The Prisoner of Love, page 15
“It is – lovely to be so – warm,’ Sorilda murmured.
She looked towards the fire burning brightly in the hearth and then at the Dresden china candelabra that stood on either side of her dressing table with half a dozen candles burning in each and remembered the one little candle that had gone out.
She closed her eyes because it was almost too wonderful to know that she need no longer be afraid. She was home! That was the right word – home! And it was the Earl who had brought her here!
There was a knock at the door and she felt her heart leap.
Mrs. Dawson went to open it.
“Come in, my Lord,” Sorilda heard her say. “Her Ladyship says she’s feeling better.”
He came into the room and Mrs. Dawson went into the passage, closing the door behind her.
For a moment he stood just inside the door looking at Sorilda lying back against the lace-edged pillows, her red hair falling over her shoulders, her green eyes very large in her pale face.
He walked towards her and impulsively, without even thinking, she put out her hands.
“You – saved me!” she said. “I – prayed for you to – come, but I thought – you would not – hear me.”
The Earl sat down on the side of the bed holding both her hands in his.
“I think I did hear you,” he said, “and I knew that something very wrong and wicked had happened to you. I could feel it almost from the moment it happened.”
“I thought I should die and you would – never know where I was,” Sorilda murmured.
She felt his fingers tighten on hers.
“That was not meant to happen,” he said. “Are you well enough to tell me how you ever got into that damned place?”
“A small – boy took me – there.”
The Earl looked puzzled.
“What boy?”
“I don’t know. I was on the terrace and he told me I had to go to – Drake at once and I thought – he must have had an – accident.”
“Why did you not tell me?”
“You don’t – know how many times I have asked myself that – question,” Sorilda answered. “But I followed the boy to the crypt and when he – pointed, I thought – Drake must have – fallen down the steps and – injured himself.”
She knew by the expression on the Earl’s face that he was angry and she added,
“It was – very foolish of – me.”
“However could you guess that some fiend would lock you in?” he asked.
He saw the expression on Sorilda’s face and knew that she was aware who was responsible and who had plotted her destruction.
“Forget it,” he said quickly. “We both have to do that, otherwise we shall have no peace, no happiness.”
He gave a smile, which seemed to transform his face.
“And the only way I can make sure of protecting you is to keep you beside me at all times, both by day and night.”
Sorilda looked up at him with a sudden light in her eyes.
Then she said a little incoherently,
“You might – find that a – nuisance.”
She thought that he was turning something over in his mind before he asked,
“You told me that you prayed for me. Did you want me or just someone to rescue you?”
There was a note in his voice that made Sorilda suddenly feel shy. Her eyes fluttered and she could not look at him.
“I want you to answer that question, Sorilda.”
Perhaps it was because she was weak or perhaps it was impossible to pretend after she had wanted him so agonisingly, she told the truth,
“I – wanted – you. Only – you.”
“Did you pray for me?”
“Yes – all the – time.”
“Will you tell me why?”
There was silence and the Earl went on,
“Tell me, Sorilda. It is important and I want to hear the truth.”
“I wanted to – be with – you. I have been so – happy since we came to the – country.”
“I have made you happy?”
Her eyes were very wide as they met his. It seemed as if there was no need to put anything into words. He must know what she was feeling, must be aware of her love pouring out towards him.
“I want to tell you something, Sorilda,” the Earl said and his voice was slow and deep.
“What is – it?”
“When I lost you, I realised how much you had come to mean to me and I knew it was desperately important for me to find you again, so I that could tell you so.”
Sorilda’s eyes seemed to hold the light of a thousand candles in them.
“Are you – saying – that – you like me a little?”
“I am telling you that I love you,” the Earl replied, “and in a way I have never loved anyone else.”
He gave a sound, which was somehow impatient.
“I know you will find it hard to believe it. I know that I have shocked you, that you have despised me and you had every right to do so. But if I say what I feel for you is something entirely different, it is not a banal statement that every man makes at some time or another. It is the truth and I want you to believe me.”
“I want – to! You know I – want to and, even if you grow tired of me – if you – leave me as you have left – other – women, it will still be – like Heaven to – have had you even for – a very little while.”
“It’s not a question of a very little while,” the Earl said gently. “I love you, Sorilda, and actually that is something I have never said to anyone before.”
He looked at her as if he thought that she would be incredulous and added quickly,
“Women have attracted me, I have desired them. There is no need to explain that to you, but I have always known what I gave them was not love, not the real love I hoped one day to find, although I always thought it would be quite impossible to do so.”
“Is that – why you never – married?”
“Exactly!” the Earl replied. “I swore to myself a long while ago that, unless my marriage would be very different from those I saw all around me, I would remain single.”
He looked at her searchingly as if he looked deep into her soul and then he said,
“I want a wife to belong to me completely and forever. I want her to be faithful to me. To be mine exclusively for all time!”
He paused before he added very quietly,
“And I think, Sorilda, I have found her.”
Then, as if in some miraculous dream, he bent forward and very gently sought her lips.
It was a tender kiss, a kiss without passion, almost as a man might touch a flower.
To Sorilda it was as if the room was ablaze with a light from within them, which was also a part of God.
She felt as if the Earl gave her, with the touch of his lips, everything she had ever longed for. It was part of the beauty that always moved her and the music that had sung within her heart.
‘I love – you! I love – you too!’ she wanted to cry.
Then, as she felt herself quiver, the Earl’s lips became more possessive, more demanding and she felt as if he drew her very soul from her body and made it his.
At last, after what seemed an eternity of time, he raised his head,
“I love – you,” Sorilda cried. “I love – you! I adore – you!”
“As I love you, my darling.”
“It’s – true – it’s really – true that you – love – me!”
“I love you,” the Earl replied, “and now you need no longer be afraid. I will look after you and protect you and never will I lose you again.”
There was something so moving in his voice that now tears came to her eyes and, as she gazed at him, he seemed enveloped with a haze of glory.
“It is so – wonderful – so – perfect,” she whispered. “Perhaps after all, I am – dead and I am – in – Heaven?”
As she spoke, her voice broke and the tears ran down her cheeks.
The Earl put his arm around her and drew her against him.
“My precious, my adorable, beautiful darling. You must not cry. You have been so brave, so incredibly brave, despite all you have been through and now I want you to be happy and forget it.”
He kissed her forehead as he said,
“You are not going to die, you are going to live with me and we are going to find so many exciting adventures to share together.”
“Are you – sure you want – me? I will not – bore you?”
“I am quite certain you will never do that,” the Earl said. “Peter has kept telling me how intelligent you are, as if I did not realise it myself!”
“I want to be – clever for – you,” Sorilda said simply, “and perhaps – ”
“What were you going to say?”
“Perhaps I could – help you – sometimes with – all you do. It – fascinated me when you told me about – them all.”
“I want you to help me, my darling. In fact I want us to do everything together in the future.”
It flashed through her mind that in that case there would be no time for him to find other women to attract him.
As if he read her thoughts, he laughed and said,
‘That is all in the past – forget it, forget everything that has happened until this magical moment. Now there is only one woman who will fill my heart and my life.”
“It is too – wonderful – too – perfect.”
The Earl took his handkerchief from the breast pocket of his evening coat and wiped her cheeks.
“I adore your honest green eyes, your flaming red hair and your white skin. I want to kiss you, my precious darling, all over your perfect body.”
He drew in his breath and, as if he made a supreme effort to control his voice, he said more quietly,
“I think, my lovely one, you should go to sleep now. We will talk and make plans tomorrow. One thing we have to decide is where we will spend our honeymoon. I think after all we have been through we are entitled to one!”
“A honeymoon with – you would be – very – marvellous,” Sorilda whispered.
Then she turned her face against his shoulder and said in a voice he could hardly hear,
“I am only afraid you will – find – me very – ignorant in the ways of love – and dull after – ”
The Earl put his fingers under her chin to turn her face up to his.
“You are not to say those words,” he said, “nor are you to think such thoughts.”
He looked at her searchingly and she saw that his expression was kind and gentle and he looked different from how he had ever looked before.
“Peter said you were the Sleeping Beauty,” he said and his voice was very deep. “I can promise you, my darling, that I am the man who is going to awaken you. It will be the most fascinating and exciting thing I have ever done in my life.”
As he spoke, his lips found hers and he kissed her differently from the way he had kissed her before.
Now there was something demanding and what Sorilda knew was passion about his lips and she felt as if her whole being responded to them.
A little flame of fire awoke within her no bigger than the candle flame and yet it flickered and burnt its way through her body, up from her breasts and into her throat.
It was a sensation she had never known and as the Earl raised his head, she whispered,
“Teach – me, teach – me how to – love you so that you will not be – disappointed.”
“I will teach you about love,” the Earl said and his voice was unsteady. “I will awaken my Sleeping Beauty as she will awaken me to a love which is more wonderful than any emotion I have ever known.”
“That is what – I – want to – do!”
“And what you will do, my precious,” he answered. “But now you must rest and go to sleep, you must be very tired.”
Sorilda gave a little convulsive murmur and hid her face again, as in a voice he could hardly hear. she whispered,
“I do – not want – you to – leave – me.”
She felt him stiffen and become still.
Then he said,
“Do you mean that? Do you really mean that, my darling?”
Her voice was barely audible as she murmured,
“When I was in the crypt – I pretended – that I was in your – arms – and I felt – safe.”
“That is what you will always be in future. But what else did you feel?”
“It was – very – exciting, but not as – wonderful – as really being with – you.”
His arm held her so tightly that she could hardly breathe.
“Please – stay with – me.”
The words were hardly louder than a sigh, but the Earl heard them and there was a sudden fire in his eyes,
“I want you! God knows I want you!” he sighed, “but I am thinking of you.”
His lips twisted with a little smile as he added,
“That is something else I have never done before!”
“I just want to be close – to you.”
As she spoke, Sorilda knew that she could not let him go, could not lose the magic and the wonder of his closeness and his love.
She no longer felt tired, instead she felt vividly, ecstatically alive.
The Earl had awoken strange sensations within her and his kisses made her feel as if she could fly into the sky with sheer happiness.
He drew her against him and within moments his lips were seeking hers.
“I love you, my precious little wife and I want you!” he murmured, “and neither tonight or any other night will you ever escape me.”
It was as if he made a vow and Sorilda knew in that moment that once again she was in prison – but this time it was a prison of the Earl’s arms, his hands, his lips and him – a prison of love.
* * *
OTHER BOOKS IN THIS SERIES
The Barbara Cartland Eternal Collection is the unique opportunity to collect as ebooks all five hundred of the timeless beautiful romantic novels written by the world’s most celebrated and enduring romantic author.
Named the Eternal Collection because Barbara’s inspiring stories of pure love, just the same as love itself, the books will be published on the internet at the rate of four titles per month until all five hundred are available.
The Eternal Collection, classic pure romance available worldwide for all time .
Elizabethan Lover
The Little Pretender
A Ghost in Monte Carlo
A Duel of Hearts
The Saint and the Sinner
The Penniless Peer
The Proud Princess
The Dare-Devil Duke
Diona and a Dalmatian
A Shaft of Sunlight
Lies for Love
Love and Lucia
Love and the Loathsome Leopard
Beauty or Brains
The Temptation of Torilla
The Goddess and the Gaiety Girl
Fragrant Flower
Look Listen and Love
The Duke and the Preacher’s Daughter
A Kiss for the King
The Mysterious Maid-servant
Lucky Logan Finds Love
The Wings of Ecstacy
Mission to Monte Carlo
Revenge of the Heart
The Unbreakable Spell
Never Laugh at Love
Bride to a Brigand
Lucifer and the Angel
Journey to a Star
Solita and the Spies
The Chieftain Without a Heart
No Escape from Love
Dollars for the duke
Pure and Untouched
Secrets
Fire in the Blood
Love, Lies and Marriage
The Ghost who Fell in Love
Hungry for Love
The Wild Cry of Love
The Blue-eyed Witch
The Punishment of a Vixen
The Secret of the Glen
Bride to the King
For All Eternity
King in Love
A Marriage made in Heaven
Who can deny Love?
Riding to the Moon
Wish for Love
Dancing on a Rainbow
Gypsy Magic
Love in the Clouds
Count the Stars
White Lilac
Too Precious to Lose
The Devil Defeated
An Angel Runs Away
The Duchess Disappeared
The Pretty Horse-breakers
The Prisoner of Love
THE LATE DAME BARBARA CARTLAND
Barbara Cartland, who sadly died in May 2000 at the grand age of ninety eight, remains one of the world’s most famous romantic novelists. With worldwide sales of over one billion, her outstanding 723 books have been translated into thirty six different languages, to be enjoyed by readers of romance globally.
Writing her first book ‘Jigsaw’ at the age of 21, Barbara became an immediate bestseller. Building upon this initial success, she wrote continuously throughout her life, producing bestsellers for an astonishing 76 years. In addition to Barbara Cartland’s legion of fans in the UK and across Europe, her books have always been immensely popular in the USA. In 1976 she achieved the unprecedented feat of having books at numbers 1 & 2 in the prestigious B. Dalton Bookseller bestsellers list.
Although she is often referred to as the ‘Queen of Romance’, Barbara Cartland also wrote several historical biographies, six autobiographies and numerous theatrical plays as well as books on life, love, health and cookery. Becoming one of Britain’s most popular media personalities and dressed in her trademark pink, Barbara spoke on radio and television about social and political issues, as well as making many public appearances.
In 1991 she became a Dame of the Order of the British Empire for her contribution to literature and her work for humanitarian and charitable causes.
Known for her glamour, style, and vitality Barbara Cartland became a legend in her own lifetime. Best remembered for her wonderful romantic novels and loved by millions of readers worldwide, her books remain treasured for their heroic heroes, plucky heroines and traditional values. But above all, it was Barbara Cartland’s overriding belief in the positive power of love to help, heal and improve the quality of life for everyone that made her truly unique.
The Prisoner of Love
She looked towards the fire burning brightly in the hearth and then at the Dresden china candelabra that stood on either side of her dressing table with half a dozen candles burning in each and remembered the one little candle that had gone out.
She closed her eyes because it was almost too wonderful to know that she need no longer be afraid. She was home! That was the right word – home! And it was the Earl who had brought her here!
There was a knock at the door and she felt her heart leap.
Mrs. Dawson went to open it.
“Come in, my Lord,” Sorilda heard her say. “Her Ladyship says she’s feeling better.”
He came into the room and Mrs. Dawson went into the passage, closing the door behind her.
For a moment he stood just inside the door looking at Sorilda lying back against the lace-edged pillows, her red hair falling over her shoulders, her green eyes very large in her pale face.
He walked towards her and impulsively, without even thinking, she put out her hands.
“You – saved me!” she said. “I – prayed for you to – come, but I thought – you would not – hear me.”
The Earl sat down on the side of the bed holding both her hands in his.
“I think I did hear you,” he said, “and I knew that something very wrong and wicked had happened to you. I could feel it almost from the moment it happened.”
“I thought I should die and you would – never know where I was,” Sorilda murmured.
She felt his fingers tighten on hers.
“That was not meant to happen,” he said. “Are you well enough to tell me how you ever got into that damned place?”
“A small – boy took me – there.”
The Earl looked puzzled.
“What boy?”
“I don’t know. I was on the terrace and he told me I had to go to – Drake at once and I thought – he must have had an – accident.”
“Why did you not tell me?”
“You don’t – know how many times I have asked myself that – question,” Sorilda answered. “But I followed the boy to the crypt and when he – pointed, I thought – Drake must have – fallen down the steps and – injured himself.”
She knew by the expression on the Earl’s face that he was angry and she added,
“It was – very foolish of – me.”
“However could you guess that some fiend would lock you in?” he asked.
He saw the expression on Sorilda’s face and knew that she was aware who was responsible and who had plotted her destruction.
“Forget it,” he said quickly. “We both have to do that, otherwise we shall have no peace, no happiness.”
He gave a smile, which seemed to transform his face.
“And the only way I can make sure of protecting you is to keep you beside me at all times, both by day and night.”
Sorilda looked up at him with a sudden light in her eyes.
Then she said a little incoherently,
“You might – find that a – nuisance.”
She thought that he was turning something over in his mind before he asked,
“You told me that you prayed for me. Did you want me or just someone to rescue you?”
There was a note in his voice that made Sorilda suddenly feel shy. Her eyes fluttered and she could not look at him.
“I want you to answer that question, Sorilda.”
Perhaps it was because she was weak or perhaps it was impossible to pretend after she had wanted him so agonisingly, she told the truth,
“I – wanted – you. Only – you.”
“Did you pray for me?”
“Yes – all the – time.”
“Will you tell me why?”
There was silence and the Earl went on,
“Tell me, Sorilda. It is important and I want to hear the truth.”
“I wanted to – be with – you. I have been so – happy since we came to the – country.”
“I have made you happy?”
Her eyes were very wide as they met his. It seemed as if there was no need to put anything into words. He must know what she was feeling, must be aware of her love pouring out towards him.
“I want to tell you something, Sorilda,” the Earl said and his voice was slow and deep.
“What is – it?”
“When I lost you, I realised how much you had come to mean to me and I knew it was desperately important for me to find you again, so I that could tell you so.”
Sorilda’s eyes seemed to hold the light of a thousand candles in them.
“Are you – saying – that – you like me a little?”
“I am telling you that I love you,” the Earl replied, “and in a way I have never loved anyone else.”
He gave a sound, which was somehow impatient.
“I know you will find it hard to believe it. I know that I have shocked you, that you have despised me and you had every right to do so. But if I say what I feel for you is something entirely different, it is not a banal statement that every man makes at some time or another. It is the truth and I want you to believe me.”
“I want – to! You know I – want to and, even if you grow tired of me – if you – leave me as you have left – other – women, it will still be – like Heaven to – have had you even for – a very little while.”
“It’s not a question of a very little while,” the Earl said gently. “I love you, Sorilda, and actually that is something I have never said to anyone before.”
He looked at her as if he thought that she would be incredulous and added quickly,
“Women have attracted me, I have desired them. There is no need to explain that to you, but I have always known what I gave them was not love, not the real love I hoped one day to find, although I always thought it would be quite impossible to do so.”
“Is that – why you never – married?”
“Exactly!” the Earl replied. “I swore to myself a long while ago that, unless my marriage would be very different from those I saw all around me, I would remain single.”
He looked at her searchingly as if he looked deep into her soul and then he said,
“I want a wife to belong to me completely and forever. I want her to be faithful to me. To be mine exclusively for all time!”
He paused before he added very quietly,
“And I think, Sorilda, I have found her.”
Then, as if in some miraculous dream, he bent forward and very gently sought her lips.
It was a tender kiss, a kiss without passion, almost as a man might touch a flower.
To Sorilda it was as if the room was ablaze with a light from within them, which was also a part of God.
She felt as if the Earl gave her, with the touch of his lips, everything she had ever longed for. It was part of the beauty that always moved her and the music that had sung within her heart.
‘I love – you! I love – you too!’ she wanted to cry.
Then, as she felt herself quiver, the Earl’s lips became more possessive, more demanding and she felt as if he drew her very soul from her body and made it his.
At last, after what seemed an eternity of time, he raised his head,
“I love – you,” Sorilda cried. “I love – you! I adore – you!”
“As I love you, my darling.”
“It’s – true – it’s really – true that you – love – me!”
“I love you,” the Earl replied, “and now you need no longer be afraid. I will look after you and protect you and never will I lose you again.”
There was something so moving in his voice that now tears came to her eyes and, as she gazed at him, he seemed enveloped with a haze of glory.
“It is so – wonderful – so – perfect,” she whispered. “Perhaps after all, I am – dead and I am – in – Heaven?”
As she spoke, her voice broke and the tears ran down her cheeks.
The Earl put his arm around her and drew her against him.
“My precious, my adorable, beautiful darling. You must not cry. You have been so brave, so incredibly brave, despite all you have been through and now I want you to be happy and forget it.”
He kissed her forehead as he said,
“You are not going to die, you are going to live with me and we are going to find so many exciting adventures to share together.”
“Are you – sure you want – me? I will not – bore you?”
“I am quite certain you will never do that,” the Earl said. “Peter has kept telling me how intelligent you are, as if I did not realise it myself!”
“I want to be – clever for – you,” Sorilda said simply, “and perhaps – ”
“What were you going to say?”
“Perhaps I could – help you – sometimes with – all you do. It – fascinated me when you told me about – them all.”
“I want you to help me, my darling. In fact I want us to do everything together in the future.”
It flashed through her mind that in that case there would be no time for him to find other women to attract him.
As if he read her thoughts, he laughed and said,
‘That is all in the past – forget it, forget everything that has happened until this magical moment. Now there is only one woman who will fill my heart and my life.”
“It is too – wonderful – too – perfect.”
The Earl took his handkerchief from the breast pocket of his evening coat and wiped her cheeks.
“I adore your honest green eyes, your flaming red hair and your white skin. I want to kiss you, my precious darling, all over your perfect body.”
He drew in his breath and, as if he made a supreme effort to control his voice, he said more quietly,
“I think, my lovely one, you should go to sleep now. We will talk and make plans tomorrow. One thing we have to decide is where we will spend our honeymoon. I think after all we have been through we are entitled to one!”
“A honeymoon with – you would be – very – marvellous,” Sorilda whispered.
Then she turned her face against his shoulder and said in a voice he could hardly hear,
“I am only afraid you will – find – me very – ignorant in the ways of love – and dull after – ”
The Earl put his fingers under her chin to turn her face up to his.
“You are not to say those words,” he said, “nor are you to think such thoughts.”
He looked at her searchingly and she saw that his expression was kind and gentle and he looked different from how he had ever looked before.
“Peter said you were the Sleeping Beauty,” he said and his voice was very deep. “I can promise you, my darling, that I am the man who is going to awaken you. It will be the most fascinating and exciting thing I have ever done in my life.”
As he spoke, his lips found hers and he kissed her differently from the way he had kissed her before.
Now there was something demanding and what Sorilda knew was passion about his lips and she felt as if her whole being responded to them.
A little flame of fire awoke within her no bigger than the candle flame and yet it flickered and burnt its way through her body, up from her breasts and into her throat.
It was a sensation she had never known and as the Earl raised his head, she whispered,
“Teach – me, teach – me how to – love you so that you will not be – disappointed.”
“I will teach you about love,” the Earl said and his voice was unsteady. “I will awaken my Sleeping Beauty as she will awaken me to a love which is more wonderful than any emotion I have ever known.”
“That is what – I – want to – do!”
“And what you will do, my precious,” he answered. “But now you must rest and go to sleep, you must be very tired.”
Sorilda gave a little convulsive murmur and hid her face again, as in a voice he could hardly hear. she whispered,
“I do – not want – you to – leave – me.”
She felt him stiffen and become still.
Then he said,
“Do you mean that? Do you really mean that, my darling?”
Her voice was barely audible as she murmured,
“When I was in the crypt – I pretended – that I was in your – arms – and I felt – safe.”
“That is what you will always be in future. But what else did you feel?”
“It was – very – exciting, but not as – wonderful – as really being with – you.”
His arm held her so tightly that she could hardly breathe.
“Please – stay with – me.”
The words were hardly louder than a sigh, but the Earl heard them and there was a sudden fire in his eyes,
“I want you! God knows I want you!” he sighed, “but I am thinking of you.”
His lips twisted with a little smile as he added,
“That is something else I have never done before!”
“I just want to be close – to you.”
As she spoke, Sorilda knew that she could not let him go, could not lose the magic and the wonder of his closeness and his love.
She no longer felt tired, instead she felt vividly, ecstatically alive.
The Earl had awoken strange sensations within her and his kisses made her feel as if she could fly into the sky with sheer happiness.
He drew her against him and within moments his lips were seeking hers.
“I love you, my precious little wife and I want you!” he murmured, “and neither tonight or any other night will you ever escape me.”
It was as if he made a vow and Sorilda knew in that moment that once again she was in prison – but this time it was a prison of the Earl’s arms, his hands, his lips and him – a prison of love.
* * *
OTHER BOOKS IN THIS SERIES
The Barbara Cartland Eternal Collection is the unique opportunity to collect as ebooks all five hundred of the timeless beautiful romantic novels written by the world’s most celebrated and enduring romantic author.
Named the Eternal Collection because Barbara’s inspiring stories of pure love, just the same as love itself, the books will be published on the internet at the rate of four titles per month until all five hundred are available.
The Eternal Collection, classic pure romance available worldwide for all time .
Elizabethan Lover
The Little Pretender
A Ghost in Monte Carlo
A Duel of Hearts
The Saint and the Sinner
The Penniless Peer
The Proud Princess
The Dare-Devil Duke
Diona and a Dalmatian
A Shaft of Sunlight
Lies for Love
Love and Lucia
Love and the Loathsome Leopard
Beauty or Brains
The Temptation of Torilla
The Goddess and the Gaiety Girl
Fragrant Flower
Look Listen and Love
The Duke and the Preacher’s Daughter
A Kiss for the King
The Mysterious Maid-servant
Lucky Logan Finds Love
The Wings of Ecstacy
Mission to Monte Carlo
Revenge of the Heart
The Unbreakable Spell
Never Laugh at Love
Bride to a Brigand
Lucifer and the Angel
Journey to a Star
Solita and the Spies
The Chieftain Without a Heart
No Escape from Love
Dollars for the duke
Pure and Untouched
Secrets
Fire in the Blood
Love, Lies and Marriage
The Ghost who Fell in Love
Hungry for Love
The Wild Cry of Love
The Blue-eyed Witch
The Punishment of a Vixen
The Secret of the Glen
Bride to the King
For All Eternity
King in Love
A Marriage made in Heaven
Who can deny Love?
Riding to the Moon
Wish for Love
Dancing on a Rainbow
Gypsy Magic
Love in the Clouds
Count the Stars
White Lilac
Too Precious to Lose
The Devil Defeated
An Angel Runs Away
The Duchess Disappeared
The Pretty Horse-breakers
The Prisoner of Love
THE LATE DAME BARBARA CARTLAND
Barbara Cartland, who sadly died in May 2000 at the grand age of ninety eight, remains one of the world’s most famous romantic novelists. With worldwide sales of over one billion, her outstanding 723 books have been translated into thirty six different languages, to be enjoyed by readers of romance globally.
Writing her first book ‘Jigsaw’ at the age of 21, Barbara became an immediate bestseller. Building upon this initial success, she wrote continuously throughout her life, producing bestsellers for an astonishing 76 years. In addition to Barbara Cartland’s legion of fans in the UK and across Europe, her books have always been immensely popular in the USA. In 1976 she achieved the unprecedented feat of having books at numbers 1 & 2 in the prestigious B. Dalton Bookseller bestsellers list.
Although she is often referred to as the ‘Queen of Romance’, Barbara Cartland also wrote several historical biographies, six autobiographies and numerous theatrical plays as well as books on life, love, health and cookery. Becoming one of Britain’s most popular media personalities and dressed in her trademark pink, Barbara spoke on radio and television about social and political issues, as well as making many public appearances.
In 1991 she became a Dame of the Order of the British Empire for her contribution to literature and her work for humanitarian and charitable causes.
Known for her glamour, style, and vitality Barbara Cartland became a legend in her own lifetime. Best remembered for her wonderful romantic novels and loved by millions of readers worldwide, her books remain treasured for their heroic heroes, plucky heroines and traditional values. But above all, it was Barbara Cartland’s overriding belief in the positive power of love to help, heal and improve the quality of life for everyone that made her truly unique.
The Prisoner of Love
