacles, including the very widow and orphan he is trying to save.

Tyrone Ellsworth’s career as a literary lover-in-lieu began at university, where he found amusement and steady spending-silver in writing poetry, love letters, and offers of marriage for fellow Oxonians. So when schoolmate Gareth Boulton purchases his pen in order to win the wealthy Miss Agatha Weeks, what could be the harm? The task will be all the easier, in fact, because Tyrone has known her for years as his sister’s dearest friend.

Out of all the swains she collected, Miss Lily Ellsworth knew Mr. Gilbert Wright was the one she would choose in the end. Rich, well-connected, dashing, daring, he was exactly the sort of man to turn heads, even if he hadn’t much of one himself. Lily didn’t mind—a dim husband would be more easily controlled than a clever one. And after seeing how her father chose his several wives, Lily sometimes doubted clever men even existed.

Somerset, England, 1808. Alice Hapgood is obsessed with studying flora and fauna. With upper-class standards taking a dim view of a lady dirtying her hands, she wears boys' clothing to pursue her passion. And when an assistant position for a handsome member of the Royal Society crops up, she impulsively dons her disguise and risks ruin.

Somerset, England, 1808. Elfrida Hapgood keeps her eyes on the prize. Born to a penniless squire, she's determined to follow common sense and marry an upstanding and steadfast gentleman. So when her brother-in-law's handsomely rakish sibling attempts to woo her, she rigidly ignores the flutter in her chest.

Tomboy Miss Araminta Ellsworth and her dearest friend Aggie were the most backward graduates Mrs. Turcotte’s Seminary for Young Ladies ever produced, more interested in batting and bowling than sewing and simpering. How then could Araminta ever have predicted Aggie’s unprecedented passion for the reprobate Mr. Francis Taplin? If Minta is going to keep her friend’s person and fortune out of Taplin’s dangerous hands, she’ll need to think of something—fast.

Jane Merritt’s impulsive first marriage was a thoroughgoing disaster, so much so that she vowed she would never marry again. But when a young man in every respect the opposite of her first husband appears, she discovers her heart has a will of its own. Philip Egerton has always known the plan for his life: take his Oxford degree, win a fellowship, and serve a curacy until he comes into the living promised by his uncle, at which time he will marry his uncle’s angelic ward. Certainly a woman such as the widowed Mrs. Merritt, with her spotty past, has no place in his vision.

Florence Ellsworth reluctantly lives in the shadow of her family’s notoriety. Mortified that her widower father is on the hunt for his fourth wife, she accepts an engagement to a staid clergyman in the desperate hope for propriety. But she’s unprepared when her sire’s newly hired attorney proves to be young, sincere, and handsome.

Oxfordshire, 1800. When a series of disasters strikes the Barstows, oldest daughter Adela devises a secret plan for their salvation: she will marry their elderly benefactor, Lord Dere of Perryfield. But her pursuit encounters obstacles, first in the form of the handsome household tutor, who openly disdains her efforts, and then from her own unpredictable, unruly affections.

In this modern-day retelling of Pride and Prejudice, the quick-witted and contrarian Lissie Cheng must navigate societal pressures and her growing attraction to the rich and enigmatic Preston Lin.

Charles Ellsworth is a young Englishman on his triumphant Grand Tour when the dissolution of his family fortunes and his own recklessness leave him stranded and in debt. He enters service as a tutor in the household of M. Tremblay, with nothing but his wits and the kindness shown him by an elderly maid to depend on. Pretty Jeanne Martineau played ingenue roles with a traveling theatre company before the manager absconded with the receipts. Now she works as a maid for the rakish M. Tremblay to avoid starvation, but escaping his groping hands requires she don the disguise of a hideous old woman.

England, 1814. Edith Hapgood only has eyes for art. As the darling pride of her family, she has been encouraged in her passion for painting, making it easy for her to overlook other objects of affection. But her distant cousin, one of her chief friends and companions from the age of eleven, has no intention of being forgotten as the creative world opens to her.

Harriet Hapgood has always delighted in arranging the lives of others, while generally doing as she pleased. And after having thwarted her cousin Caroline's engagement, what better way to pass a dull winter than in helping Caroline to a new husband? Her cousin sets her sights on the glittering Mr. St. John Rotherwood, so Hetty cheerfully puts her shoulder to the matchmaking wheel.

With her two older sisters married, managing family affairs has fallen to capable Miss Margaret Hapgood, leaving little time for thoughts of marriage. But a trip to Bath to find her uncle a wealthy bride throws her in the path of a handsome recuperating soldier, who is equally determined to keep his mother's fortune out of grasping hands.

At age thirty, the kindly and helpful Miss Rosemary DeWitt assists the vicar with the parish school, burying her disappointment that life seems to promise nothing more. But a chance encounter with an unknown, brooding gentleman sets her on a new path—one which might lead where her heart never dreamed.