Hazard of Hearts

After her mother died when Serena Staverley was just nine, her father, Sir Giles, indulged his deep passion for gambling, leaving his only child in charge of an impoverished household.
Now a stunningly beautiful young woman, Serena is mortified to hear that her father has been killed in a duel. Worse still, it seems that he went willingly, even deliberately to his death. But why?
The appalling answer is presented by her much-loved cousin Nicholas who suddenly proposes marriage – to save Serena from a terrible fate –
Sir Giles has not only lost the Staverley estate on the turn of a card, but he has also gambled away the hand in marriage of his lovely daughter, along with her eighty thousand pounds inheritance all in a last desperate bet to try and best his arch-rival at the tables, Lord Vulcan.
Serena has little alternative but to marry a man whose wicked ways have contributed to her family's downfall.
And Lord Vulcan takes her away from her beloved Staverley to his majestic ancestral home, Mandrake, which is close to the sea and where Serena finds its welcome to be strange and sinister.
Abducted by a lecherous guest at Mandrake, threatened by a smuggler Marchioness, rescued by a gentleman highwayman and, resisting the marriage of convenience, Serena slowly realises that she has lost her heart to a man she thought she despised.

Barbara Cartland was the world's most prolific novelist who wrote an amazing 723 books in her lifetime, of which no less than 644 were romantic novels with worldwide sales of over 1 billion copies and her books were translated into 36 different languages.
As well as romantic novels, she wrote historical biographies, 6 autobiographies, theatrical plays and books of advice on life, love, vitamins and cookery.
She wrote her first book at the age of 21 and it was called Jigsaw. It became an immediate bestseller and sold 100,000 copies in hardback in England and all over Europe in translation.
Between the ages of 77 and 97 she increased her output and wrote an incredible 400 romances as the demand for her romances was so strong all over the world.
She wrote her last book at the age of 97 and it was entitled perhaps prophetically The Way to Heaven.
Her books have always been immensely popular in the United States where in 1976 her current books were at numbers 1 & 2 in the B. Dalton bestsellers list, a feat never achieved before or since by any author.
Barbara Cartland became a legend in her own lifetime and will be best remembered for her wonderful romantic novels so loved by her millions of readers throughout the world, who have always collected her books to read again and again, especially when they feel miserable or depressed.
Her books will always be treasured for their moral message, her pure and innocent heroines, her handsome and dashing heroes, her blissful happy endings and above all for her belief that the power of love is more important than anything else in everyone's life.