Hidden By Love

Keeping up appearances for her older brother, Lord Anthony (Tony) Linwood, and his Society lifestyle while also caring for their young brother and sister is becoming too much for the beautiful Minerva as they have very little money and the bills are mounting every day. So when Tony confesses that he owes the terrifying gambling debt of two thousand pounds to his friend, the Earl of Gorleston, with an unsavoury and raffish reputation, she is mortified. A gambling debt is always considered a debt of honour between gentlemen and Society expects it to be paid before any other debts or the loser is cut off everyone's invitation list.It seems that they will be forced to sell the family Manor House to pay the Earl, who lives in the adjacent Castle – unless Minerva can find a way to reply the debt. In utter desperation Minerva dresses herself up as a highwayman, creeps into The Castle and tries to blackmail the Earl at gunpoint. But, of course, she fails dismally. Disarmed and disheartened, she is left in a dark dungeon with rising water from the moat, little knowing that the Earl she hates is in a prison of his own and that for them both the one key to freedom is – Love.

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.