Gates of Dawn (Harlequin Classic Library)

22 yr-old Melanie Brooks works for Mrs Eve Duplessis as secretary companion, so when her brother decided to take his young 16 yr old niece Noel who was reported to be very ill. But she under Melanie's care seemed to get much better, to the point when a friend of Richards movie star Sylvia Gaythorpe decided that Melanie was wrapping Noel in cotton-wool, Richard listened to her and allowed Noel to go to a winter skating site even when she didn't want to, and she stood around in the cold watching Sylvia ice skate. The next day Noel was so ill she had to be have a doctor called in. The doctor found a spot on Noel's lung and recommended she be taken to Austria. Once in Austria Noel started to recover still under Melanie's care. Richard shows up only to find Kurt Muller not only in attendance to his niece, but also dancing attendance on Melanie. From the back of the book: 'Richard Trenchard was accustomed to having his own way, not least with women. Even his cool, selfish sister had to relinquish her valued secretary when Richard wanted a companion for his young niece. As for the secretary herself, Melanie Brooks, she was offered no choice in the matter. Still, she had little cause for complaint, for Richard's benevolent despotism took her to pleasant places-a charming English country house and then a chalet in the Austrian Alps-and, in the end, opened for her a door to a fuller and happier life than she had ever hoped to know.'