Enchanted — Barbara Cartland

England, 1870.

For years the Dukes of Northallerton, and Lyncester had disputed the rightful ownership of the 10,000 acres that lay between their estates... Suddenly the Duke of Northallerton proposes that the quarrel shall be settled by the marriage of his elder daughter, Lady Caroline, to his old enemy. The disputed land would come to him as her dowry... Startled at the idea, the Duke of Lynchester however agrees. A Rake with a reputation for liaisons with fashionable married beauties, nevertheless needs a wife to acquire an heir... Lady Caroline is in despair as she is desperately in love with another man but Lady Elfa Allerton, her younger sister, is determined to save her from a loveless marriage... Elfa, sensitive, elfin and imaginative, has a personality and character that her family has never understood. She concocts a daring, unconventional plan. She will marry the Duke, he will still get the land while Caroline will be saved... How her self-sacrifice unexpectedly leads to love and a passionate happiness is the theme of this enchanting and unusual story...

The Duke held her against him, and as her head fell back against his shoulder he looked down at her strange, elfin face. He ran his finger over her little arched eyebrows, touched her eyes and her small, straight nose. Then he outlined the curve of her lips. As he did so he felt her quiver with a sensuous movement that was very human, and he laughed gently.

"I am enchanted, my adorable one, not only by your face and your body, but by your spirit, your heart and your sould, and it is an enchantment from which I can never escape."