Six Sisters

Minerva marks the delightful debut of the Six Sisters, a family saga in six volumes that will recount the romantic adventures of the six marriageable daughters of a country vicar, the Reverend Charles Armitage, in Regency England. The eldest, Minerva, is enchantingly beautiful-but a prude. She lives in the country looking after her siblings while her mother reclines on a chaise longue happily inventing new maladies. Her father, a vicar of decidedly secular inclinations, indulges a hearty passion for hunting instead of worrying about the girls' dowries. But when he wants to send his boys to Eton, the money must be found-and how better than by marrying Minerva off to a man of fortune? Dispatched to town, Minerva experiences her first season under the wing of an elderly relative. But age, it seems, is no guarantee of respectability, and Lady Godolphin's plan for a good time scandalizes her young charge. Finally Minerva's moralizing ways make her the subject of a shocking wager among the rakes and dandies of Regency London. Meanwhile, the handsome Lord Sylvester Comfrey is observing her progress in the marriage market. For such a virtuous girl, Minerva unaccountably finds herself in some extremely compromising situations with this gentleman who, alas, professes not to be the marrying kind.

Miss Annabelle Armitage is pea-green with envy. What a cruel world it is when her spinster of an older sister can enchant the dashing Lord Sylvester Comfrey! Annabelle's own passionate nature is surely better suited for such a one as Sylvester. Alas for Annabelle, Comfrey seems to care for her not a jot. Determined to get a bit of her own back, even if it means marrying another, Annabelle finds Peter, Marquess of Brabington, a most attentive admirer. War hero though he might be, Peter is ill-prepared for his coming fight for Annabel's true love.

What clever woman would want a man like Lord Harry Desire? Why, he was clearly a lummox-languid, vain, and bland. Not even his beautiful face could redeem him. But he stood to inherit a vast fortune, and that was good enough for Deirdre's father, a spendthrift vicar who arranged the match to rescue himself from imminent financial collapse. Leave it to Deirdre to contrive an escape, a quick elopement with her one true love, the dashing Guy Wentwater. But Wentwater's love proved none too true, and Deirdre found herself in a humiliating pickle. Not even Lord Harry would marry her now. But Harry had more tricks up his tailored sleeve than Deirdre ever imagined. And soon she pined only for the marriage thrown away, and for a man whose arms had grown suddenly irresistible.

Daphne, the fourth daughter of the Reverend Charles Armitage, is beautiful-dazzlingly beautiful-but she is utterly wrapped up in her own appearance. It seems fitting when she decides to marry the exquisite Cyril Archer, who is as empty-headed and vain as she is; after all, once she is safely married, she can hide her true nature behind her beauty, never expected by anyone (least of all her husband) to do or say anything clever. Moreover, marrying Cyril will preserve her from the zealous schemes of her father, whose passion for the hunt is surpassed only by his love of tracking down wealthy, titled husbands for his many daughters. But when Daphne heads home from London, escorted by her eccentric, malaprop cousin, Lady Godolphin, her plans are suddenly thrown awry. Her father, in an aborted attempt to save his hunting pack from a vindictive bishop, finds himself indebted to a certain Mr. Simon Garfield, who is every bit as wealthy as he is noble. So the country vicar offers up the stunning, unwilling Daphne as a bride, forcing her to drop her placid mask in order to fight for the right to make her own match. Meanwhile, Daphne's older sister Annabelle is having troubles of her own. Once so happy in her marriage, she is now losing her husband's love and attention because of their screaming son-or is it their son? Daphne suddenly finds herself in a compromising position when she is given an even more serious reason to resent her father than his marriage plans for her.

It seems as if there will be no need to find a husband for Diana, the fifth daughter of Charles Armitage, the hard-drinking huntsman and country vicar. For Diana shares her father's passion for the hunt, secretly posing as a man in order to participate in a sport that is considered too vulgar for a lady in Regency England. Her four elder sisters have married well, but Diana fears she will never be as desirous to wed a man as she is to be one. She was born to have a man's freedom to do and say what she wishes, to move about without restraint-or so she thinks until, disguised as David Armitage, she gets a bitter taste of tawdry town life. Diana decides that life as a lady might not be so bad-if only she were permitted to hunt! But Lady Godolphin, Diana's well-meaning if eccentric cousin, will have none of that. She was instrumental, she tells herself, in finding fine husbands for the older Armitage girls, and she is determined not to fail Diana. A certain viscount, Lord Charles Dantry, does not play by the rules, however, upsetting all the best-laid plans to turn Diana into a proper young lady. Diana the huntress becomes the hunted and learns that there is another, infinitely more exciting kind of chase.

"Since there is no hope of my securing an eligible partner, due to sad lack of looks, I am running away…"So wrote the sixth of the famous Armitage sisters. For how could colorless Frederica withstand a Season's scrutiny after the five beauties before her had married so magnificently? Disguised as a chambermaid, Freddie found her way into the household of the fashionable Duke of Pembury. That wild gentleman was soon on to her tricks and found himself escorting the lady to London. Once on the marriage mart, the five sisters preened and primped the youngest until Freddie could not recognize herself! They did not seem to notice that a certain gentleman's attention had Freddie blooming, and that perhaps Freddie was not fated to be plain-or unmarried-after all...