Masquerade Historical

He was acting like a jealous man. But the moment the thought entered her head, Tanya dismissed it as utterly impossible. A person had to have feelings in order to be jealous, and Prince Nikolai hadn't earned the name Ice King for nothing. He seemed devoid of all emotion ­ particularly love. What had happened to him, wondered Tanya, to turn his heart so cold that no woman had been able to thaw it? The answer to the question was shocking, and it turned Tanya's feelings into a confused mixture of pity...and love.

Countess Tatya Kalinskaya resigns herself to a bleak future as she watches her friends one by one fall in love and get married. She is still beautiful, but who would want a widow who is unable to walk or dance? Then Vassily Karachev returns to St. Petersburg and suddenly Tatya finds a kindred spirit. He tells her that she needs a lover, someone to talk with, to bring her flowers and gifts and a little excitement, perhaps, even a few kisses... What possible harm can there be in this innocent game ­ unless one of them should really fall in love?

There was only one man at the court of King Charles II that Miss Mary Hook could contemplate marrying. Prince Rupert was undoubtedly the most interesting, most intelligent, most honourable, chivalrous and handsome man at Court. If only she could find a man like him, but attainable, and country-loving, with no desire to spend his life at Whitehall. Perhaps she had, and thrown away her chance when she had refused to marry Francis Hartwell. He had saved her from the plague, but she would not marry him out of gratitude. Now she realised what she had thrown away, could she, dare she, say to him that she had changed her mind?

SHE WAS SPANIARD… AND BEYOND HIS REACH When Doña Magdalena de Ortega was summoned to take her place next to Nicholas Tregarron, Queen Elizabeth's envoy, at dinner with King Phillip of Spain, little did she guess that her days of innocence were numbered. Soon she would be caught up in the nightmare of the Inquisition. For Magdalena's proud beauty bewitched men first her cousin's fiancé, then the sinister black robed priest, Father Ludovic and she stood accused of witchcraft and heresy. One man was prepared to save her. For her sake, Tregarron would disobey his Queen and become an outcast from his own country. What would he demand in return? And, when Doña Magadalena learnt the true nature of his mission, would she turn from him in hatred?