Epilogue #5
Someone has plans, someone other than the Hinckleys, but who is pulling the strings is a mystery that Godfrey and Ellie find near-impossible to solve. Every suspect proves to have perfectly understandable, albeit hidden reasons for their behavior, and Godfrey and Ellie remain baffled.
Until the villain, panicked by their inquiries, strikes—directly at them—and forces them both to acknowledge what has grown to be the most important thing in their lives.
Both are natural defenders of the weak and neither will give up.
Together they battle to save not just themselves, not just her family, but their futures. Hers, his, and theirs.
A classical historical romance set in North Yorkshire. Fourth and final novel in The Cavanaughs—a full-length historical romance of 90,000 words.
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The first volume in Lady Osbaldestone’s Christmas Chronicles
LADY OSBALDESTONE’S CHRISTMAS GOOSE
#1 New York Times bestselling author Stephanie Laurens brings you a lighthearted tale of Christmas long ago with a grandmother and three of her grandchildren, one lost soul, a lady driven to distraction, a recalcitrant donkey, and a flock of determined geese.
Three years after being widowed, Therese, Lady Osbaldestone finally settles into her dower property of Hartington Manor in the village of Little Moseley in Hampshire.
She is in two minds as to whether life in the small village will generate sufficient interest to keep her amused over the months when she is not in London or visiting friends around the country. But she will see.
It’s December, 1810, and Therese is looking forward to her usual Christmas with her family at Winslow Abbey, her youngest daughter, Celia’s home.
But then a carriage rolls up and disgorges Celia’s three oldest children.
Their father has contracted mumps, and their mother has sent the three—Jamie, George, and Lottie—to spend this Christmas with their grandmama in Little Moseley.
Therese has never had to manage small children, not even her own.
She assumes the children will keep themselves amused, but quickly learns that what amuses three inquisitive, curious, and confident youngsters isn’t compatible with village peace.
Just when it seems she will have to set her mind to inventing something, she and the children learn that with only twelve days to go before Christmas, the village flock of geese has vanished.
Every household in the village is now missing the centerpiece of their Christmas feast. But how could an entire flock go missing without the slightest trace?
The children are as mystified and as curious as Therese—and she seizes on the mystery as the perfect distraction for the three children as well as herself.
But while searching for the geese, she and her three helpers stumble on two locals who, it is clear, are in dire need of assistance in sorting out their lives.
Never one to shy from a little matchmaking, Therese undertakes to guide Miss Eugenia Fitzgibbon into the arms of the determinedly reclusive Lord Longfellow.
To her considerable surprise, she discovers that her grandchildren have inherited skills and talents from both her late husband as well as herself.
And with all the customary village events held in the lead up to Christmas, she and her three helpers have opportunities galore in which to subtly nudge and steer.
Yet while their matchmaking appears to be succeeding, neither they nor anyone else have found so much as a feather from the village’s geese.
Larceny is ruled out; a flock of that size could not have been taken from the area without someone noticing.
So where could the birds be? And with the days passing and Christmas inexorably approaching, will they find the blasted birds in time?
First in series. A novel of 60,000 words. A Christmas tale of romance and geese.
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The second volume in Lady Osbaldestone’s Christmas Chronicles
LADY OSBALDESTONE AND THE MISSING CHRISTMAS CAROLS
#1 New York Times bestselling author Stephanie Laurens brings you a heart-warming tale of a long-ago country-village Christmas, a grandmother, three eager grandchildren, one moody teenage granddaughter, an earnest young lady, a gentleman in hiding, and an elusive book of Christmas carols.
Therese, Lady Osbaldestone, and her household are quietly delighted when her younger daughter’s three children, Jamie, George, and Lottie, insist on returning to Therese’s house, Hartington Manor in the village Little Moseley, to spend the three weeks leading up to Christmas participating in the village’s traditional events.
Then out of the blue, one of Therese’s older granddaughters, Melissa, arrives on the doorstep. Her mother, Therese’s older daughter, begs Therese to take Melissa in until the family gathering at Christmas—otherwise, Melissa has nowhere else to go.
Despite having no experience dealing with moody, reticent teenagers like Melissa, Therese welcomes Melissa warmly.
The younger children are happy to include their cousin in their plans—and despite her initial aloofness, Melissa discovers she’s not too old to enjoy the simple delights of a village Christmas.
The previous year, Therese learned the trick to keeping her unexpected guests out of mischief.
She casts around and discovers that the new organist, who plays superbly, has a strange failing.
He requires the written music in front of him before he can play a piece, and the church’s book of Christmas carols has gone missing.
Therese immediately volunteers the services of her grandchildren, who are only too happy to fling themselves into the search to find the missing book of carols.
Its disappearance threatens one of the village’s most-valued Christmas traditions—the Carol Service—yet as the book has always been freely loaned within the village, no one imagines that it won’t be found with a little application.
But as Therese’s intrepid four follow the trail of the book from house to house, the mystery of where the book has vanished to only deepens.
Then the organist hears the children singing and invites them to form a special guest choir.
The children love singing, and provided they find the book in time, they’ll be able to put on an extra-special service for the village.
While the urgency and their desire to finding the missing book escalates, the children—being Therese’s grandchildren—get distracted by the potential for romance that buds, burgeons, and blooms before them.
Yet as Christmas nears, the questions remain: Will the four unravel the twisted trail of the missing book in time to save the village’s Carol Service?
And will they succeed in nudging the organist and the harpist they’ve found to play alongside him into seizing the happy-ever-after that hovers before the pair’s noses?
Second in series. A novel of 62,000 words. A Christmas tale full of music and romance.
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