THE LARKVILLE LEGACY
A secret letter⦠two families changed for ever
Welcome to the small town of Larkville, Texas, where the Calhoun family has been ranching for generations.
Meanwhile, in New York, the Patterson family rules Americaâs highest echelons of society.
Both families are totally unprepared for the news that they are linked by a shocking secret.
For hidden on the Calhoun ranch is a letter thatâs been lying unopened and unreadâuntil now!
Meet the two families in all eight books of this brand-new series:
THE COWBOY COMES HOME
by Patricia Thayer
SLOW DANCE WITH THE SHERIFF
by Nikki Logan
TAMING THE BROODING CATTLEMAN
by Marion Lennox
THE RANCHERâS UNEXPECTED FAMILY
by Myrna Mackenzie
HIS LARKVILLE CINDERELLA
by Melissa McClone
THE SECRET THAT CHANGED EVERYTHING
by Lucy Gordon
THE SOLDIERâS SWEETHEART
by Soraya Lane
THE BILLIONAIREâS BABY SOS
by Susan Meier
Dear Reader,
Writing a book as part of a series about a whole family is particularly fascinating because we come to know so much of the heroineâs background.
As we grow up the influences that shape us are so many and so varied that itâs hard to see the real person without knowing about them. Much of Charlotteâs life has been one thing while seeming to be another. She comes from a happy, loving family with two parents, two sisters and a brother. What could be better?
But sheâs tormented by the feeling of being the odd one out, less attractive and talented than the others, and her adventurous spirit has sometimes led her to act rebelliously. Seeking escape, she takes off for a year in Italy. But in Rome she learns of a shattering family secret, and finds that sheâs the last to know.
Devastated, she falls into the arms of Lucio, a fiercely attractive Italian. But their night together results in a baby. Lucio is gladâbut is it her that he wants or only the child? And how much is he driven by a past even more troubled than her own? Surely loving him is too great a risk? Wonât she, once again, be the odd one out?
Perhaps she will never know his true feelings for her. Or perhaps a family reunion will unexpectedly give her the answer she can only dream of.
With best wishes,
Lucy Gordon
LUCY GORDON cut her writing teeth on magazine journalism, interviewing many of the worldâs most interesting men, including Warren Beatty, Charlton Heston and Sir Roger Moore. She also camped out with lions in Africa, and had many other unusual experiences, which have often provided the background for her books. Several years ago, while staying in Venice, she met a Venetian who proposed to her after two days. They have been married ever since. Naturally this has affected her writing, where romantic Italian men tend to feature strongly.
Two of her books have won a Romance Writers of America RITA>® Award.
You can visit her website, www.lucy-gordon.com.
HE WAS there!
After such an anxious search it was hard to be sure at first; aged about thirty, tall, lean, fit, with black hair. Was it really him? But then he made a quick movement and Charlotte knew.
This was the man sheâd come to find.
Heâd looked different last time, elegantly dressed, smooth, sophisticated, perfectly at home in one of the most fashionable bars in Rome. Now, in the Tuscan countryside, he was equally at home in jeans and casual shirt, absorbed in the vines that streamed in long lines under the setting sun. So absorbed that he didnât look up to see her watching him from a distance.
Lucio Constello.
Quickly she pulled out a scrap of paper and checked his name. At the back of her mind a wry voice murmured that if youâd sought out a man to tell him devastating news it was useful to get his name right. On the other hand, if youâd only exchanged first names, and heâd left while you were still asleep, who could he blame but himself?
She tried to silence that voice. It spoke to her too often these days.
She began to walk the long path between the vines, trying to calm her thoughts. But they refused to be calmed. They lingered rebelliously on the memory of his naked body against hers, the heat of his breath, the way heâd murmured her name.
There had been almost a question in his voice, as though he was asking her if she were certain. But there was no certainty left in her life. Her family, her boyfriendâthese were the things she had clung to. But her boyfriend had rejected her and the foundations of her family had been shaken. So sheâd invited Lucio to her bed becauseâwhat did it matter? What did anything matter?
He was looking up, suddenly very still as he saw her. What did that stillness mean? That he recognised her and guessed why she was here? Or that heâd forgotten a woman heâd known for a few hours several weeks ago?
When Lucio first looked up the sun was in his eyes, blinding him, so that for a moment he could make out no details. A woman was approaching him down the long avenue of vines, her attention fixed on him as though only he mattered in all the world.