Showing results by narrator "Anthony Wren" in All Categories

Queen Victoria sends for the Duke of Sherbourne and asks him to undertake a very secret mission on her behalf. It is so secret that only his loyal valet is told. The Duke agrees and it takes him to Greece. He visits King George who is the same age as he is and whom he has known in the past. He has been a great success as King, although he was only eighteen when he took over the throne and he is married to Princess Olga of Russia and they are extremely happy. The Duke envies them and, although he has been pursued by a great number of beautiful women in London, he has never yet fallen in love.

On a hot summer’s day in 1880 the beautiful Lady Rosella is cutting a basket of blooms in her beloved Rose Garden at her aunt’s house in Hampshire. It is her seventeenth birthday and no one remembers it except for Thomas, the gardener’s boy. Later she is driven to Winchester and has an unpleasant encounter with two raucous gentlemen in the local tavern before going on to fit her first ball gown that her aunt has given her the money for just before she died. But who is the lovely masked woman she glimpses in the mirror at the dressmakers, a glorious vision clad in rose-pink silk?

Beautiful Lady Lucilla Welton is all alone in the world, having lost both her parents in a tragic accident. She has nowhere to go and so she stays with her cruel and distant Aunt Maud, who wants to marry her off as soon as possible. An ardent suitor is at hand – the rich Texan, Harkness Jackson – but his proposal is not one Lucilla could ever contemplate. She has already met the only man who will ever find the key to her heart – but the handsome Marquis of Castlebury is enthralled by another and for him, Lucilla seems to be no more than a casual friend.

Dalma Wickham, having been in Athens to learn Greek, arrives at a British Steamer to return to London to find that they will not allow her dog, Twi-Twi, on board. Because she is turned away from the British ship, she walks round the quay and sees a most magnificent yacht. While she is admiring it, a bomb goes off at the end of the quay and the seamen leave the yacht to see what has happened. On an impulse, because she realises it is her last chance of getting Twi-Twi to England, she slips aboard the yacht and hides in one of the empty cabins.

Colonel Storton has set his mind on his beautiful daughter, Alvina, marrying a man with money and a grand title. When Lord Hillborough became their next door neighbour in the country, the Colonel considered him to be an excellent husband for Alvina, but she found him repulsive and could not bear even to be touched by him. She therefore decided to leave her home and run away to avoid having to marry a man she did not love and could never love. When she saw a large and impressive yacht at a nearby Port, she went aboard and hid as a stowaway.

The beautiful Belinda Lanwick has not attended the dinner party given by her cousin as she is still in mourning following the death of her beloved father. However, when the guests were leaving, she saw Lord Ian Cheddington and thought him exceedingly handsome. She knew that he was one of the most sought after young men in London and was considered the most eligible bachelor in the Social world. It is then that she overhears an indiscreet conversation between her cousin and a Countess.

The beautiful Lady Diana Dinsdale’s father has died and shortly afterwards her mother dies as well and she is heartbroken at the loss of both her beloved parents. After the Earl of Dinsdale’s death, her mother had married again to William Walker, a rich businessman who is cynically seeking to improve his standing socially to help his financial interests to make him even richer. And now Diana is all alone except for her grasping stepfather.

Following the death of her husband, the Countess of Wenlock was living in her magnificent house in London with her son, Donald, and her beautiful daughter, Salvia. One day out of the blue Donald suddenly drops a bombshell. He tells his mother and Salvia that he has lost all their money by trusting an American acquaintance of his who claimed that he would invest it all safely and produce big profits for the family. Donald leaves at once for America to follow the man and hopefully recover all or part of their money.

King Martiza of Salamos has fallen asleep when he suddenly becomes aware that something is moving in his room. To his astonishment he finds that it is Princess Veria who has come for his Coronation which is to take place the very next day. She, as her father has died, is now ruling the State of Kavolana which is a smaller Balkan country bordering on his.

Sir John Gilmour has received a letter from his old friend Gavron Murillo, who lives in Paris to say that he only has a very short time to live and wants to see him urgently before he dies. Gavron, who was of Oriental appearance and a very rich man, had helped Sir John and his father with their finances when they had been almost on the point of bankruptcy and he had made them very wealthy. When Sir John arrives at Gavron’s bedside, the old man tells him that his dying wish is that he should marry his daughter, the beautiful Melita.

The beautiful Georgina Malton is in America with her father, who is making large amounts of money in opening gold mines and is becoming even richer by investing in newly discovered oilfields. Georgina desperately wants to return to England because she finds that men are only interested in her for her father’s money and she is very disillusioned by a European Prince who claims that he loves her but it is her riches he is after. She so wants to be loved for herself. So she and her Nanny set sail for England and her father promises to follow soon.

Michael, the handsome Earl of Monkford, returns from fighting in the Napoleonic War to find that his beloved home, Monk Hall, once a Monastery, has become thoroughly dilapidated from lack of money. tAnd his estate has been sadly neglected with broken down farms and barren fields. tHis mother, the aging Countess, and his cousin, the beautiful Linka, who he grew up with, have done their best to keep everything going with much difficulty.

The beautiful Lola Fenton lives happily in a small cottage in the depths of Worcestershire, but she is suddenly orphaned when her father and mother are killed in a railway crash. Her uncle, the Earl of Kencombe, comes to the funeral and then tells her that, as she has no money, she will have to come and live with him. He obviously has no wish for her to do so, but feels that it is his duty as her legal Guardian.

The Duke of Laverdale is ambitious to be appointed Master of the Horse and the new Queen Adelaide is determined that behaviour at Court should be moral after the licentiousness of King George IV. The Duke therefore ends his affaire de coeur with the enchanting Lady Sybil Mersham and drops his ballet dancer mistress as well. Up to now he has been determined not to be married, but he now decides to become respectable and find a suitable bride as befits his standing.

The beautiful Konstantina Millbank has become an orphan after her adored parents have both suddenly died. In the autumn of 1892 she finds herself in a country East of the Danube en route to live with her recently appointed Guardian, the shadowy Countess Mordhile Megherny. Konstantina knows nothing of her Guardian except that she is a recluse who lives at Megherny Castle - the Castle where Konstantina’s own mother grew up, loveless and lonely. Much time has elapsed since then, but the past and its passions are far from dead.

When Madelina Winston, a beautiful American heiress, arrives in England, she has at first only one thought on her mind, to try and trace her late father’s English family. Her stepmother, Mrs. Winston, has other ideas. Madelina might have beauty and a fortune, but as far as Mrs. Winston is concerned she lacks the crowning glory of life, an English title. Mrs. Winston knows that there are many impoverished aristocrats hoping to marry money and wastes no time in setting about finding a likely candidate for Madelina’s hand.

The handsome Viscount Trent finally makes up his mind to accede to the pleadings of his family and get married. He is twenty-seven and for a long time they have been begging him to take a wife and produce an heir to his illustrious title, his famous stately home and his vast estate. On the whole he finds debutantes extremely boring and has enjoyed a number of affaires-de-coeur with older married women. However there is one girl, Marigold Marlow, he considers outstanding and she is the acknowledged great beauty of the Season.

Prince Serge of Tamrush, who himself had been sent a bride by Queen Victoria to save his Principality from invasion by the Russians, was now being asked by Prince Igor of Dubrik for the hand of his beautiful daughter Lavinia for the same reason. He decided not to tell Lavinia of Prince Igor’s request until after her birthday party. It was on that occasion she would meet Prince Igor for the first time and her father hoped that they would be attracted to each other.

The beautiful Ariana Dancer is orphaned and has led a cheerless life in London with her disagreeable Guardian, Uncle Konstantin Bardici. He has shown little interest in his niece and she has been left very much to her own devices. One day Uncle Konstantin suggests that Ariana marry an Albanian Prince - one who is seeking an English wife and who claims to have fallen in love with her portrait - and it does not take much to persuade her to agree.

The beautiful Vanessa Shotworth was being made extremely unhappy at the way she was being treated by her stepmother while her beloved father was away in India with his Regiment. When she was late for breakfast because she had been out riding on a lovely summer’s morning, she was humiliated by her stepmother by being told to scrub the kitchen floor or she will not be given anything to eat. Vanessa then decided to run away to her relatives in the North of England, having elicited the help of the faithful family butler, Bates.