Herries Chronicles

Newly born Judith is found in by eccentric Squire Gauntry in the chilled sombre ruin of a house on a bitter winter's night, her parents having died at her birth. With such a tenuous start, the child grows up to have an intense lust for life and curiosity for every new experience. She is the natural heir to both her parents' temperaments. With the wilfulness of her mother and the stubbornness of her father, she is redeemed by a compulsion to tell the truth and a willingness to help anyone she loves in time of trouble or distress. Judith is a generation apart from the Herries family at Uldale, but the world is changing dramatically for all branches of the family. 'Liberty is the right of every human creature.' That basic tenet of John Wesley's new creed was embraced by revolutionaries worldwide, and the storming of the Bastille in France has a profound impact. Once more the Herries clan lose a leading member, and Judith is thrown back on her own resources. Then, on the brink of womanhood, she meets a childhood friend again: the dark and dangerous Georges Paris. Public Domain (P)2012 Assembled Stories

The conflict between the pragmatists and the dreamers that provides the drama in the Chronicles continues. Vanessa Paris is besotted with Benji, the devil-may-care son of John and Elizabeth Herries. Despite returning her all-consuming passion, Benji will not commit himself to marriage because he fears he can never remain constant and will eventually betray her. Benji's actions finally prompt Vanessa to leave Cumbria and seek a life in London. She stays at Hill Street with the ever persistent Ellis, who worships her. Needing to care for someone, with her father and Elizabeth gone and no-one to advise her, Vanessa thinks of the contribution she could make to the world if were she married to Ellis. At the most glittering and sophisticated ball she has attended, the 40-year-old financier asks for her hand a third time....