Judith Hagar

Although other people believed her to be Dom Valentim's new girlfriend, Lindsey herself was only too aware that he had brought her to Portugal to work for him. He would never run the risk of a casual affair, or would he?

"How much do you want to leave my brother alone ?" This was Melanie's first encounter with the rich, arrogant Grant Pendleton, king of the Pendleton Timber Company, who had mistaken her for her sister Suzanne, in love with Grant's younger brother, Tim - the brother Grant considered weak willed and incapable of running his own life, or choosing a girl not after his money. Melanie's dislike of this man who dares to try and ruin her sister's happiness and her determination to keep Suzanne and Tim together at all costs, forces her to practise a deliberate deception, a deception that brings many stormy moments as she matches with Grant Pendleton — the man who always wins his battles, by his own ruthless set of rules.

The pleasantness of Alexandrina’s journey through the outback of Australia to the man she is to marry, Paul Tyler is rudely spoilt by the appearance at her destination of Nick, Paul's attractive, arrogant elder brother and the shattering news that she has been jilted. Due to Nick's unhelpful nature, Alexandrina finds herself stranded at the huge sprawling station of Karatangi where she meets Nick's semi-invalid mother and the lively Kathy, his 'baby' sister and grows to know for the first time the security and bondship of family life. She grows to love them both, despite the realisation she will have to leave when Paul returns with his new wife. In an outbreak of forest fire Alexandrina is forced to reveal she is a nursing sister, not the spoilt town girl Nick believes her to be and a new understanding glows between them. Already half in love with Nick, Alexandrina agrees to marry him - a marriage of convenience to enable her to care for his sick mother — and to stay in the home she has come to look on her as her own. Her brief moment of happiness is cut short by the return of Paul and his wife, the beautiful Olivia - the girl Nick was once engaged to and who Alexandrina suspects he still loves.

It seems that Kate Duncan may achieve her ambition to become an actress - until she falls foul of Michael von Kessler! He later reappears in her life, proposing that she takes the place of his fiancee, with whom he has quarrelled, but whom he has to present to his grandfather. As Kate becomes involved in von Kessler's life, she realises that something has been missing from her own. Dare she continue to aspire to touch the stars? Or has she discovered something that will bring greater fulfilment?

Manolito de Vega arrives at the Paris house of Fransesca du Plessis, bent on revenge for all her has suffered during the war between Mexico and France. Fransesca welcomes him and does everything she can to help him, but it seems as if he will meet her kindness only with deceit. When wars breaks out between France and Prussia, and Paris is besieged, Francesca discovers another side to the man she has loved from the beginning.

As she stares out through the train window, Hester Grahame counts the minutes until it crosses the border into France and takes her to safety - safety from the Spanish police for Hester is fleeing from Spain with the ugly accusation of theft hanging over her head. A chance encounter with the beautiful Perlita Contreras presents an opportunity of losing herself in a small village under a different identity, and she seizes it eagerly, not realizing she is being duped. Posing as Perlita brings her into contact with Luis Chavez, as arrogant and ruthless as he is handsome, and from him Hester learns how Perlita tricked them both. When offered the outrageous choice of marrying him in Perlita's stead, or being denounced to the police, Hester's first impulse is to refuse, but she has fallen in love with Luis and agrees to his proposal. Her consent sparks all a chain of strange events which reach an exciting climax in the village bullring.

When her mother dies, young Countess Alexandreya Razin has no one to protect her anymore from her tyrannical father; no one to prevent him from promising her hand in marriage to a sadistic Russian prince. Rather than face what will certainly be a horrible fate in Moscow, Alexandreya embarks on an extremely dan-gerous journey - she flees to Warsaw to seek sanctuary with her aunt. But the road from Moscow to Warsaw in 1812 is not an easy one to travel for a naive and beautiful young aristocrat, as she learns when she is rescued by Major Simon de St. Yves, a spy for Napoleon. She dares not reveal to Simon that her father is a double agent, but Simon discovers it himself, for Count Razin is trying to kill him and it would seem that Alexandreya is part of the plot. Alexandreya and Simon have much to learn - Alexandreya about her real father and family and Simon about her - and have much to endure before they are free to find happiness.