Love and the Clans Read online

  LOVE AND THE CLANS

  BARBARA CARTLAND

  www.barbaracartland.com

  Copyright © 2012 by Cartland Promotions

  First published on the internet in February 2012 by Barbaracartland.com

  ISBNs

  978-1-78213-138-0 Epub

  978-1-78213-139-7 Prc

  978-1-78213-140-3 Pdf

  The characters and situations in this book are entirely imaginary and bear no relation to any real person or actual happening.

  This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent.

  No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronically or mechanically, including photocopying, recording or any information storage or retrieval, without the prior permission in writing from the publisher.

  eBook conversion by M-Y Books

  LOVE AND THE CLANS

  Now walking along the river bank the Duke wished he had brought his fishing rod with him.

  He was certain that if he had done so he would have managed to catch at least one or two fresh young salmon.

  Then suddenly he saw just ahead of him that there was someone fishing.

  And it was on his bank of the river.

  He wondered for a moment who it could be.

  Perhaps his mother in his absence in London had given permission to a visitor or a tourist to fish there.

  Then he was certain that, as he had been back for two days, she would have told him if there had been any such arrangement.

  There was no doubt that the person fishing ahead of him was a trespasser and a poacher!

  There were bushes on the side of the river and the river itself curved so that the Duke did not have a clear view of the intruder until he had passed through some trees into the open.

  It was then he saw that just ahead of him was a woman.

  And she was fishing in his river

  THE BARBARA CARTLAND PINK COLLECTION

  Barbara Cartland was the most prolific bestselling author in the history of the world. She was frequently in the Guinness Book of Records for writing more books in a year than any other living author. In fact her most amazing literary feat was when her publishers asked for more Barbara Cartland romances, she doubled her output from 10 books a year to over 20 books a year, when she was 77.

  She went on writing continuously at this rate for 20 years and wrote her last book at the age of 97, thus completing 400 books between the ages of 77 and 97.

  Her publishers finally could not keep up with this phenomenal output, so at her death she left 160 unpublished manuscripts, something again that no other author has ever achieved.

  Now the exciting news is that these 160 original unpublished Barbara Cartland books are ready for publication and they will be published by Barbaracartland.com exclusively on the internet, as the web is the best possible way to reach so many Barbara Cartland readers around the world.

  The 160 books will be published monthly and will be numbered in sequence.

  The series is called the Pink Collection as a tribute to Barbara Cartland whose favourite colour was pink and it became very much her trademark over the years.

  The Barbara Cartland Pink Collection is published only on the internet. Log on to www.barbaracartland.com to find out how you can purchase the books monthly as they are published, and take out a subscription that will ensure that all subsequent editions are delivered to you by mail order to your home.

  If you do not have access to a computer you can write for information about the Pink Collection to the following address :

  BarbaraCartland.com

  Camfield Place

  Hatfield

  Hertfordshire

  AL9 6JE

  United Kingdom

  Telephone: +44 1707 642629

  Fax: +44 1707 663041

  Titles in this series

  These titles are currently available for download. For more information please see the Where to buy page at the end of this book.

  The Cross Of Love

  Love In The Highlands

  Love Finds The Way

  The Castle Of Love

  Love Is Triumphant

  Stars In The Sky

  The Ship Of Love

  A Dangerous Disguise

  Love Became Theirs

  Love Drives In

  Sailing To Love

  The Star Of Love

  Music Is The Soul Of Love

  Love In The East

  Theirs To Eternity

  A Paradise On Earth

  Love Wins In Berlin

  In Search Of Love

  Love Rescues Rosanna

  A Heart In Heaven

  The House Of Happiness

  Royalty Defeated By Love

  The White Witch

  They Sought Love

  Love Is The Reason For Living

  They Found Their Way To Heaven

  Learning To Love

  Journey To Happiness

  A Kiss In The Desert

  The Heart Of Love

  The Richness Of Love

  For Ever And Ever

  An Unexpected Love

  Saved By An Angel

  Touching The Stars

  Seeking Love

  Journey To Love

  The Importance Of Love

  Love By The Lake

  A Dream Come True

  The King Without A Heart

  The Waters Of Love

  Danger To The Duke

  A Perfect Way To Heaven

  Follow Your Heart

  In Hiding

  Rivals For Love

  A Kiss From The Heart

  Lovers In London

  This Way To Heaven

  A Princess Prays

  Mine For Ever

  The Earl’s Revenge

  Love At The Tower

  Ruled By Love

  Love Came From Heaven

  Love And Apollo

  The Keys Of Love

  A Castle Of Dreams

  A Battle Of Brains

  A Change Of Hearts

  It Is Love

  The Triumph Of Love

  Wanted – A Royal Wife

  A Kiss Of Love

  To Heaven With Love

  Pray For Love

  The Marquis Is Trapped

  Hide And Seek For Love

  Hiding from Love

  A Teacher Of Love

  Money Or Love

  The Revelation Is Love

  The Tree Of Love

  The Magnificent Marquis

  The Castle

  The Gates of Paradise

  A Lucky Star

  A Heaven on Earth

  The Healing Hand

  A Virgin Bride

  The Trail to Love

  A Royal Love Match

  A Steeplechase for Love

  Love at Last

  Search for a Wife

  Secret Love

  A Miracle of Love

  Love and the Clans

  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.

  “One of my most favourite quotations on the glorious subject of love comes from an ancient source and is, ‘who would choose to forego love so as to spare themselves the agony of loss’.”

  Barbara Cartland

  CHAPTER ONE

  1876

  “But you must marry sooner or later and you must marry money.”

  The Dowager Duchess spoke up with a determined note in her voice that her son recognised only too well.

  The Duke of Barenlock walked to the window and looked out at the sea.

  “I have already told you, Mama,” he said quietly, “that, although the girls in London would have been only too willing to accept me because I am a Duke, they would not fit in here at the Castle.”

  “I don’t know that you mean by that,” the Dowager Duchess replied.

  “I think you do, Mama. You have always been a wonderful hostess to anyone who is staying here. Also you know, without my saying it, that everyone in the village loves you.”

  For a moment she could not think of how to reply and then, as she rose from her chair in which she had been sitting with her sewing, she sighed,

  “You always have an answer to everything, Alpin, but at twenty-seven it is high time you settled down and produced an heir.”

  She felt that now she had had the last word and had no wish to prolong the conversation.

  She therefore walked out of the library, closing the door behind her.

  The Duke turned again to gaze at the sea.

  Barenlock Castle was indeed one of the North of Scotland’s greatest houses. It had been built in 1400 and the Chieftain of the McBaren Clan had always lived there.

  The Duke owned thousands of acres in the County of Sutherland and the Castle was undoubtedly one of the most beautiful buildings ever erected in Scotland.

  The only difficulty there had been down the ages was to make sure that there was an heir to the Dukedom that came from a very ancient lineage.

  As the present Duke was an only child, his mother and all his relations continually begged him, almost on their knees, to take a wife.

  The Duke travelled a great deal and spent a certain amount of time every year in London and as he was tall, handsome and most intelligent, it was not surprising that ambitious mothers presented their daughters to him.

  Yet, for some reason his family could not discover, he always returned from London alone, still a bachelor and apparently with his heart untroubled.

  “What you have to realise,” his mother had said to him over and over again, “is that as Head of the family and of the Clan, it is your duty to marry and produce an heir – several sons if possible. You must carry on the traditions we have all followed even before the Castle was built.”

  The Duke had heard this lecture so often he knew every sentence by heart.

  But he listened to his mother because he loved her and he knew that she adored him.

  He had heard the same plea over and over again and it merely made him more determined than ever.

  He would not marry until he found someone he loved and with whom he would know intuitively that he would be happy and content.

  Of course there were women in his life and a great number of them.

  His many and frequent affaires-de-coeur had been well known in London and whispered about amongst the Clan in Scotland.

  On his last visit, from which he had just returned, his name had been linked with one of the most beautiful and sensual ladies in Mayfair.

  She was in fact herself a Baroness and half English and half French.

  She was incredibly lovely and her husband closed his eyes to her indiscretions.

  As he said to one of his friends confidentially,

  “I am growing too old to be fighting a duel at dawn every other day. So I just close my eyes, shut my ears and when my wife returns to me, as she always does, I think not of the past but of the future.”

  This strange laissez-faire attitude enabled the Duke to spend a very pleasant two months making love to the glamorous Baroness. He was entranced by her as all her lovers were.

  Not only was it her alluring beauty that excited him but the subtle way she invariably made him feel he was the only man in her life at that very moment.

  Now that he was back in Scotland the Duke was having to listen to the usual family refrain that he should be married – if he did not do so, how would the McBarens survive without a Chieftain?

  “They survived under another Chieftain before I was born,” he had muttered yesterday to his mother, “and I imagine they will survive after I am dead.”

  “I cannot think how you can talk like that, Alpin. You know how much our name means in Scotland and if you married a rich wife, we could do all the repairs to the Castle we have been dying to undertake for so long now.”

  The Duke made a sound, but did not interrupt her.

  “And, of course,” she rattled on, “you could build the museum you have contributed so much to and make it one of the most celebrated in the whole of Scotland.”

  The Duke knew this to be true.

  Unfortunately, as he had so often pointed out, their name explained the difficulty they were now in.

  When the Vikings first came to Scotland, one of the easiest places for them to land was at the bay where the Castle now stood.

  There had been an old and dilapidated keep on the site now occupied by the Castle that possessed, so legend related, many treasures that had been stolen by violence from other Clans and this plunder had made the owners of the Castle exceedingly rich.

  It had always been a great tragedy for the family when later the Vikings had taken away everything they could pack into their ships, as well as the most attractive young maidens in the neighbourhood.

  That they had stolen the Clan’s cattle was of course a familiar story.

  But the Duke, even when he was a small boy, had always regretted that he had not seen the treasure that had been taken from the old keep, even though it had been acquired quite illegally by his Clan in the first place.

  It was when the old keep was finally demolished that the Clan had changed its name to McBaren.

  They claimed that they now possessed nothing and they had no wish to remember the happier days when they had been so powerful.

  Then their fortunes changed.

  The Chief of the Clan had married a great heiress from the North of England.

  It was she who had built the new Castle and it was she who had made the Clan, despite the fact they had kept the name of McBaren, more powerful than any other Clan in the North.

  The Castle had then been added to year after year and the Dukedom, an English title, was presented to the McBarens at the end of the seventeenth century.

  Money had been spent on the estate in a manner that had made the rest of Scotland gasp.

  It was not only the Castle itself tha
t grew larger and more beautiful year by year, but there were villages with delightful houses built round it.

  There were gardens filled with flowers that seemed to have come from Fairyland and were attended by a whole army of gardeners.

  But it was only when the Fourth Duke became the Chieftain of the Clan that it was discovered that his father had been spending enormously above his income – in fact the whole estate was steadily moving into debt.

  “I just cannot believe it,” the Dowager Duchess had moaned a thousand times.

  But unfortunately it was too true.

  It was therefore quite obvious that since the Clan was dependent on him, the Duke must put matters to right.

  As he was so good-looking, he could easily marry an heiress and she would make the Clan as powerful as it had been in the past.

  The only difficulty was the Duke himself.

  “I will not,” he had insisted over and over again, “be pushed into marrying someone simply because she is rich. I cannot imagine anything more hateful than being bound to a woman I do not love, and who could make life exceedingly unpleasant for me if she holds onto the purse strings.”

  “But, dearest, we just cannot go on as we are,” his mother would retort. “We are overdrawn at the bank and there are thousands of repairs and renewals that require urgent attention on the estate.”

  The Duke did not question her and she continued,

  “One of our tenant farmers who lives on the border of the estate called in to see you yesterday. As you were out, he told me a really pitiful story of how the MacFallins are stealing our cattle and making life impossible for those who are trying to keep their heads above water in that part of the County.”

  The Duke sighed deeply.

  For the last three centuries the McBarens had been the enemies of the MacFallins.

  This animosity between the Clans had broken out from time to time into actual fighting.

  Now they were merely stealing each other’s sheep and cattle or, if they met in a village pub, fought each other verbally and sometimes with their fists.

  All for no particular reason except that each hated the other Clan.