Iris Bromige

When Pauline Avon went as secretary to Mr. Cedar, she thought she had found the perfect job. She was entranced by the beautiful house, the quiet Dartmoor countryside, the friendliness of the family - and she soon realised that she and Mark, the eldest son, were drawn together in something more than mere friendship. But she sensed that under the surface, something was wrong. Old Mr. Cedar was writing the biography of his son John, killed twenty years before in a climbing accident, and the memory of his dead son obsessed him so much that his other children, shut out of his affections, had grown up resenting their father, and each other. Then, after a foolish misunderstanding, Mark began to suspect that Pauline and Derek, his younger brother, were having an affair - and Derek, for reasons of his own, was content to let him go on believing it. Suddenly Pauline's happiness turned to despair.

Mirabel Rainwood was a born matriarch, and it was her influence which kept the family together. Living within a small radius, the numerous members of all generations met not only for Occasions but for Mirabel's traditional tea at Brendon Lodge on the first Saturday of every month. Bridget, 'the stepdaughter', had always remained on the fringe of the family. It was when Felix's engagement to Susan Rainwood surprised them all that they began to feel that they should really do more about Bridget, keep an eye on her. For everyone had expected the boy-and-girl friendship between Felix and Bridget to end in marriage, and indeed Bridget herself had never thought otherwise. To have the family's attention focused on her, both at the wedding and later, proved to be a mixed blessing to Bridget, although Mirabel's concern for her was genuine, and the sympathy of Robert Rainwood came to mean a great deal.

Always unsure of herself, overshadowed from childhood by her sophisticated sister Eileen, Heather had to struggle to rebuild her life after Don broke their engagement. She found some comfort in her love of the countryside and her job in a small market garden. Unfortunately though, her employers were close friends of Alex Carr, Don's boss. Heather detested him at first - his manner towards her was insufferably cold and superior. But gradually, her feelings for Alex changed - and then the dazzling Eileen began to take an interest in him too.

Elizabeth had never met the Rainwood family to whom her uncle Derek was related by marriage. But her Aunt Pamela lost no time in rectifying the omission when they came up to Northumberland for the funeral of Elizabeth's father. With his death a busy, useful but protected life ended for Elizabeth, leaving her to find a new home and a new career. But happily two of Aunt Pamela's Rainwood nieces had both married in the north and, what was more, Christine and Giles Coalville over at Castleton needed to take on an assistant in the office of their Cheviot tree nursery. It seemed a perfect opportunity for Elizabeth who took to her new-found Rainwood relations with gratitude and real pleasure. The problem of her younger sister Carol, was not to be solved so smoothly, however. For Carol had taken up it appeared with a highly unsuitable older man - a rake, Elizabeth thought him, despite Carol's mockery at the old-fashioned label. But Richard Menteith was a rake, Elizabeth was certain, and when he appeared at Castleton the surface composure of her new life was to be more than ruffled.

Celia had thought she wanted nothing more than to live out her life in Marchwood, to dig her roots in there where she belonged, to be part of it and its way of living. Looking back, it seemed odd that one man could have caused such havoc in her life. Dr. Laurence Deverel was a man's man. Being a scientist, he based his conclusions on experiments which had gone before, and his conclusions about women were not favourable. The young men Celia had known had always treated her as an equal, given her free companionship she took for granted as the natural order of things. It was not until long after she had crossed swords with Laurence and found hers a double-edged one that she realised the real quarrel between them. Could two such conflicting personalities make a success of friendship, love, or marriage?

Nick Barbury was handsome, cool, successful and a persistent bachelor. He also managed to keep his private life as private as anyone could who happened to be a member of the Rainwood family and was required to attend Grandmother Mirabel Rainwood's monthly teas with a decent show of regularity. To his sister, Frankie, and to his cousins Nick was a frequent source of exasperation, especially when he managed to sidestep involvement in Frankie's various crusades on behalf of the unfortunate and the afflicted. Deborah Ryon was Frankie's latest good cause, and certainly looked in need of care and protection as well as a job when they first met. But Nick didn't have a job to offer and was not going to be organised by his sister into making one, and upsetting his well-organised routine. It was to take Nick eighteen months to realise that life could have more to it than being a highly successful biographer, that sometimes the head must submit, and the heart must win.

Stella Verney was distressed when she heard that John Marbury was about to sell The Cormorant Hotel, without mentioning it to her until he had to. Her future had seemed so assured both in the hotel and with John, but now, though John would still be manager, everything was going to be different. She was right: the hated new owner was to alter her life completely, and her ideas about the man she was to marry.

Joanna was a rich man's daughter, but now she was poor and had to work for her living. Coming to the delightful Scilly Isles to do so indeed made an entirely new life for her. But it was one that she would have enjoyed immensely, if only her employer did not so obviously distrust her capability for hard work. Yet it was through the disapproving Don that she found the happiness that she had thought impossible.

Georgina Shannon struggled to recover from a shattered love affair by burying the past and with it her life-long friendship with the Conways, who were responsible for her broken engagement. But Hugo Conway believed Gina's road of escape was the wrong one and he refused to be dismissed as an enemy. He tells her: "You won’t escape it, the Conway touch, Gina. It's part of your life that you can't cut out." But Hugo had a hard task before him, for Gina was a difficult person to handle.

This is the story of Teresa Rayburn who soon after her twentieth birthday learned that the man whose companionship she had treasured as a child and whom she had later grown to love, was going to marry her sister. When Rex married Janet, Teresa felt that she had no place in their lives, and to escape she accepted a post in a remote hotel on the fringe of Exmoor. There, to her surprise, she found that the gap which Rex had left and which she had thought would never be filled, began to close. Her meeting with Kevin Brooke began the change and the progress of their stormy friendship against the colourful background of hotel life completed it. This is a romance which is obviously the work of an experienced novelist. Written with sincerity and charm it has a quality of appeal which must immediately raise it to the forefront of romantic stories.

On New Year's Day, Nicola's mother wished her "a happy, flowering year". Though the first day of it produced nothing but thistles from her meeting with Garth Courtney, as the months went by they began to blossom in a quite unexpected manner.

"So this was Aunt Cathie's ogre," thought Clare. Younger than she had imagined. She had assumed him to be middle-aged, even elderly. This man she guessed to be in the middle thirties. Just as forbidding as Aunt Cathie's remarks had indicated, though, with dark eyes under heavy black brows, a clean shaven mouth which had a grim line, and a square jaw. The black hair had receded over his temples, and his face had a sallow, gaunt look. She knew little about him, except that he owned a pottery in the west country, and was a widower with a young daughter. Little did she guess that she would become governess to Garth Melrose's daughter within a few short weeks, the object of his possessive sister's jealousy, and a pawn in his brother-in-law's game.

When Christine Rainwood goes to stay at the pleasant old Border hotel with her friend Rachel their intention is only to take a holiday before setting about the task of deciding their future careers. But for Rachel the hotel itself provides the solution. It is for sale, and she enjoys taking over and trying to make a success of it while Christine finds an ideal forestry job nearby, helping Giles Coalville work his newly-inherited but run-down estate. Keeping Giles the employer and Giles the friend in separate compartments proves increasingly difficult for Christine, but she meets more immediate troubles when Rachel comes entirely under the sway of Neil Camberley and his too-enveloping charm. The rift which he attempts to drive between the two friends is only repaired after heartache and near-disaster, but the presence of Giles is a support for Christine which brings her eventual happiness.

Returning to Hartfield after her father’s death, Linda Dawley found a certain resentment directed towards her. Certainly, old Mr Ferndale was determined to make up to her the years of unhappiness she had lost, nursing her sick father. And when he gave her the protection of his family and a chance to start a new life in the enchanting paradise of Bermuda, he felt he had achieved his aim. Surrounded by this gay and torrid atmosphere, Linda began to forget her past hardships and to realise how much she was in love with Angus, the black sheep of the family. She also became aware of the intense hostility she had aroused amongst certain relatives. Relatives who had resolved to have her disgraced and thrown out of the family. But Linda had at last found something to live for. It controlled her, caressed her and cherished her; if that, too, was taken away, then only one defeat would remain.

Trying to fill the void in her life after the death of a much-loved brother, Delia Lydgate goes to stay with her grandparents in their peaceful Surrey home. The gentle countryside is bliss after London's social bustle and Delia is delighted to have the chance of becoming secretary to a local writer, Sophie Dilney. Delia's mother is equally delighted at her daughter's friendship with another neighbouring household, and hopes for a romance which will rewrite a page of her own youth. But Delia finds herself being drawn by some strange force to Gavin Dilney, her employer's sardonic nephew. The hopelessness of her love seems complete until an unforeseen accident leads to a full explanation and a happiness untarnished by memories of the past.

Her 21st summer was an enchanted time for Kay Grant. She was home again, her training a a librarian finished, living with the family in their old country home. Most of all the summer was enchanted because Pat Stewart, whom she had always loved, was next door. But Kay’s dreams for the future were about to be shattered. She discovered that Pat’s feelings for her were no more than friendly affection. He was saving his love for the one person Kay could not challenge... her sister Barbara...

Melanie gives up her secretarial work in London to return to her old country home, Hazelwood, which her aunts now run as an hotel. Settling easily into country life again, she finds herself caught up in romance and the intrigue which surrounds it. She becomes involved with two men, the impressionable Robin Vinchard, a friend of her childhood, and a newcomer to the neighbourhood, the cynical, much-travelled ex-reporter, Ian Lancing. Her romantic idealism colours her view of Robin and challenges the bitter scepticism of Ian, who has experienced some of the harsher realities of life. Both of these men have much to teach her, and the lessons bring confusion and unhappiness before she finds the right road.

The story of conflicting personalities and of a girl who would not look at the truth and a man who told it - too plainly! For one as sensitive as Karen, a person of Mrs. Ferndale's crushing personality was hard to bear; but to suggest that Karen's own husband had preferred to spend his leave with her, his mother, was too much ... and yet Karen learnt that it was true. Curiously enough, it was Simon who told her the plain unvarnished truth, and in the end she saw his wisdom and her own folly.

Jill Courtland's friendship with the Dynards is frowned upon by her grandfather, Andrew Courtland, a wealthy man who rules his business empire and the Courtland family with ruthless power. In his eyes, the Dynards are feckless, artistic types who have a bad influence on his lively young granddaughter, and he has no intention of allowing her to become involved with Paddy Dynard when he has other plans for her in the shape of Martin Teviot, the son of his friend. But Jill, with a mind of her own, dislikes Martin Teviot from the first violent impact with him, a dislike which he returns with equal fervour. Her grandfather's match-making campaign and the Courtland family's gossip and intrigue make life difficult for Jill in her year of decision.