This HaBO request comes from Leslie, who has a double dose of HaBO goodness:
I have a twofer HaBO, both books I read in my early teens in the early nineties. This would have been published before 1995. When I was a teenager, I’d purchase romance novels illicitly at the local used bookstore, but when my parents found my stash, they confiscated them, thinking they were inappropriate for a thirteen-year-old (very sad, if probably accurate). I’m hoping to track down my two favorites.
The first was a pretty typical Highlander hero/English heroine kind of novel, which included the hero kidnapping the heroine (to hold her for ransom, maybe?). I think his last name was Carr or Kerr or something along those lines, and the book talked at some length about the Carr/Kerr/whatever castle being built with the staircases running clockwise rather than counter-clockwise to accommodate the family trait of left-handedness (weird, the details one remembers). I also seem to recall that the heroine was very fair-skinned and almost white-blonde?
The second, I don’t recall quite as clearly, but the major detail I do remember is that the heroine was a fit model for the House of Worth or a stand-in Victorian fashion house. It became a plot point specifically because, after falling out with (or being separated from?) the hero, she discovers she’s pregnant because she no longer meets fit model proportions.
Any help from the smart bitches in the house?
Those are definitely some strange details, but hopefully it’ll help locate these books!
The first one sounds like a Julie Garwood historical – maybe Honor’s Splendor? I remember the heroine telling him the staircase was backwards.
Yeah I’m guessing Honor’s Splendor as well, although that one was not one of her highlander books. I remember the staircase thing well, because it drives me a bit nuts every time I read it. If you are left handed and your opponent is right handed then when your sword arm is on the clear side so is your opponent’s! But still I love the book. Such is the power of the Garwood.
I think the first one is Outlaw by Susan Johnson. I remember reading it back in the 90s – definitely inappropriate for 13-year-old. For some reason the detail of the left-handed staircase stuck in my mind, too. I remembered the hero’s last name, but had to search for the title.
Here’s the description excerpted from a review on Amazon:”Johnnie Carre, a powerful Border Lord in Scotland, kidnaps Elizabeth Graham, widowed daughter of his English enemy Lord Harold Godfrey, to force the release of his brother, Robbie. … Threatened by her father and her dead husband’s sons, who plot to gain control of her marital inheritance, Elizabeth discovers she is pregnant with Johnnie’s child. She proposes a marriage of convenience to her longtime suitor George Baldwin, who accepts. With an army of 300 men, Johnnie gallops into England to abduct the bride at the altar and ride with Elizabeth back to his country estate, Goldiehouse. But their happiness is threatened by the wicked Godfrey.”
I’m also leaning towards the first one being a Julie Garwood because of the left-handed staircase, but I don’t think it’s Honor’s Splendour. Now her The Bride has a Scottish hero. His last name isn’t Kerr but Kincaid.
I think Katy L. has it.
Katy L., that’s it! Thanks so much–this is why I love this site.
But surely every spiral staircase runs both clockwise and counterclockwise! Unless it was an exclusively Up staircase or only Down allowed?
Or were you reading Up the Down Staircase?
@Teev: There really were Left-hand staircases associated with a certain family on the Scotland/England border. They were said to have a high concentration of left-handed people and trained the others to fight left-handed. Truth is stranger than fiction!
The second one may be Pomp and Circumstance by Fred Mustard Stewart (published in 1991). I have a vague recollection of reading it, and IIRC it’s Victorian, the h/h are separated before she finds out she’s pregnant, and she works as a model in Paris early in her pregnancy. Can’t imagine there are that many books with this particular combination 😉
@Eelsmum: I did a bit of digging after reading your comment and found some stuff on that family (perhaps not coincidentally named Kerr) and some other stuff about left handed fighting. I grant that you might as well have a staircase that favors your sword arm but I stand by my claim that such a staircase also allows your righthanded enemy’s sword arm to swing free. Thanks for goosing me to learn some new things!