THE LARKVILLE LEGACY

       A secret letter… two families changed for ever

      Welcome to the small town of Larkville, Texas, where the Calhoun family has been ranching for generations.

      Meanwhile, in New York, the Patterson family rules America’s highest echelons of society.

      Both families are totally unprepared for the news that they are linked by a shocking secret.

      For hidden on the Calhoun ranch is a letter that’s been lying unopened and unread—until now!

      Meet the two families in all eight books of this brand-new series:

      THE COWBOY COMES HOME

      by Patricia Thayer

      SLOW DANCE WITH THE SHERIFF

      by Nikki Logan

      TAMING THE BROODING CATTLEMAN

      by Marion Lennox

      THE RANCHER’S UNEXPECTED FAMILY

      by Myrna Mackenzie

      HIS LARKVILLE CINDERELLA

      by Melissa McClone

      THE SECRET THAT CHANGED EVERYTHING

      by Lucy Gordon

      THE SOLDIER’S SWEETHEART

      by Soraya Lane

      THE BILLIONAIRE’S BABY SOS

      by Susan Meier

      Dear Reader,

      Writing a book as part of a series about a whole family is particularly fascinating because we come to know so much of the heroine’s background.

      As we grow up the influences that shape us are so many and so varied that it’s hard to see the real person without knowing about them. Much of Charlotte’s life has been one thing while seeming to be another. She comes from a happy, loving family with two parents, two sisters and a brother. What could be better?

      But she’s tormented by the feeling of being the odd one out, less attractive and talented than the others, and her adventurous spirit has sometimes led her to act rebelliously. Seeking escape, she takes off for a year in Italy. But in Rome she learns of a shattering family secret, and finds that she’s the last to know.

      Devastated, she falls into the arms of Lucio, a fiercely attractive Italian. But their night together results in a baby. Lucio is glad—but is it her that he wants or only the child? And how much is he driven by a past even more troubled than her own? Surely loving him is too great a risk? Won’t she, once again, be the odd one out?

      Perhaps she will never know his true feelings for her. Or perhaps a family reunion will unexpectedly give her the answer she can only dream of.

      With best wishes,

       Lucy Gordon

      About the Author

      LUCY GORDON cut her writing teeth on magazine journalism, interviewing many of the world’s most interesting men, including Warren Beatty, Charlton Heston and Sir Roger Moore. She also camped out with lions in Africa, and had many other unusual experiences, which have often provided the background for her books. Several years ago, while staying in Venice, she met a Venetian who proposed to her after two days. They have been married ever since. Naturally this has affected her writing, where romantic Italian men tend to feature strongly.

      Two of her books have won a Romance Writers of America RITA^® Award.

      You can visit her website, www.lucy-gordon.com.

      The Secret

      That Changed

      Everything

      Lucy Gordon

       www.millsandboon.co.uk

      PROLOGUE

      HE WAS there!

      After such an anxious search it was hard to be sure at first; aged about thirty, tall, lean, fit, with black hair. Was it really him? But then he made a quick movement and Charlotte knew.

      This was the man she’d come to find.

      He’d looked different last time, elegantly dressed, smooth, sophisticated, perfectly at home in one of the most fashionable bars in Rome. Now, in the Tuscan countryside, he was equally at home in jeans and casual shirt, absorbed in the vines that streamed in long lines under the setting sun. So absorbed that he didn’t look up to see her watching him from a distance.

      Lucio Constello.

      Quickly she pulled out a scrap of paper and checked his name. At the back of her mind a wry voice murmured that if you’d sought out a man to tell him devastating news it was useful to get his name right. On the other hand, if you’d only exchanged first names, and he’d left while you were still asleep, who could he blame but himself?

      She tried to silence that voice. It spoke to her too often these days.

      She began to walk the long path between the vines, trying to calm her thoughts. But they refused to be calmed. They lingered rebelliously on the memory of his naked body against hers, the heat of his breath, the way he’d murmured her name.

      There had been almost a question in his voice, as though he was asking her if she were certain. But there was no certainty left in her life. Her family, her boyfriend—these were the things she had clung to. But her boyfriend had rejected her and the foundations of her family had been shaken. So she’d invited Lucio to her bed because—what did it matter? What did anything matter?

      He was looking up, suddenly very still as he saw her. What did that stillness mean? That he recognised her and guessed why she was here? Or that he’d forgotten a woman he’d known for a few hours several weeks ago?

      When Lucio first looked up the sun was in his eyes, blinding him, so that for a moment he could make out no details. A woman was approaching him down the long avenue of vines, her attention fixed on him as though only he mattered in all the world.

      That had happened so many times before. So often he’d seen Maria coming towards him from a great distance.

      But Maria was dead.

      The woman approaching him now was a stranger and yet mysteriously familiar. Her eyes were fixed on him even at a distance.

      And he knew that nothing in the world was ever going to be the same again.

      CHAPTER ONE

      GOING to Italy had seemed a brilliant move for a language expert. She could improve her Italian, study the country and generally avoid recognising that she wasn’t just leaving New York; she was fleeing it.

      But the truth was still the truth. Charlotte knew she had to flee memories of an emotion that had once felt like love, but which had revealed itself as disappointingly hollow, casting a negative light on almost everything in her life. It was like wandering in a desert. She belonged to nobody and nobody belonged to her. Perhaps it was this thought that made her leave her laptop computer behind. It pleased her to be beyond the reach of anyone unless she herself decided otherwise.

      For two months she wandered around Italy, seeking something she couldn’t define. She made a point of visiting Naples, fascinated by the legendary Mount Vesuvius, whose eruptions had destroyed cities in the past. Disappointingly it was now considered so safe that she could wander up to the summit and stand there listening hopefully for a growl.

      Silence.

      Which