Kathryn Blair

The long, feathery fronds of the tamarisks waved above Jenny's head as she sat where the Sumatran jungle met the sea. She was trying to take in all the implications of her plight. She looked at the black silhouettes of the palms, at the starlit sea, at the pale sand spreading back into the quiet of the forest. Until a ship came by - and who could say how many days or weeks that would be? - she was cut off here with an unpredictable stranger. He had said that in a crowd they might not even notice each other, but Jenny knew better. Almost certainly that arrogant gaze of his would pass over Jenny Manson, but there wasn't a woman anywhere who could come within a dozen yards of him and not be conscious of his magnetism. In any case, they weren't in a crowd. They were alone, quite alone on a tropic beach.

Kay found her situation incredible. She had come out from England to do a welfare job - straightforward enough in itself, though in strange exotic surroundings - and here she was marooned on an uninhabited island in the Indian Ocean, alone with two men of utterly different personalities. There was Jeff, handsome and lazy, who loved good times and had never talked of marriage, but who might fall in love from the sheer lack of anything else to do. And there was this other man, big, dark and incalculable, and apparently not at all fond of women, but who would be the one to get the three of them out of there if anyone could. In fact they were not stranded for very long, but by the time they got back to civilisation Kay knew that her whole life had taken a new direction - whether for good or ill, she could not tell.

Rennie Gaynor found Kent Bradfield’s criticisms of the way she and her father ran their farm quite intolerable. It was true that they were rather poor and unused to South Africa, but Kent’s assurance and good looks annoyed her. It was not until Rennie’s sophisticated friend Jackie came to stay with the Gaynors and showed a distinct interest in Kent, that Rennie herself found that her feelings for Kent were something deeper than anger. In “Mayenga Farm” Kathryn Blair describes how these two stubborn people, Rennie and Kent, came to realize that they needed each other.

He disliked the girl he thought she was The idea of impersonating her stepsister hadn't seemed so bad back in Johannesburg. But here in Pietsdorp it was much, much different. Caught up in the life and personalities of this tiny African town, Sarah was feeling the consequences of her deceit. But mostly she wanted, and yet couldn't, to appeal to Brent Milward - as herself and for herself. She was in love with a man who didn't even know her name!

To hop from Kensington to Nyasaland at a moment’s notice was disturbing, but so intent was Lou Prentice on her mission, that she scarcely noticed the flight. Lou was to pick up her cousin’s little boy, suddenly left an orphan, and bring him home. It proved to be a very difficult matter!

Veronica was going home in defeat She'd come with such high hopes to Nigeria - to help her brother, Stephen, through the last six months of his assignment there. Her presence in the small masculine society at Murabai had been disturbing. But not nearly as devastating as the effect Clin Peterson had on her. Of course, she'd been a fool to fall in love with the coldly commanding district officer. Well, there was always a career, for she'd never love again. Perhaps away from Africa the pain of loving would fade....

At the age of twenty, Claire Wyndham went out to the lovely island of Santa Catarina. She was prepared to be enchanted by the beautiful island - but she was very far from prepared for the overwhelming attraction of the forceful Portuguese aristocrat, the Conde Manuel de Castro. Claire could not avoid being thrown constantly into his company, but from the beginning there was antagonism between the charming and imperious Conde and the young and sensitive English girl. Manuel was polite, devastating - but clearly uninterested in Claire as a woman. How, after all, could he be otherwise when the beautiful singer Francesca Alvares was so obviously suited to him in every way?

Once You Have Found Him What could be more delightful than to spend the sunny July days of Goodwood Week in a beautiful Georgian country mansion, with masses of expensive clothes to wear, pleasant people for company, and nothing to do but enjoy oneself? Poppy Duncan was in that enviable situation, but with one underlying, fatal flaw in her happiness -- she was there on false pretences. Plantation Doctor "You don't care for our doctor? Women never do. He's too careless of their emotions, too much the immovable bachelor," observed an acquaintance to Lynden Russell when Lynden found herself in unexpected circumstances at the Denton Rubber Plantation in West Africa. The doctor in question, Dr. Adrian Sinclair, had rescued Lynden from an unfortunate predicament, but had not hesitated to let her know his opinion of her folly - "Didn't you realize before you came that West Africa is no place for an unattached woman?" In her anger at Dr. Sinclair's highhanded way, Lynden told herself that she could not care less about what he thought. She would never have dreamed that a day might come when she would want his good opinion of her more than anything else. Paris — and My Love Marianne was young, she was in Paris —that perfect setting for romance — and she was in love with Nat. The only snag was that she was not at all sure of Nat's feelings for her. Did he have any more than a brotherly affection for her? Could she possibly hope for more in the face of the very stiff competition provided by the glamorous Lisette? It was a good job, Marianne reflected, that she had nice, kind Roger Senloe to turn to and to advise her.

Susan had come to spend three months on the coast of Portugal as nurse-companion to a Portuguese noblewoman. Her patient gave her no trouble, but her brother - the imperious Visconde Eduardo de Corte Ribeiro - was a different proposition, and she found him oddly disturbing. It was safer, she decided, to see him only as a stony-hearted aristocrat who used his charm to keep others in subjection. Safer, but none too easy.

Did she really want to be left alone. Lynden Russell was dismayed on her arrival in West Africa to discover that all the arrangements made for her had fallen through. However, she certainly wasn't going to admit that to the intimidating Dr. Adrian Sinclair! When he took the solution to her difficulties into his own hands, she was very angry at his high-handed interference - but she soon began to wish that his care of her were not quite so impersonal.

How wonderful to be offered the opportunity of working in Portugal's Valley of Flowers! But on arrival Nurse Linda Grey, assigned to look after four-year-old Jacinto de Filano, is shocked at the repressed, unchildlike life the little boy's leading in such idyllic surroundings. Determined to introduce more fun and freedom to Jacinto's young life, she faces formidable opposition both from his old-fashioned great-aunt and his handsome father, the Marquez de Filano — an overpowering and over-bearing man whom Linda dislikes intensely on sight. Could her feelings about her job and her employer ever change?

Steve Cortland was certainly a man of immense attraction but when he acquiesced in the sell-out of her father's plantation and then calmly announced that he would be the new general manager, Peg felt immune to all the attraction he could bring to bear...

Susanna LeGrande lost her fiance, her brother and her beloved home to the Union Army. But her grief only strengthened her resolve to spy for the Confederacy. The once-pampered Southern belle charmed her way through Washington society, falling brazenly into the arms of Rear Admiral Mitchell B. Longley, a commanding Union sailor. She seduced, used…and loved the powerful man.In the heat of ecstasy, Susanna forgot Mitch was her enemy—she surrendered her body and her heart. But her ruthless betrayal in the name of the South would cost Mitch everything—his command, his men and very nearly his life. She left a shattered, soulless man in her wake.And now Susanna's dearest love, her dearest enemy, will show her that the sweet kiss of vengeance is a game he, too, can play….

Never to Love by Anne Weale After a hard, poverty-stricken childhood, Andrea had managed to become a successful fashion model. She had grown up in proverty and fear and she decided that the next step was to marry a rich man. Determined to marry only for money and security, and when Justin Templar - handsome, rich, young and intelligent - asked her to marry him, she was delighted to accept. It seem like an ideal situation, but why did Justin want to marry her? Then she began to realise what it was to live without real love. What sort of future had she created for herself? And was there any way of escape? A Long Way From Home By Jane Fraser (pseud. of Rosamunde Pilcher) It was a far cry from the lonely, windswept island of Folda, in the Hebrides, and the simple life to which Katy Kelsey had been accustomed, to the luxurious surroundings of her wealthy grandfather's Mediterranean villa. As she lay, blissfully idle, on the villa's private beach, Katy felt rather like Cinderella—for only a few days ago she and her grandfather had been strangers to one another, and it was only the fact that she was now alone in the world, and destitute, that had given her the courage to seek him out and ask his help. Now he was urging her to stay with him for good, and the prospect of a life of luxury—and the constant company of her new friend Adam Maxwell, the family solicitor—was very tempting. But what was she to do about the all-important Jamie Donald? The Golden Rose by Kathryn Blair To Gwen, the prospect of a visit to Portuguese East Africa would have been an exciting one at any time, but now she hoped, too, that it would help her to recover from an unhappy love affair. As for the motive behind her uncle's invitation, it a seemed straightforward enough one. He wanted to send his small motherless son home for an English education. True, he had hinted at opposition from his wealthy Portuguese in-laws, but surely thought Gwen, it was only a matter of putting his foot down. Not until she arrived did Gwen realize that opposition to her uncle's plans came from a different quarter - from the powerful and self-assured Duque de Condeiro, whose position as the boys godfather made him a doubly formidable opponent. But Gwen was determined to help her uncle and, incidentally, to get the better of that annoyingly imperious autocrat.

Susan had come to spend three months on the coast of Portugal as nurse-companion to a Portuguese noblewoman. Her patient gave her no trouble, but her brother - the imperious Visconde Eduardo de Corte Ribeiro - was a different proposition, and she found him oddly disturbing. It was safer, she decided, to see him only as a stony-hearted aristocrat who used his charm to keep others in subjection. Safer, but none too easy.

Karen was young and vulnerable and very much in love with her new husband, and it was a shattering blow when she found, only a few days after the wedding, that he had only married her to further his own career — as a Government official in the romantic South Sea Islands. What was she to do now? One thing was certain — she could never stop loving him.

Julian Stanville, Chief Commissioner of a group of islands in the South Seas, was an ambitious schemer out to advance his career by marrying the Governor's daughter, or so Elizabeth and Amanda were told. To teach him a lesson, they planned to exchange identities and watch him making love to the wrong girl. Unfortunately they left out of their calculations the possibility that "the wrong girl" might fall in love with him .. .

Force of circumstance had obliged Sandra Cunningham to take a post as typist-companion to an elderly author, but her new life on the prosperous Tegwani Citrus Estate turned out to be so pleasant that she soon found herself at home. Mrs. Tremayn, in fact, thought so highly of her that she began to engineer a romance between her and her nephew, Philip; and this too, showed every sign of coming to a satisfactory conclusion. The only fly in the ointment was the owner of the Tegwani Estate, Brin Masterson, cynical, arrogantly sure of himself, and making no secret of his contempt for helpless English girls and his dislike of the philandering Philip. Nevertheless, Sandy soon began to wonder if he were not right in his opinion of Philip — to have, in fact, second thoughts about both men. But could she walk out on Philip now ? And as for Brin, how could she ever hope to attract him — especially once his old and dear friend Katrina had arrived on the scene?

From the moment Lindsey Gresham and Stuart Conlowe met, on board the ship that was taking them both to Cape Town, they felt attracted to each other. And when Lindsey received a cable informing her of the death of the aunt to whom she was travelling - an event which left her alone in the world and penniless - Stuart at once suggested that she should marry him. They were, he said, very good friends, and their marriage would remain on a purely friendly footing until their mutual liking had grown into love. But marriages in name only, rarely prosper; and the difficulties in Lindsey's case were further complicated by the advent of the other woman in Stuart's life.