Mount Royal

In Mount Royal, the celebrated author of Lady Audley's Secret turns to a deeply Victorian world of love, regret, and the inescapable power of memory. Christabel's life is shaped by two men and two kinds of sacrifice: Angus Hamleigh, whose illness and conscience force him to renounce their engagement, and Leonard Tregonell, whose cool self-interest and jealousy shadow the life that follows. A tender letter, a doctor's grim warning, and a final farewell transform romance into renunciation, while Christabel endures the collapse of hope with stoic dignity. Set against the beauty of the Cornish coast and the solemnity of Mount Royal, the novel moves through sorrow, suspicion, and duty toward a quiet marriage marked by emotional distance, a sudden death, and the hard discipline of survival. Christabel's solace comes in music, books, loyal friendship, and above all motherhood, as her son becomes the center of her restored capacity for love. Lyrical, dramatic, and intensely emotional, this is a tale of passion, loss, jealousy, and the enduring claims of the past. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.