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- Herausgeber: Barbara Cartland Ebooks Ltd
- Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
- Serie: The Pink Collection
- Sprache: Englisch
The beautiful Colena Dalton has inherited a great fortune following the untimely death of her enormously rich father, Sir Arthur Dalton, in Paris after a long illness. After overhearing the Comtesse de Lyons telling her charmless son, Pierre, that he must propose to Colena as they need the money, she decides that she wants to marry a man who really loves her for herself and not for her money It is then that she and her cousin, Elizabeth, who has been living with Colena and her father in France, decide to change places. The two girls return to London where they join the Social world and are at once invited to endless parties as Sir Arthur's death has been widely reported in all the newspapers. And immediately the fortune-hunters start circling. One of them called Oliver Stone becomes particularly persistent and bombards Elizabeth, thinking that she is Colena, with attention and invitations, while ignoring Colena. As expected he proposes marriage and will not be shaken off whatever the girls try and in order to escape him they drive of Colena's father's house in the country. There they find they find that two famous paintings have been stolen and hearing that there is to be a sale of pictures and other treasures nearby, the girls go there to try to replace the pictures. It is then that they meet up again unexpectedly with the unpleasant Oliver Stone who tries to abduct Elizabeth and force into marrying him. Then an unfortunate accident occurs that changes everything. How Colena and Elizabeth meet the men of their dreams, who love them for themselves and not for their money, is told in this intriguing story by BARBARA CARTLAND.
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2015
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Hiding from the Fortune-Hunters
BARBARA CARTLAND
www.barbaracartland.com
Copyright © 2014 by Cartland Promotions
First published on the internet in April 2015
ISBNs
978-1-78213-653-8 Print
978-1-78213-700-9 Epub
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
HIDING FROM THE FORTUNE-HUNTERS
Lord Heronwood gave a deep sigh.
“You have seen the condition of the village as you came through it. Although it is covered up at the moment, there is a great deal that must be done to this house if it is to continue to be as beautiful, as you put it, as it has been over the centuries.”
“Just trust me, my Lord,” Colena said. “It seems an odd thing to say when we are strangers to each other, but I have a feeling that you will benefit by having us here. My father always credited me with having what the Ancient Egyptians call The Third Eye – an ability to see into the future and to be able to know what people are thinking and even see into their souls.”
There was silence before she added,
“Although I cannot really tell you the reason for it, I know instinctively that your luck has changed.”
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
A Shooting Star
The Winning Post is Love
They Touched Heaven
The Mountain of Love
The Queen Wins
Love and the Gods
Joined by Love
The Duke is Deceived
A Prayer For Love
Love Conquers War
A Rose in Jeopardy
A Call of Love
A Flight to Heaven
She Wanted Love
A Heart Finds Love
A Sacrifice for Love
Love's Dream in Peril
Soft, sweet & Gentle
An Archangel Called Ivan
A Prisoner in Paris
Danger in the desert
Rescued by Love
A Road to Romance
A Golden Lie
A heart of stone
The Earl Elopes
A Wilder Kind of Love
The Bride Runs Away
Beyond the Horizon
Crowned by Music
Love solves the Problem
Blessing of the Gods
Love by Moonlight
Saved by the Duke
A Train to Love
Wanted - A Bride
Double the Love
Hiding from the Fortune-Hunters
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.
“Money can be a curse or a blessing in the right hands, but the real love between a man and a woman is always a blessing that can only come from God.”
Barbara Cartland
CHAPTER ONE ~ 1877
Colena pulled off the black hat she had worn at her father’s funeral and then threw it onto a chair before she sat down in front of the mirror to tidy her hair.
She had tried not to cry at the funeral and somehow she had succeeded.
But now she felt tears coming into her eyes and it was difficult to see her own reflection.
The funeral for Sir Arthur Dalton had taken place at the English Church in Paris and because they were in Paris his death had not filled the newspapers, which Colena knew it would have done in London.
Sir Arthur had made himself one of the richest and most acclaimed men in the whole country and, because he was so shrewd as well as lucky, he had become one of the wealthiest men of the times.
Colena knew that his death would be headlines in almost every English newspaper.
It was because of this that she had deliberately had him buried very quickly after his death.
Only his relatives and close friends were aware that he was no longer with them.
It was three years ago that Sir Arthur, on one of his trips abroad from which he usually came back richer than he was already, had caught a strange and frightening fever, which developed into a disease that had affected his whole body.
Because he had been in Paris when it had occurred, Colena had not returned to England, but stayed so that she could see her father every day and she had been told by the doctors that it was only a question of time before he was back on his feet.
He was, in fact, only sixty-five when he died.
It was something no one expected or anticipated.
Colena herself had been dreadfully shocked when she had called to see her father after his afternoon rest to be told that he had died in his sleep.
“But you were so sure,” she had said to the doctors, “that he would recover from this dreadful Oriental disease which has lingered – on and on. I did not believe – that it would kill him!”
The tears had come into her eyes at the last words.
One of the doctors, who was French, bent forward to put his hand on her arm.
“You must be very brave, mademoiselle,” he said in French, “as you have been all the time that your father has been so ill. To be absolutely frank with you, none of us had the slightest idea that it would eventually kill him.”
“You have been so kind, doctor,” Colena sighed, “but I too thought that he would soon be back to being as energetic and as clever as he has always been.”
There was nothing more that the doctor could say.
She had gone back to the house that her father had bought in Paris, which was just off the Champs Élysées.
Her cousin, Elizabeth, had been waiting there for her and she knew, as soon as she saw her that something terrible had happened.
Colena had rushed forward and thrown her arms around her cousin.
“Papa is – dead,” she sobbed, “and they were – so sure that he would get well.”
She was weeping copiously and there was nothing her cousin could do but hold her closely.
“You have to be brave,” she told her, “as your dear father must have been brave when your mother died.”
“You are the only person who I have left,” Colena wailed. “Now I feel all alone in the world and there is no point in thinking – that there is anything for me to do.”
Elizabeth thought this to be true, but was too wise to say so. She merely comforted Colena as best she could.
When she became calmer and stopped crying, they started to plan what they would do.
“I don’t want to stay in Paris,” Colena said. “It will always remind me of Papa and how he enjoyed taking me to see the sights when he was not busy.”
“You are not the only person who will miss him,” Elizabeth replied. “He is renowned for the brilliant way he has helped so many people become almost as rich as he was himself.”
“I know that,” Colena answered, “and I know how much he will be missed in England. I would rather be at home when they will all come saying, over and over again, how wonderful he was.”
“Then we will certainly go back,” Elizabeth assured her. “After all, the house is waiting for you and you never expected when you came away that we would be here for so long.”
“It must be nearly two years,” Colena said. “I was seventeen when I left and had just finished my schooling.”
Elizabeth nodded and Colena went on,
“But, of course, I wanted to come to France with Papa. As he knew that he had a big job to do, he wanted me to be with him rather than leave me in England.”
“And, of course, you enjoyed Paris,” Elizabeth said. “It was a year later when I came to join you. I was thrilled at the invitation, but then I never expected that it would last over two years.”
“None of us did,” Colena replied, “but when Papa became ill there was no point in moving. So here we are now without him.”
Tears ran down her face again.
Her cousin held her very closely.
“You have to be brave,” she said. “Just think how wonderful your father was and how many people will miss him. You are so lucky to be his daughter.”
“Of course I am,” Colena agreed. “I thought that he was the most fabulous man there ever was even though I really saw very little of him.”
“He was always so incredibly busy. And everyone wanted him because he was successful in everything he undertook.”
Elizabeth then took Colena upstairs and insisted on her lying down.
“If you want to cry, then you must cry,” she told her. “But you must not let everyone else see you because they will want to cry too.”
“I think a lot of people will be missing Papa more than they realise,” Colena said. “He was so brilliant that he succeeded in everything he did and then everyone wanted to copy him or be associated with him in some way.”
Her cousin had agreed.
At the same time she thought that going on and on about just how marvellous Sir Arthur had been would only make Colena unhappier than she was already.
She therefore started to pack up all the things they would take with them to London.
Elizabeth took out her pen and drafted a letter that she thought Colena should read, before she sent it to the house in London, saying that they were returning.
‘The sooner we leave here,’ she thought, ‘where everything reminds Colena of her father, the better.’
She started thinking who they had to inform of her uncle’s death, the most important naturally were the people who had looked after his money and his possessions while he had been so ill.
Luckily, Mr. James Armstrong, the Solicitor who paid the servants and everything that was needed was due to come back to the house later that afternoon.
When he did arrive, he was as horrified as they had been at Sir Arthur’s death.
The man who had always seemed to him and a great number of others to be the very spirit and Master of everything around him was no longer there.
“What we have to do now,” Mr. Armstrong said to Elizabeth when her cousin was not there, “is to make Miss Colena feel at home in London. She has not lived in the house for any length of time and therefore has very few friends in England.”
“The family will rally round her,” Elizabeth replied.
She was twenty-four and one of Colena’s cousins, who was not married or involved with any man when Sir Arthur had realised that he had to be in France for some considerable time.
He had therefore asked her to be a companion to his daughter.
Sir Arthur had been more grateful to her than she expected and she had actually given up a great deal to do as he wanted.
She had only recently been a debutante for one year and had been a great success and she was invited to parties almost almost every night.
However, because her uncle was so influential and admired by everyone she knew, it was a great compliment that he was offering her this position of trust.
She had therefore accepted it without hesitation and she had thought, of course, that they would only be in Paris for three or four months at the outside.
But, when it extended year after year, she had too kind a nature and was too fond of Colena to say goodbye and return to London alone.
She was well rewarded by being given the most beautiful clothes that only Paris could provide.
She had also received at birthdays and Christmas the most expensive and beautiful jewellery from the Rue de la Pays.
At the same time she had greatly missed her friends in London and was only too well aware that she was now no longer a debutante.
In fact, as a friend wrote to her, if she had been in London she would doubtless be married by now.
‘I don’t regret it in any way,’ she thought to herself as she wrote to the different people who had to learn of her uncle’s death.
One thing that she was sure of was that Sir Arthur would be little mourned here in Paris except by those who actually did business with him, but in London there would be many people who would be distressed at losing him.
Perhaps the Prime Minister himself and Members of the Cabinet would appreciate better than anyone that they had lost a man of outstanding merit who had helped and advised them in good times and bad.
There was no one to take his place in London or for that matter anywhere else.
What Elizabeth now saw as a difficulty more than anything else was that, as Colena had been at school in the country and abroad so much, she had no friends in London.
In the holidays her father had invariably taken her either to their home in the country or on a trip to Scotland or Ireland where he would be working on business deals.
Colena was therefore returning to London and, as her cousin saw it, with few people to welcome her and no one who had worked with her father would be likely to find a place in their busy lives for her.
‘Now I will have to ask someone in the family to chaperone her,’ she thought. ‘I cannot think who that could possibly be.’
It seemed strange, but actually their family was a small one.
Sir Arthur had been born in Scotland although his family were not Scottish.
He had won a Scholarship to Oxford University and had emerged with such an outstanding and brilliant brain that everyone in London had held out their arms to him.
It had never struck him that he should return back to Scotland to his own relations.
As the years passed and he travelled all over the world growing richer and richer from every country that he visited and, being politically involved in the Empire, which was growing year by year, there had been no opportunity for him to look up his relatives.
And, as far as Elizabeth knew, because they were her relations too, most of them were dead.
Elizabeth’s mother had died in childbirth when she was only fifteen and her father, of whom she saw very little because he was a constant traveller, had an accident a year and a half ago.
The carriage he had hired was overturned in a road accident and he had died shortly after receiving extremely serious injuries to his head.
By this time, because she had been with Colena in the holidays, she had been quite happy to make her home her own and to think of herself as a part of the magnificent entourage that Sir Arthur surrounded himself with.
What she had liked more than anything else was that he talked to her as if she was older than she actually was and she believed that she had learnt more from him than she had ever learnt at school.
Now it seemed horrifying that she and Colena were two young people travelling on a great sea of money, but with few companions and no one to tell them exactly what they should do on their own.
When Sir Arthur had been alive, it had always been a question of obeying him as quickly as possible.
His endless orders came sharply almost as if he was speaking to soldiers and the two girls had hurried to obey him whatever he asked of them.
It had all been very exciting and a different world from the one she had grown up in and it was an adventure that never ceased to surprise and entrance her.
And she knew that Colena felt the same.
She just could not help feeling that for a moment everything had suddenly come to an abrupt standstill, as if they were in some huge train and they had no idea how to get it moving again.
‘I must do my best for Colena,’ she told herself, ‘because now she is completely alone. I cannot think what we will do when we reach London.’
Feeling that she must talk to Colena and tell her what was happening, she went along to her room only to find that she was fast asleep.
‘It’s the best thing that could happen,’ Elizabeth thought to herself.
Very softly, so as not to disturb her cousin, she pulled down the blinds and left the room in darkness.
It was actually only half an hour later that Colena, who had cried dismally before she fell asleep, awoke.
At first she thought that it was night and then she remembered that it had been early in the afternoon when she had gone to bed.
As she had missed her luncheon, she would be glad for a cup of tea.
She had only partially undressed, so it did not take her long to put on her dress again without calling a maid, tidy her hair and walk downstairs.
As she neared the drawing room, she heard a voice and then she moved quickly into the room adjoining it.
If there were visitors and perhaps they had learnt of her father’s death and wanted to talk to her about it, it was the one thing that she wished to avoid for the present.
But there was definitely voices next door.
She then walked across the room to the door that communicated with the drawing room where the sound was coming from.
Very very gently so that it was impossible to make any sound, she pulled open the door.
Then she could hear a woman speaking in French in quite a low voice.
There was a man with her and it must have been his voice that she had heard when she was in the corridor.
“Now listen to me, Pierre,” the woman was saying in French. “I will leave you as soon as Colena joins us and when you are alone you must ask her to marry you.”
“But I don’t think I want to marry her and I am quite certain that she does not want to marry me,” the man replied.
Colena was aware now of whom was speaking.
It was a young man whose father had been doing some business with her father.
He had come to dinner on several occasions when they had been in Paris before her father went down with his terrible Oriental disease.
She had thought him rather dull at the time and he had certainly not paid any attention to her.
But she did remember the mother, who was rather attractive in a strange way.
She had made what she thought were tremendous advances to her father and she had flirted with him in a manner that Colena felt that only the French were capable of doing.
Her father, moreover, had been pursued by a great number of women and he had, as he had said to her once, very little time for them as he was always so busy.
She could not help being amused by the way that her father, with a twinkle in his eye, had encouraged the woman who was flirting with him.
At the same time in no way did he commit himself.
When he had been taken so desperately ill, it had been the Comtesse who had called frequently to ask how he was.
She would have visited him in the hospital if he had not been too ill to entertain visitors. In fact the only people who were allowed to see him were Colena and Elizabeth.
It was typical, she thought that, when no one could have known about her father’s death, the Comtesse should have managed to hear of it and had called before anyone else was likely to do so.
