Showing results for "The Widows" in Historical Fiction

From the bestselling award-winning author of The Good Wife of Bath comes this rollicking historical adventure that celebrates the art of whisky distilling, the defiant spirit of the Scottish Highlanders and a woman's fearless quest. 1780 Scottish Highlands In every glass of whisky lies a small...

Julia Hollis’ opulent life in Victorian London crashes to pieces when her husband passes away. Worse, she is told by his bankers that he gambled away their fortune. Now the family’s hope rests on The Larkspur, an old abandoned coaching inn in the quaint village of Gresham. Driven by dread and her desire to provide for her children, Julia decides to turn the dilapidated inn into a lodging house. But can she - who was accustomed to servants attending to every need - do what needs to be done and cope when boarders begin arriving?

Stepping into the wrong carriage at a Sussex village, Elinor Rochdale is swept up in a thrilling and dangerous adventure. Overnight the would-be governess becomes mistress of a ruined estate and partner in a secret conspiracy to save a family's name. By midnight, she is a bride, by dawn, a widow.

After the sudden death of her husband, Patricia Greystone is left with nothing, and at 24, she finds herself a penniless widow. As the youngest child of a large family, she has always been headstrong and proud, so she’s determined not to return to her family cap in hand. Instead she strikes out on her own. The dark streets of London are the perfect place to hide from the world, and Patricia makes her living singing on the streets. But the city is a dangerous place.

A traditional Regency romance, drawing room rather than bedroom. Nell Caldicott awaits the return of her violent sailor husband with trepidation, but for once her fears are not realised. Her husband’s ship, the Brig Minerva, has sunk off the Cornish coast. Nell is free, but her husband has left her with little money and many questions about his past. Gradually, as his secrets are laid bare, she realises she didn’t know her husband at all. Can she uncover the truth? And can she ever learn to trust a man with her heart again?

Lady Guinevere Mallory has been married four times in 12 years, and each of her husbands has died mysteriously. Adept in the laws of property, she has secured the land of each of her late spouses, vastly increasing her personal wealth. After the death of her fourth husband, this trend raises some eyebrows at the royal court, and Hugh of Beaucaire is sent to investigate these puzzling events.

York, 1852. When Caroline Lawson becomes a young widow, her grief is deepened by the loss of her farm. A rash decision to travel to York to find work doesn't turn out as she expected. With money running low, Caroline fears she will soon have no choice but the workhouse. However, she is not without hope, and with her new friends, feisty Trixie, and her two little sisters and the unique Mussy, Caroline learns she is stronger than she realised and that even in the worst of times, friendship is all you need.

Lady Charlotte Cavendish is still the spirited girl who tried to elope in the name of love. That dream was thwarted by her father, who trapped her in a loveless, passionless marriage. But now widowed, Charlotte is free to reenter the giddy world of the ton - and pursue her desires. Hardly a typical widow, she remains innocent of pleasures of the flesh. Yet now that her life is finally her own, she intends to keep it that way.

Elizabeth, Lady Beauchamp, fears for her life. When she discovers her dissolute and long-estranged husband has syphilis—and he wants to beget an heir no matter the cost—she flees to a remote part of Scotland to begin a new life as the widowed governess, Mrs. Beth Eliott at Eilean Tor Castle. When Mrs. Eliott unexpectedly arrives on his doorstep, the reclusive and recently widowed Marquess of Rothsburgh is both irritated and intrigued. No longer in need of a governess—his young daughter now resides with his sister's family—he proposes the beautiful widow fill a position of a different kind.

When Elizabeth weds one of Darcy's dearest friends he tries, and fails, to put his love for her behind him. Then, after two years of regretting his decision to step aside for his cousin, Colonel Fitzwilliam, Darcy is given that rarest of gifts, a second chance. Though he mourns the cousin he loved like a brother, Darcy can't help but wonder what might have been, and what could still be. Elizabeth's heart is broken by her husband's death. Worse, she's being pressed to marry not only by her family, but a barrage of suitors.

In the spring of 1803, England's foreign secretary is dead, and his widow, Lady Violette Hawkestone, insists that Ravenna help discover the killer. Ravenna, only nine months a widow, doesn't want to get involved, but when an investigator, Mr. Chadwick, appears to suspect her, Ravenna fears he's going to uncover a past she'd rather forget. In an effort to protect her own secrets and to protect her stepson, who's in line for the foreign secretary position, she can lose no time in discovering the killer's identity.

London, 1888. While Jack the Ripper's reign of terror grips the city, Emma Langley's world shatters when her husband is found murdered in Whitechapel. But grief is quickly overshadowed by a startling discovery: William Langley was not the man she thought she knew. As panic fills London's streets, Emma delves into her husband's secret life, uncovering a web of lies that stretches from glittering society drawing rooms to the seedy gambling dens of the East End. Aided by Penny Green, a former reporter with a nose for trouble, Emma follows a trail of blackmail and corruption.

Lancashire 1934. Three years after her husband's sudden death, Stella comes into some money unexpectedly and decides to make a new start in the country. She settles on Ellin Valley, where she quickly begins to make friends. She falls in love with a cottage in Birch End, but an unscrupulous man...

New Hampshire, 1756: The god-fearing farmers of Sutton are suffering divine punishment for unknown sins. Crops fail, cows die and fish are poisoned by their water. Six pigs, slaughtered in their sty, bear the mark of the devils in their mouths. But to Beatrice Scarlet, the apothecary's daughter, the truth is much more chilling. Somewhere in this idyllic hamlet, a killer is hiding in plain sight. And if Beatrice does not unmask him soon, he'll be coming for her next...

Brought to you by Penguin. The brand-new novel from the author of the bestselling Shipyard Girls series. 1949, County Durham. From the Shipyards of Sunderland to Lady of the Manor . . . When Angie marries her sweetheart Quentin and moves into Cuthford Manor to begin their new life together, she...

Harry went off to fight for the Crown unaware his delightful interlude with his childhood friend had permanent consequences. Now, he's back in England, catapulted into the title by his brother's untimely death. He sorely misses his former life of unfettered adventure, so when he has reason to explore Little Puddledon, he jumps at the chance. But what he finds there is something - and someone - he never knew he'd lost, and a once-forbidden love whose time has come, if only he can persuade Pen he's home to stay....

A man with a future, the Honorable George Sinclair would rather poke his eye out than take his place beside his brother and learn how to be an earl. But when an earl orders, a brother obeys. And when an earl tries to make his brother steady and responsible and old and gray, well...it just might kill them both.

The widow Madeline Deveridge is both admired and feared by high society. Devastatingly beautiful, she is rumored to have killed her wealthy husband. Artemis Hunt is a handsome gentleman who is also a master of secret arts. His concentration on his own affairs is shattered, however, when Madeline demands his help one fog-shrouded night. Brought together by a mutual bargain - and a ghost - their bond sparks an attraction that will be far more dangerous than either suspects.

The Duke of Hartwood is a precise, exacting man. As head of the prestigious and well-respected Barnes family, he demands perfection. A Barnes must be above reproach and never mentioned in the gossip columns. When a distant cousin's widow decides to scandalize London by courting disaster and tainting the Barnes name, Hartwood is summoned by his family. Do something, anything, about Mrs. Celia Barnes.

It’s 1875, and Alva Webster has perfected her stiff upper lip after three years of being pilloried in the presses of two continents over fleeing her abusive husband. Now his sudden death allows her to return to New York to make a fresh start, restoring Liefdehuis, a dilapidated Hyde Park mansion, and hopefully her reputation at the same time. However, fresh starts aren’t as easy as they seem, as Alva discovers when stories of a haunting at Liefdehuis begin to reach her.