The Duke of Lavenham learns from a letter that the beautiful Lady Penelope who he finds fun and amusing, is telling her friends that she is going to marry him. The Duke is horrified as he has no intention of marrying anyone for many years to come and he hurries to visit Penelope to discuss the matter with her and tell her that he has no intention of marrying anybody. As he is leaving the house, a young girl sobbing hysterically jumps into his carriage and begs him to take her away. The girl, Devinia, who is a cousin of Penelope’s, tells the Duke that Penelope has had her dog killed and she wants to die too. She is terribly unhappy and he thinks that she has been very badly treated by Penelope and her family. The Duke takes her to his Castle in the country and it is then that he has the idea that, if he and Devinia pretend to become engaged to each other, Penelope’s father cannot accuse him of breach of promise. But the Duke is quite certain if Penelope has told so many people of their intended marriage that her father will consider that he has damaged her reputation and will insist on him marrying her. All this could be prevented if Devinia would become engaged to him and they could break it off as soon as it is safe to do so. Devinia is very happy at the Duke’s Castle in the country and loves riding his horses. How Penelope’s revenge on him is to have her kidnapped by a foreign nation and carried away to become the concubine to a ruler of their country. And how the Duke desperately sets out to find her, is told in this exciting and 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.
