Mistress of Penharrow — Dorothy Quentin

Hugh had loved Tessa after his fashion, but it had been on/y after his fashion. His love had not been deep enough to surmount the first big question raised between them: that Tessa wanted a family and he did not. And as Tessa, a children's nurse, loved and wanted them more than anything, the engagement had to end. It was fortunate that at this point Tessa took a temporary job as nanny to the two small children of widower Mark Vyner -- and lost her heart to them just as they took to her. Here was a ready-made family, and a home -- the lovely old house, Penharrow, in Cornwall -- that Tessa loved at sight. But what about Mark Vyner, with whom Tessa had also fallen in love, and who had said, 'I have no intention of marrying again, Miss Sullivan' ?