THE AMULET OF FORTUNE

Heiress Kitty Carew leads a comfy life on her Cornish estate, dreaming of her fiancÉ (stuffed shirt Esmond Borleigh) until 1851, when Daddy brings home a wicked stepmom and stepsister Amy. In two shakes Amy has nipped off and married Esmond. Poor Kitty flees distraught into the long-awaiting arms of Bryce Dawnay, who has loved her unnoticed since she was ten, but is the neighborhood no-no because his blood is one-quarter Gypsy. One night of passion on the grass and Kitty wants to be home safe in bed--but she must pay the price, a marriage of necessity if not convenience and life in Dawnay's rundown castle. Daddy has a stroke; stepmom is increasingly nasty; and Kitty still hankers for dopey Esmond (cf. Ashley Wilkes, GWTW), even after Bryce catches on and lays down the law. And, of course, someone is trying to kill Kitty, even after she triumphantly produces an heir through natural childbirth. More corn from Cornwall.