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  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

  Ola and the Sea Wolf

  The Castle made for Love

  A Heart is Stolen

  The Love Pirate

  As Eagles Fly

  The Magic of Love

  Love Leaves at Midnight

  A Witch’s Spell

  Love Comes West

  The Impetuous Duchess

  A Tangled Web

  Love lifts the Curse

  Saved By A Saint

  Love is Dangerous

  The Poor Governess

  The Peril and the Prince

  A Very Unusual Wife

  Say Yes Samantha

  Punished with love

  A Royal Rebuke

  The Husband Hunters

  Signpost To Love

  Love Forbidden

  Gift Of the Gods

  The Outrageous Lady

  The Slaves Of Love

  The Disgraceful Duke

  The Unwanted Wedding

  Lord Ravenscar’s Revenge

  From Hate to Love

  A Very Naughty Angel

  The Innocent Imposter

  A Rebel Princess

  A Wish Comes True

  Haunted

  Passions In The Sand

  Little White Doves of Love

  A Portrait of Love

  The Enchanted Waltz

  Alone and Afraid

  The Call of the Highlands

  The Glittering Lights

  An Angel in Hell

  Only a Dream

  A Nightingale Sang

  Pride and the Poor Princess

  Stars in my Heart

  The Fire of Love

  A Dream from the Night

  Sweet Enchantress

  The Kiss of the Devil

  Fascination in France

  Love Runs In

  Lost Enchantment

  Love is Innocent

  The Love Trap

  No Darkness for Love

  Kiss from a Stranger

  The Flame Is Love

  A Touch of Love

  The Dangerous Dandy

  In Love In Lucca

  The Karma Of Love

  Magic For The Heart

  Paradise Found

  Only Love

  A Duel with Destiny

  The Heart of the Clan

  The Ruthless Rake

  Revenge is Sweet

  Fire on the Snow

  A Revolution of Love

  Love at the Helm

  Listen to Love

  Love Casts out Fear

  The Devilish Deception

  Riding in the Sky

  The Wonderful Dream

  This Time it’s Love

  The River of Love

  A Gentleman in Love

  The Island of Love

  Miracle for a Madonna

  The Storms of Love

  The Prince and the Pekingese

  The Golden Cage

  Theresa and a Tiger

  The Goddess of Love

  Alone in Paris

  The Earl Rings a Belle

  The Runaway Heart

  From Hell to Heaven

  Love in the Ruins

  Crowned with Love

  Love is a Maze

  Hidden by Love

  Love is the Key

  A Miracle in Music

  The Race for Love

  Call of the Heart

  The Curse of the Clan

  Saved by Love

  The Tears of Love

  Winged Magic

  Born of Love

  Love Holds the Cards

  A Chieftain Finds Love

  The Horizons of Love

  The Marquis Wins

  A Duke in Danger

  Warned by a Ghost

  Forced to Marry

  Sweet Adventure

  Love is a Gamble

  Love on the Wind

  Looking for Love

  Love is the Enemy

  The Passion and the Flower

  The Reluctant Bride

  Safe in Paradise

  The Temple of Love

  Love at First Sight

  The Scots Never Forget

  The Golden Gondola

  No Time for Love

  Love in the Moon

  A Hazard of Hearts

  Just Fate

  The Kiss of Paris

  Little Tongues of Fire

  Love Under Fire

  The Magnificent Marriage

  Moon over Eden

  The Dream and the Glory

  A Victory for Love

  A Princess in Distress

  A Gamble with Hearts

  Love Strikes a Devil

  In the Arms of Love

  Love in the Dark

  Love Wins

  The Marquis who Hated Women

  Love is Invincible

  Love Climbs in

  The Queen Saves the King

  The Duke Comes Home

  Love Joins the Clans

  The Power and the Prince

  Winged Victory
/>   Light of the Gods

  The Golden Illusion

  Never Lose Love

  The Sleeping Princess

  AUTHOR’S NOTE

  In the reign of King George IV, the London Season started in April and ended at the beginning of June.

  As the years went by, it lasted until the middle of July.

  It was the dream of every debutante to be presented at a ‘Drawing Room’ in Buckingham Palace and to attend the numerous balls that were given in the large houses in Mayfair, Islington and Belgravia.

  The Drawing Room was a Ceremonial Reception that was, at the beginning, always held in the Throne Room of Buckingham Palace at three o’clock precisely and there were several every year.

  Later, they became an evening reception with a buffet of food and drink.

  Ladies wishing to be presented could only obtain the honour through a relation or a friend who had previously been presented and with the strict approval of the Lord Chamberlain.

  Débutantes, where possible, were presented by their mothers.

  The lady who would make the presentation had to appear with whom she presented and in addition both of them must have unblemished characters and their conduct must be above reproach.

  There was no question at all of anyone who had been through a Divorce Court being accepted.

  At the first Drawing Room of the Season, the whole of the Corps Diplomatique were in full attendance with their elaborate gold uniforms adding to the great glamour of the ladies, who had three Prince of Wales’s white feathers on their heads and a train to their gowns.

  Her Majesty would then go first to the Council Room, where she would greet the Royal Family.

  When the members who were expected had arrived, the Queen would be warned.

  CHAPTER ONE ~ 1875

  Amalita opened the letter that had come from France.

  She noticed that the envelope was not addressed in her father’s usual strong upright hand.

  She thought just for a moment that it must have come from her stepmother.

  Then she remembered that Yvette’s handwriting was very different and very French.

  ‘Who can it be from?’ she wondered.

  Then she told herself that she had only to look inside to find the answer.

  When she had read the letter through once, she went back to the beginning.

  She stared at what was written in a such a way that would have told anyone watching that she had suffered a shock.

  Finally Amalita went to sit on the window seat and gazed out into the garden.

  It was nearly an hour later when the door opened and her sister Carolyn came in.

  She was looking exceedingly lovely with her fair hair curled round her forehead and her face a little flushed.

  Her blue eyes were the colour of the sky outside and she was so beautiful that she might have come from the sky itself.

  “I have had a really marvellous ride, Amalita,” she said. “I went right up to the Beacon and there was not a soul in sight.”

  Then, as her sister did not respond to her, she walked towards her, asking,

  “What is the matter? What has happened?”

  “I have just had – a letter from – France,” Amalita replied nervously. “Sit down, Carolyn.”

  “From Papa?” Carolyn enquired. “So why should that upset you?”

  She sat down because her sister had told her to and she chose a chair by the window and the sunshine turned her hair to quivering gold.

  “This is a letter,” Amalita said very slowly, “from the Police in Nice.”

  “The Police?” her sister exclaimed. “What can Papa have been up to?”

  Amalita drew in her breath.

  “Papa is – dead,” she told her, “and so is – Yvette.”

  Her sister just stared at her.

  After a moment she asked,

  “Did you – did you say – dead?”

  “Yes. According to this letter from the Police, Papa and Yvette went sailing, which, as you know, he always loved. A sudden storm got up and his yacht collided with a – cargo boat – and it sank. Their bodies were recovered, but they were already drowned.”

  Amalita’s voice sounded so very strange, as if it was extremely difficult for her to utter the words.

  Carolyn put her hands up to her eyes.

  “Oh, poor Papa! How could he have gone so far away from us?”

  “I find it just impossible to believe,” Amalita said, “You can read the letter for yourself. It is in French.”

  “You know very well that my French is not as good as yours,” Carolyn objected. “Tell me what it says.”

  “Just as I told you,” Amalita replied. “Papa and Yvette went sailing. They were both drowned and the Police said it took them some time to find out who Papa was and whom they could contact.”

  She looked down at the letter again before she went on,

  “In fact it was only when they found our letter to him that they were aware of his address.”

  “So they wrote to you,” Carolyn said. “When did it all happen?”

  “I can hardly believe it true, but it was nearly a month ago,” her sister answered.

  “How can they have taken so long?” Carolyn asked.

  For a moment Amalita did not reply.

  Then after a moment she said,

  “It seems terrible to think we were enjoying ourselves and not worrying a bit about Papa and all the time he was dead.”

  There was another silence before Carolyn remarked,

  “He did not – worry very much about – us after he – married Yvette.”

  Now there was a distinct bitterness in her tone, which her sister did not miss.

  She jumped up from the chair and moved to put her arms around Amalita.

  “I know how upset you must be,” she said, “because you loved Papa and he meant so much to you. But you know, if you are truthful, that we had lost him after Mama died and he married that Frenchwoman.”

  Amalita drew in a deep breath.

  “You are right,” she agreed. “‘That Frenchwoman’ as you call her, changed him completely. I gather from this letter that he was not staying in Nice under his own name, which means that he did not wish to meet any of his old friends.”

  “How could she have a hold over him so – quickly?” Carolyn asked in bewilderment.

  Her sister did not reply.

  Two years older than Carolyn, she was aware that Yvette, whom her father had met in Paris, had swept him off his feet.

  He had gone to Paris because he was so desperately unhappy after his wife’s death and he found their home intolerable to live in.

  “I see your mother in every room,” he had muttered to his older daughter. “I find myself calling for her as I come in through the front door and I just cannot sleep at night because she is not beside me.

  Before he could say the next words, Amalita knew what they would be.

  “I must go away,” Sir Frederick Maulpin said. “I must try and get control of myself, but I cannot stay here and go mad.”

  There was an agony as he spoke that told his daughter he was speaking the truth.

  “You are so right. Papa,” she said gently. “You should go away and I know when you come back that things will seem different.”

  She helped him to pack up his boxes and Sir Frederick had left the next day.

  He did not take his valet with him and Amalita knew that it was because he was trying hard to forget everything that his home had meant to him for twenty-one years.

  Because she was older than her sister and so closer to their father, he had told her that he had been a somewhat raffish young man in his youth.

  She guessed that he had had very many love affairs, enjoyed himself in London and travelled on the Continent whenever he felt like it.

  He was indeed well off.

  He could afford all the perquisites for the pleasure of a handsome, hearty young man who had nothing better to do than to enj
oy himself.

  He had a stable full of fine horses and he hunted with two of the best packs in the County of Leicestershire.

  He had two or three horses that had won several minor races.

  He played polo and belonged to two of the smartest Gentleman’s Clubs in St. James’s, White’s and Boodles.

  Amalita knew without his telling her that he had been on the lists as a most eligible bachelor of every important hostess in London.

  When he went to stay in France or any other country in Europe, he was able to stay at the British Embassy.

  He was the guest of noble families in many countries he visited.

  He was the eighth Baronet and the family was known as one of the oldest and most respected in England.

  Queen Victoria frequently invited him to luncheon and dinner parties at Windsor Castle.

  Then, so unexpectedly that it surprised even him, he fell head-over-heels in love.

  Amalita knew only too well that her mother had been overwhelmingly beautiful, but not of great social standing.

  Her father was a gentleman and a Country Squire.

  He had, however, never aspired to shine brightly in the smartest Society in which he moved.

  Having lost his heart, his character and his personality changed.

  He bought a pretty black and white Medieval house in Worcestershire with a large estate and settled down there with the woman he loved.

  He forgot the friends who had been so close to him in London.

  The only disappointment in all the years that followed was that he did not have a son.

  His first-born was a daughter who resembled him.

  He christened her “Amalita” because he thought that she looked like a Greek Goddess.

  She was quite different from her mother in that she had dark hair with strange lights in it and her eyes were the green-grey of the sea.

  “She is just so lovely,” Sir Frederick declared, “that I really believe, my darling, that she is a gift from God.”

  Their second daughter, Carolyn, who was born two years later, closely resembled Elizabeth Maulpin.

  She also had a very sweet and gentle character, which made everyone she met love her as they loved her mother.

  Amalita could be fiery and forceful, so like her father. She also had his imagination and his acute intelligence.

  It amazed him, having all these fine attributes, that he should be content with one woman in the country.

  In some extraordinary way it was as if they were the complete complement of each other.

  It was her father who had told Amalita about what the Greeks believed in.

  When man was first created, he was alone in the world and wanted a companion. So the Gods cut him in half.

  Always for the rest of his existence he looked for the woman who was the other half of himself so that he would become whole again.