Betty O'Rourke

Fiona's eyes turned to the other people in this small, select group, then paused. Who was that young woman standing behind and slightly to Colin's right? She knew everyone else gathered here; close friends and neighbours of Michael and herself, but she was quite sure she'd never seen this young woman before. When Fiona Latimer learns that her husband Michael has died of a sudden heart attack alone in his London flat, she is shocked but not devastated. She and Michael had led increasingly separate lives in their last few years. At the funeral, two people arrive unexpectedly, each of whom will have a great deal of influence on future events. There is Anthea, a girl who knows more about Michael than she will admit, and Simon, a man from Fiona's past whom she now realises she should have married instead. Gradually, the secrets of Michael's past are uncovered, and when the final, shocking betrayals are at last revealed Fiona discovers her life with him was not at all what it had seemed.

To escape from a devastating experience in connection with her job in London, Rachel Hayward goes to stay in the little Cornish village of St Morwenna's Bay. At first, it seems to be a place where nothing much ever happens, but things are not quite what they seem. Rachel's fascination with a rocky island out in the bay, reputedly the haunt of the long-dead smuggler Penhaligon, leads to danger and the discovery of a shocking secret -- shared with a man who is also escaping his past.

When she woke up in hospital the name 'Carol Legat' was on her name tag, and although it didn't sound right she accepted it. She began a new life with a man who wanted to help her trace her past. But she wanted to forget. Gradually, the nightmare she had shut out of her mind caught up with her, and then there was only one thing to do: confront it, with the help of the man who loved her.

When Rose Turner's mother dies, life changes completely for Rose. Forced to leave London, and separated from her beloved younger brother Charlie, she has no option but to accept work as an under housemaid, in a large manor house in the country. Here she meets the gardener's boy, foundling Toby Whitstable, whose passion in life is growing roses. They dream that one day they will make a comfortable life together, but this is 1914 and the First World War is about to commence. After this, their lives will never be the same again.

Alison's parents emigrated to Australia, in mysterious circumstances, when she was six years old. Now, her parents dead, she is back to look after her sick Grandmother. Gran hints at secrets, but dies suddenly before they can be told. Alison returns to the little Dorset village where she had lived as a young child, hoping to find answers to the mystery. There, she finds more than she expected, as the secrets of the beautiful Manor House of Nightingales are gradually yielded up.

Couples who fall in love during wartime face particular difficulties, but never more so than when one of them, Ruth Lawson, is an English girl trapped in France during the German Occupation, and the other is Captain Paul Reinhardt of the German Army. Add to this the fact that Ruth is actively involved in working with the local French Resistance, and, inevitably, there must be divided loyalties. A way must be found so that the German Eagle and the English Rose may one day find happiness together.

Why does the elderly Stavros, one-time Partisan leader, object so much to the arrival of Peter, a young German, at his Cretan village? And why is Peter so curious about the secret hideout of these long-ago Partisans? Kristina, in Crete to search for rare wild flowers, becomes involved, and she helps to solve a fifty year-old mystery.

Hired by Madame de Caudebec, Rowena arrives at the chateau, to take charge of producing their annual pageant. But Madame's son, Raoul, resents her intrusion. Madame insists that not only must Rowena direct the pageant, she must also take one of the principal roles, Madame has her reasons...

Alex loves her job as a tour leader, taking groups of holidaymakers to St. Petersburg, in Russia. But she is not at all pleased when she finds thatRichard, her ex-boyfriend, has been assigned to her group as assistant.