Beautiful, young and yet fiercely independent, Shikara Bartlett sorely misses her much-loved father, the renowned archaeologist Professor Richard Bartlett, who appears to have gone missing on his latest ‘dig’ near the Pyramids of Egypt. What makes it even worse for Shikara is that in his absence her strait-laced uncle and Guardian is determined to marry her off to the middle-aged Lord Stroud, who is pompous, boring and far too old at forty-four. She certainly does not love him ¬and she never will. So Shikara decides to escape from her uncle’s house using a rope from her bedroom window. But the rope is too short and she cannot reach the ground. Luckily for her the Marquis of Linwood has just made a similar escape from a married lady’s nearby boudoir and hears Shikara’s cries for help and gallantly saves her. Somehow she persuades him to take her to Southampton where she can embark on a Steamer to Cairo to search for her lost father, but instead she manages to stow away on the Marquis’s superb modern yacht. And, slowly but surely, the Marquis who famously hates all women falls under the spell of this lovely headstrong waif who professes to hate all men.

When James Sidwell, Marquis of Riverdale, offered to help Elizabeth Hotchkiss find herself a husband, he never dreamed that the only candidate he could propose would be himself..

Why did Life Magazine dub her "the most hated woman in America"? Did she unravel the moral fiber of America or defend the Constitution? They found her heaped in a shallow grave, sawed up, and burned. Thus ended Madalyn Murray O'Hair, the articulate "atheist bitch" whose 1963 U.S. Supreme Court case ended school prayer. Her Christian-baiting lawsuits spanned three more decades; she was on TV all over the country, foul-mouthed, witty, and passionate, launching today's culture wars over same-sex marriage and faith-based initiatives. She was a man-hater who loved sex, a bully whose heart broke for the downtrodden. She was accused of schizophrenia, alcoholism, and embezzlement, but never cowardice or sloth. She was an ideologue who spewed toxic rage even at the followers who made her a millionaire. She was a doting mother who accosted people to ask them to be sexual partners for her lonely children, and whose cannibalistic love led her children to their grave. She thrived on her fame, but just as the curtain of obscurity began to lower, the family vanished in one of the strangest of America's true crimes. This is the real story of "the most hated woman in America," by the only author to interview the killer and those close to him and to witness the family's secret burial in Austin, Texas. From the First Chapter The sky was gray and drizzling, but it had stopped at the funeral home by quarter to nine. Billy Murray hadn't spoken to his three family members for more than twenty years, but he wanted to give them a decent burial. Bill was an ordained minister, but he didn't pray over the charred, sawed-up remains. "Baptists don't pray for the dead," he said. "They either accept Christ before they died or they didn't." He had his mother cremated in accordance with her oft-expressed wish. Her urn sat at the head of the burial vault, as was appropriate, for she had ruled the other two with an iron hand. She was Madalyn Murray O'Hair, 76, founder of American Atheists, and the Most Hated Woman in America—a sobriquet she relished. The other two were his half-brother, Jon Garth Murray, 40, and his daughter, Robin Murray-O'Hair, 30. It had taken five years to find them and bring them to the cemetery for the service, which was kept secret from the public. It was their second burial. Jerry Carruth, the prosecutor who had searched for the family for nearly four years, had watched them being excavated from their shallow mass grave on a South Texas ranch some months before. He was watching the shoveling, looking for the hip replacement joint Madalyn had gotten in 1988. When they found that, he'd know he'd found Madalyn. "There it was," he said, "shining in the sun like a trailer hitch.">

Donatien Alphonse Francois, Marquis de Sade (1740-1814), one of the most perplexing personalities of Western culture, has been called 'the freest spirit who ever lived' and 'a frenetic and abominable assemblage of all crimes and obscenities'. Yet scant attention has been given to the two women who were the catalysts of his fate: his loyal, tolerant wife, Renee-Pelagie, and his vindictive mother-in-law, Madame de Montreuil. This groundbreaking account vividly brings to life these two dynamic women and the complex bonds they evolved with the rakish Marquis, as they dedicated themselves to protecting, curbing and, ultimately, confining him. Francine du Plessix Gray draws on thousands of pages of correspondence between the magnetic, aristocratic Marquis de Sade and his plain, bourgeois wife, to explore in historical and psychological detail what it was like to live with this maverick adventurer and man of letters in the decades before the French Revolution. She brilliantly recreates the extravagant hedonism and corruption of late-18th-century France, the ensuing Terror, and the oppression of the Napoleonic regime under which de Sade spent his last years.

Blaze Flambeau is clever and gutsy: Daughter of a wealthy duke, Blaze Flambeau is a woman with a purpose and plans never to marry. Gifted with the ability to communicate with animals, Blaze is determined to build a sanctuary for horses, dogs, and cats. With a clever idea to raise funds, Blaze plans to race the thoroughbred filly her father gave her. Unfortunately, her prized thoroughbred has a quirk of nature that keeps her from reaching the finish line. Ross MacArthur is charming and easygoing: Ross MacArthur, the wealthy Marquis of Awe, is an influential thoroughbred owner on the racing circuit. MacArthur wants a wife uncorrupted by the prospect of material gain. Attracted to Blaze from the start, Ross thinks she’s more refreshing than a summer in the Highlands. Not only will Ross cure her ailing filly, he’s determined to win Blaze’s heart.

Twenty one plays from the drama of Greece, Rome, Spain, France, Italy, Germany, Denmark, and Norway from 500 B. C. to 1879 A.

This book is one of considerable variety, dealing mainly with prayer, worship, and song to a minor degree. "Prayer," the author states, " . . . is the fourth dimension of human existence, a dimension of mystery--a spiritual dimension, for God is Spirit, and God dwells in us as Spirit. This dimension becomes especially manifest in silent prayer . . ." Prayer is part of the pilgrimage of life. Small wonder, through many years the book has grown to some 145 prayers covering a vast variety of subjects, some most serious, dealing with fundamental, human struggles and fundamental questions; some are even humorous--sport, the Kentucky Derby, God's humor in creation. Pastoral prayers touch on the worship service and its danger of becoming stereotyped. So he even ventures in giving fifteen new benedictions, which he says is not intended to be a wimpy prayer of dismissal to go home now to have a nap, but an authoritative culmination of the worship service, sending people out into the world as laborers. The lyrics deal with the essential elements of life: praise to the Almighty (Psalm 146), love, faith, hope, God's goodness, and ends with a song to America. Prayer, the author says, is the universal language of all religions, and he anticipates that people of diverse religious persuasions will find in the book guidance in trying situations, comfort, joy, and inspiration.

"Malcolm; or The Fisherman's Lady" tells the story of a poor fisherman Malcolm MacPhail. Young man is raised by his grandfather and discovers that he has noble origins and that he is actually the true son of the Marquise of Lossie. He manages to find employment in the castle and gains the mad laird's trust. Step by step he is entering the new world and introducing the life that was taken from him in the first place. The Marquis' Secret completes the story of Malcolm, a young fisherman set to become new Marquise of Lossie. Malcolm decides to hide his true identity, so he can help his sister who got herself under some very bad influences in London. He reveals the truth about his origins to her and goes on to take his position as a marquis. George MacDonald (1824-1905) was a Scottish author, poet, and Christian minister. He was a pioneering figure in the field of fantasy literature and the mentor of fellow writer Lewis Carroll. His writings have been cited as a major literary influence by many notable authors including W. H. Auden, C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, Walter de la Mare, E. Nesbit and Madeleine L'Engle. G. K. Chesterton cited The Princess and the Goblin as a book that had "made a difference to my whole existence". MacDonald has been credited with founding the "kailyard school" of Scottish writing.