I hate the thought of leaving Papa, but my stepmother gives me no choice.’ The beautiful Anthea Preston has had much to contend with in her life. Her fiancé jilts her and then her beloved Mama dies of a sudden illness.

But her father does not remain a widower for long. When Anthea goes off on a Grand Tour, she returns home to London to find he has married again and her new stepmother cannot wait to marry her off to the first rich man she encounters.

But then a chance meeting with the young and wilful Lady Linette Hayworth brings Anthea the chance to escape from her dreadful situation and a new life. However, her handsome new employer – the Earl of Hayworth – is not all he seems. A dark secret lurks in his past that not even his daughter knows about.

A journey to Naples sees Anthea on a voyage of discovery only to end in near disaster when her life is unexpectedly threatened after Linette falls in love with an Italian artist.

How Anthea herself finds love and how the mysterious past of the Earl catches up with him is all told in this unusual romantic novel by BARBARA CARTLAND. Barbara Cartland was the world’s most prolific novelist who wrote an amazing 723 books in her lifetime, of which no less than 644 were romantic novels with worldwide sales of over 1 billion copies and her books were translated into 36 different languages. As well as romantic novels, she wrote historical biographies, 6 autobiographies, theatrical plays and books of advice on life, love, vitamins and cookery. She wrote her first book at the age of 21 and it was called Jigsaw. It became an immediate bestseller and sold 100,000 copies in hardback in England and all over Europe in translation. Between the ages of 77 and 97 she increased her output and wrote an incredible 400 romances as the demand for her romances was so strong all over the world. She wrote her last book at the age of 97 and it was entitled perhaps prophetically The Way to Heaven. Her books have always been immensely popular in the United States where in 1976 her current books were at numbers 1 & 2 in the B. Dalton bestsellers list, a feat never achieved before or since by any author. Barbara Cartland became a legend in her own lifetime and will be best remembered for her wonderful romantic novels so loved by her millions of readers throughout the world, who have always collected her books to read again and again, especially when they feel miserable or depressed. Her books will always be treasured for their moral message, her pure and innocent heroines, her handsome and dashing heroes, her blissful happy endings and above all for her belief that the power of love is more important than anything else in everyone’s life."