Around The Rugged Rock

the long version

At the beautiful Casa de Nuestra Senora del Carmen in Andalusia lives Lorna Salvador, daughter of an Englishman, a year or two past forty and lovely as a woman can be. Lorna is the sort of woman people come to when in trouble, and young Nicholas Saracen does this. Nicholas is deeply in love with Lorna's young Spanish neighbor. Yet the thought of his arrival fills Lorna with a strange and tremulous expectancy... Before long the Casa is overflowing with types: Stephanie, better known as somebody's daughter; Martin, whose favorite pastime is making artificial gardens; Roderick, Lorna's former husband who is determined to marry her again. Strangely, some local smuggling eases the path of true love and adds a fine flourish to the conclusion of a charmingly frivolous novel. Also published as "The Gentlemen Go By"