An alternate cover edition can be found here. Arranging a season for an unruly young lady whose habit was to enter drawing rooms by sliding down banisters presented a challenge at best - especially since the hoydenish Mira had a sister of incomparable grace and beauty. Mira wasn't daunted at all by the local society and its ridiculous marriage mart. Her heart belonged to Lord Charles, who had been the object of her dreams ever since she was a child. Alas, Charles had eyes only for her ever-perfect sister, Drusilla. Along the sidelines, the Marquess of Grantley was enjoying Mira's jealous antics - although pushing her sister into the fountains had practically ruined her social cachet. It was up to him to restore her to respectability and make her an eligible bride once again. Yet when he succeeded, the lovelorn Marquess began to wish he had left well enough alone É ABOUT THE SERIES Countesses, Marquis', Lords and Ladies, Viscounts and Princesses all meet in the Royal series where they at once both live and try to avoid lives of scandal and sin, where love we pray trumps all but we find not always and revenge is sometimes the name of the game, especially if inheritance, notoriety and fortune are part of the hand. Here, many threads are skillfully interwoven in a highly entertaining series that never fails to please or fall short of its mark.

Certainly the two should never have met. The handsome, wealthy Marquess of Rockingham was the most notorious man in London, as infamous for his violent temper as he was for his intemperate ways. Miss Lucinda Westerville was a country vicar's daughter, as innocent as she was lovely and as proper as a young lady could possibly be. Yet when this improbably matched pair met at a glittering social ball, they had struck the dubious bargain to become man and wife - in name only! But Lucinda soon found that she had taken on more than she bargained for when she vowed not to love this untamed, infuriatingly attractive man when she tried to rein her own foolishly galloping heart.

The Misses Penelope Yarwood, Euphemia Perkins, and Letitia Helmsdale all smugly informed her that the Marquess of Cleveden was at once the most eligible and the most elusive catch in the London marriage mart. Society's most dazzling beauties had failed to win him over yet, and a newcomer like Fiona didn't stand a ghost of a chance of having him look at her twice. That was all that fiery-tempered Fiona needed to hear, and she bet - far more wealth than she possessed - that she would snare the maddeningly elusive marquess before the season's end. Now Fiona faced the risk of losing a wager she could not repay - and more, the even greater danger of losing her heart. ABOUT THE SERIES Lovers are joined by force - by family pressure, by societal pressure, and cultural mores, but Chesney's heroes and heroines never seem to want to give up on their search for the real thing. They are willing to go through almost anything in their hunt to find love - they'll jump through hoops to avoid the tricks of outsiders who thrust them together for fortune (that doesn't exist), they'll dance their way into the hearts of the most eligible bachelors using all of their charms, and if it takes even lessons in love (the title of one of these page turners) then so be it. The Love Series is all about love in its various forms, from lukewarm to searing hot and we're along for the ride. ABOUT THE AUTHOR From 1977 to the early 1990s, Marion Chesney wrote over one hundred romance novels. Now writing as M. C. Beaton, she is the bestselling award-winning author of two internationally successful mystery series - HAMISH MACBETH and AGATHA RAISIN. She lives in the United Kingdom.

A labyrinth of love and larceny evolves after the theft of a Duke's fabled family jewels, his love for a penniless young girl, and his forthcoming marriage to a most beautiful and suitable Lady. Follows AT THE SIGN OF THE GOLDEN PINEAPPLE. The handsome but arrogant Lord Charles Hawksborough desperately wanted to catch the infernally insolent thief who had held him up at pistol point on the King's Highway and ridden off with his family's inheritance and jewels. Hawksborough just as desperately tried not to want the piquant and penniless Miss Amanda Colby when this young lady and her twin brother came to stay at his London townhouse at the height of the social season. Hawksborough feared his own desire for this slip of a girl when he was about to wed the most beautiful and more suitable Lady Mary Dane. Meanwhile, Amanda feared he would discover she was the thief before she could atone for the crime. Whatever was to happen, it was clear that neither was prepared for what was to take place in this bewildering labyrinth of love and larceny.

HE WAS ATTRACTIVE ENOUGH TO TEMPT EVEN A VERY DEDICATED BLUESTOCKING! A woman of independent means with a healthy dose of cynicism about the male population, Harriet Tremayne is content with her circle of spinster friends and their devotion to literature, women's rights, and other intellectual interests. However, when she undertakes a London Season for her beautiful but featherbrained niece, she concedes she must appear less a bluestocking and more a fashion plate to successfully sponsor an impossible miss whose only real desire is to consume chocolate. Certainly her modish new appearance has nothing to do with the attentions of Lord Dangerfield, a wicked man of the world who has designs on the fair Susan, but spends an inordinate amount of time trying to convince Harriet of his all-too-obvious attributes...

At age twenty-three, the petite Lady Margery has already graced the rows of wallflowers for many a season. With the one exception of Charles, the Marquess of Edgecombe, the only man who ever dances with her, Lady Margery will have nothing to do with men; what's more, she does not even particularly like Charles. Bored beyond words, she firmly decides this to be the end of it all and returns to the comfort of her only love, her home at Chelmswood. But she does not find comfort, not even there. It seems her middle-aged father has taken for himself a dim-witted brat of nineteen to be his bride. Forced into bankruptcy by his child-bride's lust for luxury, Margery's father determines to sell Chelmswood. But Margery will not hear of it and launches an all-out, military-like campaign to ensnare herself a wealthy husband and save her ancestral family home. Everything seems to be going according to plan until the unforeseen intervention of Charles sabotages Margery's plan, giving them both a run for their money. ABOUT THE SERIES Countesses, Marquises, Lords and Ladies, Viscounts and Princesses all meet in the Royal series where they at once both live and try to avoid lives of scandal and sin, where love - we pray - trumps all but revenge is sometimes the name of the game, especially if inheritance, notoriety and fortune are part of the hand. Here, many threads are skillfully interwoven in a highly entertaining series that never fails to please or fall short of its mark. ABOUT THE AUTHOR From 1977 to the early 1990s, Marion Chesney wrote over one hundred romance novels. Now writing as M. C. Beaton, she is the bestselling award-winning author of two internationally successful mystery series - HAMISH MACBETH and AGATHA RAISIN. She lives in the United Kingdom.

Miss Felicity Channing escapes her Cornwall home and wicked stepfather and journeys to London, disguising herself as a royal princess to move among the city's elite circles under the curious eye of raffish Lord Arthur Bessamy