Sylvia Thorpe

The ame of the dark and decaying old mansion was spoken only in dread whispers. And yet it was to this isolated place on the rugged English seacoast that the exquisitely lovely young Deborah Chantrey had come--summoned by the master of Mullion Hall, Deborah's uncle and now her guardian. Why had he wanted her to come here, she whispered. Gentle and shy Deborah was out of place among her swashbuckling young cousins. With fear and foreboding she began to suspect the sinister nature of their activites at Mullion Hall. And then one wild and stormy night Deborah was forced to be their accomplice as she rode with them on a terror-filled journey. Now she too was deeply mired in the evil at Mullion Hall--an evil from which even a deepening love seemed only to increase the hopelessness of escape.

She was beautiful, young, and an heiress. Suddenly, she became an orphan - and the ruthless Colonel Fenshawe and his despicable family were offering her sanctuary. The Colonel cared nothing for Charmian, but he intended to force her into a marriage with his son, purely out of greed for her fortune. Unbeknownst to them all, the dashing Sir Piers Wychwood, a neighbor, had caught a glimpse of Charmian and could not put her out of his mind. Charmian did not know it then, but she'd already won the heart of her savior....

CAROLINE WAS QUITE A BEAUTY... She was a young red-headed woman with all the impetuous gaiety that goes with red hair. And though her life as governess to her uncle's children seemed rather dreary, nothing could stifle her romantic spirit. And it was just this romantic spirit that caused Caroline to do a dangerous and impulsive act. An act that would nearly lose her all her friends. An act that would jeopardize both her liberty and honor. Only one person could save Caroline from such a fate--Guy Ravenshaw. And he had no taste for romantic ladies.

Returning by moonlight to the inn where his true love, the landlord's daughter, awaits him, the highwayman is unaware that the king's soldiers also lie in wait for him, concealed in the girl's bedroom.

Bronwen, the beloved foster-child of a wealthy scholar, had been deprived of her rightful legacy by her cruel and fanatical kinsmen. Reduced from her postion as mistress of Twyning Hall to a virtual servant-girl, she fled the only home she had ever known, only to become the victim of a horrifying witch hunt. All seemed lost--until a mysterious rider boldly swept her onto his fiery-eyed steed, and carried her off into a future neither could have foreseen...

KATHARINE WAS TOO BEAUTIFUL.... After all she had been educated to earn her living only as a governess. And being exceptionally beautiful was certainly no asset for such a position. So when Katharine's uncle and his fashionable young wife invited her into their home she was overjoyed. But the sweet and innocent Katharine found herself living a life very different from the one she had expected. Katharine suddenly found she had fallen into the hands of adventurers. Was she clever enough to meet their dangerous challenge?

Beautiful, rebellious Charity Shenfield was unaware of the secret hidden in her heart her love for her childhood friend, Darrell, heir to the great Conyngton estate...until civil war came to England, and her jealous evil cousin Jonas swore vengeance on him. When Darrell left for battle, only Charity was left to care for his family to stand between Jonas's madness and the man she would give her life for....

Lovely Dorothea Stratton's life had always been sheltered and serene. Then her brother gambled away the entire family fortune, and she knew things would never be the same again. She assumed that she would remain quietly at Gallows Farm, never being able to marry now that her dowry was in the hands of that detestable card shark, Kelvin Rainham. Then one day a wounded stranger was brought to the farm. He called himself Anthony Forrest and Dorothea promptly began to fall in love with him. She had no way of knowing that he was really Kelvin Rainham. How long would it be before Dorothea found out that this handsome stranger was the scoundrel responsible for her family's shame and ruin....

The Pembroke coast was a pleasant place for a late holiday, but Nicola's thoughts were all on returning to her librarian's job in Surrey and, very soon, getting married to Laurie Barnwood, her secure childhood sweetheart. Suddenly, one letter from Laurie changed everything. Without her realising it, her father's recent remarriage had introduced new currents of possessive jealousy into the family and Laurie himself is going to marry Nicola's pretty clinging young step-sister. To run from a world which had once seemed so contentedly settled and now has no place for her, Nicola is happy to escape back to Wales and a job in the clifftop hotel which will occupy all her waking energies while her numbed mind grapples with the shock of Laurie's loss. Ironically, once he is married, it is Laurie who seems loth to lose contact with Nicola, and she is too trusting to see what complications this may bring. Too soft, would be the opinion of Simon Ashtead, local antiquarian bookseller and a coolly detached observer of life's foibles. Simon offers a feather-weight friendship, suited to Nicola's vulnerable mood. Before she can embark on a deeper relationship with anyone she realises it is up to her to negotiate the shattering rocks and falls on her life's river and emerge in a new stretch of water, her own person.