"Beautiful Stacey Marsh made a mistake—she should never have come home for her wedding. She had forsaken her hometown of Dorsham, England, long ago because it was too quiet, not at all the kind of place for the likes of Stacey. Stacey met Jules Charbonnier in Paris and planned to marry. As soon as Stacey returns to Dorsham, the town was frantic with upcoming activity and Stacey’s grandfather’s ghost has come back to haunt them. As for the boy next door, Nigel is simply too handsome for his own good. After Jules’ grandmother arrives in Dorsham for the wedding, Stacey has begun to re-think her quick decision to marry Jules. Is it merely homesickness? Or has she changed her mind about who means the most to her…"
"Natalie Travers had only just had her house in Brighton converted into flats, and installed five sets of tenants, when her younger brother Julian sent her an appeal for help. Newly deserted by his wife of one year, he was finding it impossible to cope single-handed with his work, with the running of the house and with the care of his baby twins, Rowena and Randall. Natalie’s elder brother, Maurice, and his wife Freddie, were strongly opposed to Natalie’s going to the rescue. She herself realized what she had undertaken when she reached Julian’s house and found babies’ garments strewn on sofas and chairs, jars and tins of baby food on the mantlepiece and the remnants of Julian’s meals on the table—but she assured herself that as soon as domestic staff could be found to take over, she would be free to go back and resume her own life. But Julian made few efforts to find staff, preferring as Head of the Music Department of the famous public school, Downinghurst, to concentrate on his beloved music and on his other great love, golf. Natalie’s plan to return to Brighton as soon as possible proved over-optimistic. Not only the impossibility of leaving the twins, but also her meeting with the attractive Henry Downing were to detain her longer than she had expected."
"Natalie Rome, timid and retiring, discovers that a new life at forty is not, after all, as difficult of achievement as she had feared. With new relations and a new home, she finds security and happiness. She also finds a stepdaughter as timid as herself and a stepson of exceptional charm; a mother-in-law in garden boots and ancient, formal hats who talks loudly and a great deal; and a father-in-law who seldom talks at all. Into this assembly comes Natalie’s own daughter Helen; young, beautiful, successful and supremely confident. Helen and her new stepbrother enter at once into the age-old struggle between the woman who likes to organize other people’s lives, and the man who prefers to arrange his own."
"In the sleepy village of Downpass, 23 year old Gianna decides to throw a Christmas party. Beatrice Risdon, James’s forceful sister and steely doyenne of Downpass life, stands aghast as friends from London and Paris descend en masse for the occasion. Among them are: Pierre, a sensitive virtuoso violinist much given to practicing through the small hours at Hargreaves House; Daphne Maxwellton, a dazzling socialite who can always be relied upon to interfere in the affairs of others; and the journalist Alexander Ranch, Gianna’s fiancé and a man who combines his investigative researches with a passion for Rugby - demands which sometimes lead him to forget his romantic responsibilities."
"Into the ordered life of thirty-three-year-old Edward Netherford comes the Brockman family. Loud, brash and demanding the return of three Impressionist paintings which have been retained - illegally, they claim—by their late father’s second wife. Edward’s legal services—and his even temperament - have never been more severely tested as letters to the second Mrs. Brockman in York remain ignored and unanswered. It soon becomes clear that some more positive move has to be made. Under pressure to make an early settlement, Edward decides on a personal interview and travels to York, planning to mix business with pleasure by staying at an old school friend’s hotel. But stormy weather and a calamitous fire at the Cross Keys force him into much less suitable accommodation miles out of the city - and into the company of a beautiful young woman whose chaotic lifestyle proves to be a surprisingly pleasant diversion from the thorny question of the missing Brockman inheritance."
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