For Harriet Delvaney, the great house of Menfreya, standing like a fortress on the Cornish coast, had always been a citadel of happiness and high spirits. Not until she herself came to Menfreya as a bride did Harriet discover the secret family legend of infidelity, jealousy and murder. And not until the legend seemed to come dangerously to life did Harriet begin to believe the old story that when the tower clock of Menfreya stopped, someone was about to die...

Mount Mellyn stood as proud and magnificent as she had envisioned... But what about its master - Connan TreMellyn? Was Martha Leigh's new employer as romantic as his name sounded? As she approached the sprawling mansion towering above the cliffs of Cornwall, an odd chill of apprehension overcame her. TreMellyn's young daugher, Alvean, proved as spoiled and difficult as the three governesses before Martha had discovered. But it was the girl's father whose cool, arrogant demeanor unleashed unfamiliar sensations and turmoil - even as whispers of past tragedy and present danger begin to insinuate themselves into Martha's life. Powerless against her growing desire for the enigmatic Connan, she is drawn deeper into family secrets--as passion overpowers reason, sending her head and heart spinning. But though evil lurks in the shadows, so does love--and the freedom to find a golden promise forever.

It was Lettice who married the Earl of Leicester, whom Elizabeth I loved. And it was Lettice who was the mother of the Queen's beloved Earl of Essex. That young earl would one day break the Queen's heart.It was always Lettice, the constant spoiler in the triangle of love surrounding Elizabeth...

Richard of Bordeaux, young heir to the throne after Edward the Third, is surrounded by ambitious uncles who believe it would be better for the country if they could take the crown. While Richard shows himself capable of reckless bravery in defeating the Peasants’ Revolt, his extravagance soon brings him into conflict with his people. Before long the king's most powerful opponents confront Richard and threaten to depose him.Here is a vivid picture of Richard’s court, his devotion to his favourite Robert de Vere, his love for two Queens, clever Anne and the little Isabella, and of his headlong journey towards disaster. He is determined to take his revenge on the five lords who have humiliated him, but while he succeeds with four of them, the fifth proves to be far more of a challenge. Henry of Bolingbroke, son of John of Gaunt, is clever, subtle and absolutely set on achieving what his father had failed to …

Her name was Caroline of Ansbach, a woman taught the cruelties of life at an early age. Refusing to succumb to her stepfather's abominable behavior, she married George Augustus, Prince of Hanover--the man next in line to be King. With the dream of someday being Queen to sustain her, Caroline lived a life of danger and quiet desperation, as she yearned for her native Germany, as she steered a dangerous course between the King, her father-in-law, and her husband, as she quietly prepared herself for the glorious future that lay ahead if only she could play the dangerous game....

From the time she was a child, Mary Stuart knew she was Queen of Scotland—and would someday rule as such. But before she would take the throne, she would spend her childhood in the court—and on the throne—of France. There she would fall under the influence of power-hungry relatives, develop a taste for French luxury and courtly manners, challenge the formidable Queen of England and alienate the Queen-Mother of France, and begin to learn her own appeal as a woman and her role as a queen.When she finally arrived back in Scotland, Mary’s beauty and regal bearing were even more remarkable than they had been when she left as the child-queen. Her charming manner and eagerness to love and be loved endeared her to many, but were in stark contrast to what she saw as the rough manners of the Scots. Her loyalty to Catholicism also separated her from her countrymen, many of whom were followers of the dynamic and bold Protestant preacher John Knox. Though she brought with her French furnishings and companions to make her apartments into a “Little France,” she would have to rely on the Scottish Court—a group comprised of her half brother, members of feuding Scottish clans, and English spies—to educate her in the ways of Scottish politics. However wise or corrupt her advisors, however, Mary often followed the dictates of her own heart—to her own peril.

As a young girl in India, beautiful, high-spirited Susanna Pleydell had first became aware of her special gifts to soothe the sick. But she had sacrificed that calling when she married the dashing and sophisticated Aubrey St. Clare. When they return home to London, however, Aubrey has changed. Susanna discovers she has married a man with a weakness for opium and the occult. And even more menacing, Aubrey has met the sinister Dr. Damien Adar, whose hold over him is fierce and frightening...

Tragedy brought young Frederica to the idyllic hamlet of Harper's Green. But as she grew from child to woman, she became powerless against her love for the enigmatic Crispin Tamarisk, and drawn more closely to his family's secrets and curses that seemed directed to her...

Davina Glentyre's happy young life in Edinburgh was shattered by her mother's death and made even more unbearable by her father's sudden marriage to her new governess. Her one joy was her friendship with a poor but charming student, Jamie, whom her father forbade her to wed. When her father suddenly died from arsenic poisoning, the means, motive, and opportunity all pointed to Davina herself. Alone, she escaped to the colonies in Africa. But with the Boer War came danger and the return of dark secrets from the past that threatened her reputation and her very life.

Although the young widow Maria Fitzherbert is a commoner and a Catholic, her dashing suitor is none other than the Prince of Wales, whose unquestioned royal duty is to marry a Protestant Princess.In an age well accustomed to royal mistresses, Maria is as virtuous as she is beautiful. Rather than succumb, she flees to France...only to be irresistibly drawn back to England and into the arms of her Prince—and a passionate relationship that may well cost the Prince his throne.Set against the backgrounds of elegant London and fashionable Brighton, this turbulent, tender story of passion and politics unfolds, with all the great figures of a memorable age playing their appointed roles: The prolifigate playwright Sheridan, the shrewd William Pitt, enchanting Fanny Burney, mad King George III, and frightening Queen Charlotte, who is filled with vindictive hatred toward her rebellious son and his beloved.

Abandoned as a baby, her exotic beauty prompted hushed whispers of gypsy blood. But lovely Carmel March remained shrouded in mystery....When tragedy struck her adopted home of Commonwood House, little Carmel had been bundled off to Australia. Returning to England as a young woman, she became haunted by questions from her past, as well as the shocking revelation that she had been rushed from a murder scene those many years ago.Yet she was convinced that the wrong man had been sentenced for the crime. Was the answer locked away in her childhood memory -- or in the dark, secretive behavior of her old childhood friend, Lucian? And what fateful role did the opals -- always present at crucial moments of her life -- play? For only when she released the dark secrets imprisoned at Commonwood would she find the freedom to love.