1. The Convenient Marriage
Set in 1776, The Convenient Marriage begins when seventeen-year-old Horatia Winwood offers to marry the wealthy Earl of Rule in place of her elder sister, who loves another man. The arrangement rescues the debt-ridden Winwood family and gives Rule the alliance he wants, but Horry enters…
3. The Talisman Ring
Set in Sussex in 1793, The Talisman Ring follows the French émigrée Eustacie de Vauban, who runs away rather than accept an arranged marriage to the composed Sir Tristram Shield. She soon encounters her fugitive cousin Ludovic, accused of murder and dispossessed of both his inheritance…
4. The Corinthian
Sir Richard Wyndham is wealthy, fashionable and trapped by family expectations that he should make a suitable marriage. Leaving London after a night of drinking, he encounters Pen Creed climbing from a window in boy’s clothing to escape guardians determined to marry her against her will.…
5. Faro’s Daughter
Set in London in 1795, Faro’s Daughter centres on Deborah Grantham, who helps her widowed aunt run a fashionable but precarious gaming house. When the young Lord Mablethorpe proposes to Deborah, his formidable cousin Max Ravenscar intervenes, convinced that she is an adventuress pursuing the family…
6. Friday’s Child
Rejected by the woman he believes he loves, the reckless Viscount Sheringham declares that he will marry the first woman he meets. That woman is Hero Wantage, an orphaned childhood friend who has long loved him and accepts his impulsive proposal without understanding the demands of…
7. The Reluctant Widow
In early 1813, the governess Elinor Rochdale enters the wrong carriage and is carried to the home of Lord Carlyon. There she is persuaded to marry Carlyon’s dying cousin, an arrangement intended to keep a neglected estate out of the hands of an unwanted heir. Within…
8. The Foundling
Adolphus Gillespie Vernon Ware, Duke of Sale, has spent his life protected by relatives and servants who treat him as permanently fragile. When he learns that his cousin is being blackmailed by the beautiful foundling Belinda, he escapes his household and sets out incognito to solve…
9. Arabella
Arabella Tallant, the daughter of an impoverished country clergyman, travels to London for a season that may determine her family’s future. Provoked by the wealthy and self-assured Robert Beaumaris, she allows him to believe that she is a great heiress rather than admit that she has…
10. The Grand Sophy
After years travelling through Europe with her diplomatic father, Sophia Stanton-Lacy is sent to stay with her London relatives. She finds the household constrained by debt, unsuitable engagements and the rigid authority of her cousin Charles Rivenhall, who expects Sophy to behave like a conventional young…
11. The Quiet Gentleman
In the spring of 1816, Gervase Frant returns from military service after Waterloo to claim his inheritance as the seventh Earl of St Erth. His stepmother and half-brother had expected him never to return, and the atmosphere at the family seat is marked by resentment, rivalry…
12. Cotillion
Kitty Charing’s eccentric guardian announces that she will inherit his fortune only if she marries one of his grand-nephews. When the charming Jack Westruther refuses to participate, Kitty persuades his dependable cousin Freddy Standen to enter a false engagement intended to provoke Jack’s jealousy. The arrangement…
13. The Toll-Gate
Captain John Staple returns from the Napoleonic Wars unable to settle into a quiet civilian life. Lost in the Pennines, he reaches an isolated toll-house whose keeper has disappeared and takes temporary charge, hoping to discover what happened. His investigation connects the missing man with a…
14. Bath Tangle
After the death of her father, Serena Carlow discovers that her former fiancé, the Marquis of Rotherham, has been appointed trustee of her fortune. Determined to escape his control, she moves with her widowed stepmother to Bath and renews her acquaintance with Hector Kirkby, the gentle…
15. Sprig Muslin
Sir Gareth Ludlow intends to make a sensible proposal to his old friend Lady Hester Theale, believing that companionship is all he can now offer. On the road to her home, he encounters Amanda Smith, a determined runaway who invents a succession of identities to avoid…
16. April Lady
The young Earl and Countess of Cardross love one another, but each believes the marriage matters less to the other. Nell hides mounting debts incurred while helping her reckless brother, while Giles interprets her secrecy as evidence that she values his fortune more than his affection.…
17. Sylvester
Sylvester, Duke of Salford, decides to choose a wife and visits Phoebe Marlow, the daughter of a woman his mother once knew. Phoebe, however, recognises him as the model for the arrogant villain in her anonymously published novel and flees before a proposal can be considered.…
18. Venetia
Venetia Lanyon has spent most of her life managing a Yorkshire household and protecting her younger brother. Her ordered existence changes when she meets the neighbouring landowner Jasper Damerel, a man whose scandalous reputation has made him unacceptable to respectable society. Their friendship develops through intelligence…
19. The Unknown Ajax
When the Darracott heir dies unexpectedly, the family must receive Hugo Darracott, a previously disregarded cousin raised in Yorkshire. Expecting an uncultivated outsider, they treat him with condescension, and Hugo encourages their assumptions by exaggerating his provincial manner. His apparent simplicity conceals military experience, intelligence and…
20. Pistols for Two
Pistols for Two collects eleven short stories set in Georgette Heyer’s Georgian and Regency world. The stories use duels, inheritances, elopements, mistaken identities and unexpected proposals to bring young couples and divided families into sudden conflict. The shorter form concentrates Heyer’s characteristic social comedy and period…
21. A Civil Contract
Returning from the Peninsular War in 1814, Adam Deveril inherits a title, a heavily mortgaged estate and responsibility for his mother and sisters. Unable to marry Julia Oversley, the woman he loves, he accepts a practical marriage to Jenny Chawleigh, the plain but wealthy daughter of…