Showing results by narrator "Anne Cater" in All Categories

Everyone in her family had agreed that Mary Pagett would one day make some man a perfect wife. The problem was that the only man Mary had even thought about marrying was eminent heart specialist Roel van Rakesma. But it had been clear from the start that his only interest was in curing frail hearts, not broken ones!

Miss Dido Kent has developed a taste for mysteries and is finding the quiet holiday at her cousin Flora's home rather unchallenging to say the least. So when a neighbour dies suddenly, leaving her entire estate to her young nephew, Miss Dido can't help but be suspicious. When the local doctor pronounces an overdose as the cause of death and publicly accuses the nephew of killing his aunt, Flora prevails upon her cousin's mystery-solving capabilities to prove the nephew innocent. Miss Dido can hardly refuse....

Esmeralda Jones was a very nice girl. It seemed to Esmeralda that she was also invisible to the opposite sex. Perhaps the real reason for this was the impaired foot she had struggled with since childhood. When the brilliant surgeon Thimo Bamstra offered to cure her, Esmeralda was over the moon. Thimo also managed to mend her broken heart. Esmeralda had never imagined marriage as part of her future, but now she could dream of little else.

How could she fall asleep during his lecture? It wasn't the best way for Nurse Lucy Prendergast to attract the attention of distinguished consultant Fraam der Linssen, especially when the attractive Dutch doctor kept appearing in her life - at the hospital, at her home and in Holland when she went on holiday. If only he were equally aware of her! But it wasn't likely, for far prettier girls were obviously his for the asking

Alone in the world, without a job. That was Suzannah Lightfoot’s uneviable position when Guy Bowers-Bentinck rescued her. She had to accept his help – though she didn’t want to be beholden to such an infuriatingly arrogant man. “He’s so tiresome and ill-tempered and impatient and he must hate the sight of me,” Suzannah reflected as fate kept throwing them together. So it was just as well, she told herself, that she wasn’t prepared to join the queue of females wanting to marry him…

Staff nurse Samantha Fielding had one golden rule: never get involved. The attractive Giles ter Ossel made it difficult to keep. Samantha was determined not to let her feelings for Giles affect the way she treated the girl she thought was his fiancée. So, she agreed to return to Holland to nurse Antonia through her recovery. Samantha’s calm and professional exterior hid a breaking heart. Meanwhile, Giles was determined to be happily married - to the right girl.

Evangeline Granby is so tired of her aunt's lectures on morality that she allows a handsome young gallant to take her to an inn where they indulge in a desperate and very improper flirtation. Never expecting to see him again, Evangeline is horrified to discover that he is the Reverend Michael Buckleigh, the newly appointed curate for the village where she lives. The attraction between the pair flares at subsequent meetings but Michael knows that, however spoiled Evangeline may be, her father will never consent to their blossoming love.

The lively Barleybridge Veterinary Hospital is bustling with energy, everyone is working hard to ensure that all the animals are looked after. At the same time, the staff are coping with crises in their personal lives. Rhodri, the Welsh vet, is deeply in love with Megan but is struggling to find a solution to their problems with her invalid father. Kate is worrying about her A-level results and getting into veterinary college.

When obscure crime writer Ethelred Tressider vanishes, his dogged literary agent, Elsie Thirkettle, is soon on his trail. Finding him (in a ramshackle hotel in the French Loire) proves surprisingly easy. Bringing him home proves more difficult than expected - but (as Elsie observes) who would have predicted that, in a hotel full of stamp collectors, the guests would suddenly start murdering each other? One guest is found fatally stabbed, apparently the victim of an intruder.

In the chaos aboard the sinking Titanic, Mair Parsons is separated from her infant daughter, Catherine, and her travelling companion and future mother-in-law, Ethel Jenkins. The disaster changes all their lives. During her repatriation to Britain, Mair has time to reassess her life and knows that before she can find happiness she must find the truth about her absent mother, even if it means leaving her beloved Wales and Catherine behind.

On a visit to the ruins of Madderstone Abbey, Penelope Lambe suffers a bad fall and before she slips into unconsciousness, manages to say, “I saw her… It was her”. Some take these words to mean that Penelope saw the Grey Nun, the ghost reputed to haunt the abbey, but Miss Dido Kent is unconvinced and is determined to find the real cause. Dido directs all her mental energy to solving the mystery and revisits the ruins looking for clues.

Set in the East End of London and in Surrey, Time Will Tell opens towards the end of World War II, during an air-raid. Joan gives birth to a son just as a bomb hits the hospital. The electricity is cut, and panic and pandemonium ensue, but this is nothing compared to the anguish Joan will suffer in the following years. For in the aftermath of confusion, her baby son is miss-tagged with another baby boy, a fact that only comes to light 20 years later.

Eleanor and Beatrice dream of lovematches but the Dowager insists romantic love is for housemaids, not for the Graceover women. Beatrice, despatched to London to look over the current crop of bachelors, is unimpressed by the frivolities of the Season. Disturbed by the languid charm of Lord Serle and appalled by the mercenary attitudes to marriage displayed by Society, Beatrice’s country innocence and unconventional behaviour lead her into some alarming situations.

Was love out of the question? Charity thought she had it all - marriage to respected consultant Tyco van der Brons and being a mother to his two children. So why did her heart yearn for his love, too? She had known from the start that theirs was a marriage of convenience - so it would be foolish to wish for anything more...wouldn’t it?

When Doctor George Pritchard asked her to marry him, Phoebe hadn’t needed much persuading. After the death of her aunt, she was penniless and without a job. Besides which, she liked him. And she liked his home, and his life as a GP. And if he had made it plain that he wasn’t in love with her - well, at least she knew where she stood. It wasn’t until after the wedding that she began to wonder if liking was going to be enough….

What a maddening, impossible man Constantijn van Lindemann was! Wherever Augusta went there he was: inviting her out, paying her compliments, sending her enormous bouquets of tulips, even kissing her on occasion. Augusta had to admit she enjoyed it, especially the kisses. But until she could discover how important a part the glamorous Susan played in his life, how could she possibly take Constantijn seriously?

Serena gave up all hope of getting married when her fiancé jilted her. She was determined to be sensible about the whole thing, that was, until Gijs suggested that she marry him instead. She liked Gjis very much, and knew he was fond of her – that seemed as good a basis as any for a marriage. But it turned out that Gjis was in love, and Serena couldn’t work out who the lucky woman was.

She was not going to exchange one dull life for another! Far from being brokenhearted when her long-standing and rather dull engagement to Tony came to an end, Prudence welcomed it as an opportunity to break out of her comfortable shell, to make a new and exciting life for herself. So the job that Benedict van Vinke offered - acting as his secretary and looking after his little daughter - had come just at the right time. It would also give Prudence a chance to visit Holland. But would she have such an exciting life, after all, if she accepted Benedict’s cold-blooded proposal?

It was Mrs Croyden who had been taken by the idea of digging up the history of the family. It seemed to be the kind of thing that everyone was doing nowadays. And once started she became more and more enchanted by the project. Even her husband, George, having seen the ancient photograph of a most attractive girl, long since dead, was taken by the project. The snag was that even Great Aunt Maud, the owner of the photograph, had no idea what had happened to the beautiful girl named Isabella. Apparently she had completely vanished and to the rest of the family had simply become “The Unknown”. Would the mystery ever be solved?

Set in the reign of Queen Anne, this is the bold yet touching story of Magda, a young girl partially disfigured by a childhood riding accident who grows to an otherwise beautiful womanhood. Her savage stepfather Sir Adam Congrayle tricks handsome young Esmond, Earl of Mornbury, into marriage with Magda without first allowing them to meet. And the night of the wedding, when Esmond sees Magda for the first time, brings its inevitable crisis…