A Beagle Romance

Mardie was a stranger to the lonely Outback, but she was determined to live in the general store that was her inheritance. However, she fell in love with her very first customer - a handsome taciturn geologist - and was immediately involved in his life. His problems were now hers - and that included two mineral - exploration spies and one troublesome woman.

Everyone was quite sure that wealthy Laurian Vale would accept Philip Dallas; they were a perfect match, such a good-looking couple - and, as Mr Vale remarked, it would do his daughter no harm to have a baronet for a father-in-law. But Laurian herself wasn't so sure: Philip was pleasant enough, but when she was with him she felt no excitement, none of the romantic thrills she had expected from the man who was to be her husband . . . And then she met Roy, a worker in her father's factory, who, in a single meeting, swept her off her feet - it was like her secret dream come true. Dizzy with happiness, she planned to defy her family and marry the man of her own choice - but her father, convinced that Roy was only interested in her money, begged her to wait six months. Laurian agreed, but six months seemed like a lifetime.

This is a story of three young women, widely different in character and temperament; of their work, and what it meant to them; and of the men who were part of their lives. Each of them, in her own way, seeks to make her life successful. Each of them has to face the problems and confliction that arise from this ambition. In the chequered pattern of their lives, the efforts of Frankie (already familiar to readers of 'The Traceys') to build up happiness for herself on the tragic wreck of her past, are thrown into deeper relief by the serenity of Carol, a successful business woman, and the light-hearted adventures of Sarah, gaily and resolutely seeking success on the stage.

At one stroke a car crash robs Jennifer Barbury (Mirabel Rainwood's grand-daughter) of two close friends and puts an end to her own promising musical career. To escape from the constant solicitude of the Rainwood family circle she accepts an invitation to stay with her cousin Christine in the Border country. There the sympathy is less obtrusive and there, too, Jennifer meets Joel and his vivacious four year old niece, and despite Christine's disapproval of Joel, she finds despair gradually yielding to hope again under the influence of his dominant personality and the child's unquenchable zest for life.

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?

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.

Feeling a fish out of water in the London home where her stepmother was remorselessly driving her father up the ladder of success, Charlotte escaped to a post as a secretary-companion at Heronsbridge. Here was the kind of country life she loved. Her employer, Edwina Staverton, was a delightful personality, but towards the rest of the family, especially Mike, the son making stern efforts to get the place on its feet again, Charlotte had very mixed feelings. She had set out to prove her independence - and found something more lasting.