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Barbara Cartland

May 2021 · The Eternal Collection Book 274 · Barbara Cartland EBooks ltd

About this ebook

After their beloved Mama passed away, Amalita and Carolyn’s father, Sir Frederick Maulpin, could not bear living in the family home that reminded him so painfully of her. 

So he left his daughters behind for Paris, perhaps hoping to rediscover the raffish man-about-town he once was. 

To the girls’ chagrin, he immediately fell in love with and married a Frenchwoman called ‘Yvette’, whom his daughters considered vulgar and quite unsuitable for their adored Papa. 

Now, to their horror, they receive a letter informing them that their father and Yvette have drowned in a yachting accident in Nice. 

Not only have they lost their parents, now eighteen-year-old Carolyn has no one to present her to Queen Victoria at Buckingham Palace and chaperone her at debutante balls on which all her hopes are pinned. But her elder sister, Amalita, has a plan – 

A letter to her father’s old friend, the Marquis of Garlestone, secures an invitation to stay in exalted company, where Amalita, dressed as a far more mature woman, chaperones Carolyn in the guise of their stepmother, whom no one in London had ever met. 

And so their charade begins as, meeting the Marquis’s dashingly handsome son, the Earl of Garle, and his cousin, Timothy, they both become love-struck, but also hopelessly out of their depth and confounded by their own deceit – 

About the author

Barbara Cartland was the world's most prolific novelist, having written an astounding 723 books in her lifetime, including 644 romantic novels that achieved worldwide sales of over one billion copies and were translated into 36 different languages. In addition to romantic novels, she also authored historical biographies, six autobiographies, theatrical plays, and advice books on life, love, vitamins, and cookery. Cartland penned her first book, "Jigsaw," at the age of 21, which became an immediate bestseller, selling 100,000 copies in hardback in England and throughout Europe in translation. Remarkably, between the ages of 77 and 97, she increased her literary output, writing an incredible 400 romances to meet the global demand for her work. She wrote her final book at the age of 97, prophetically titled "The Way to Heaven." Her popularity was immense in the United States, where in 1976 her current books held the number 1 and 2 spots on the B. Dalton bestsellers list simultaneously, a unique achievement. Barbara Cartland became a legend in her lifetime, particularly cherished for her romantic novels. Her works are treasured for their moral messages, pure and innocent heroines, handsome and dashing heroes, blissful happy endings, and above all, her belief in the power of love as the most important aspect of life. Her millions of readers around the world continue to collect her books to read again and again, especially during times of misery or depression, finding solace in the love and happiness that define her stories.