Bachelor's Wedding, chapter 1

Oooh boy, a new Betts! This one features an English doctor, for a change. Better still, it features my favorite plot - the ungrateful family plot. In this case, poor Araminta works through an agency, earning bits of money to help support her extravagant father and her anemic sister Alice. Alice lounges around all day, because she's anemic. Araminta needs a new pair of shoes, while Alice gets a new dressing gown as a treat. Over-the-top, I know! But that's the fun of this plot.
Anyway, Araminta winds up getting a last-minute job through her agency: taking care of a ten-year-old and a thirteen-year-old, the nephew and niece of Jason Lister, a doctor. She fetches them from their home, because their mother has to go to Chile to see their sick father, and takes them to Jason's house. She'll take care of them during their half-term holiday, though so far they are spoiled brats.
Araminta isn't much to look at, but Jason is, of course. Betts heroes always are. I'd forgotten that Bachelor's Wedding is the book (one of several, I think), where the hero has a rare moment of leisure. Typically, he chooses to spend it "with the poems of Horace - in the original Latin, of course." (p. 9)
We don't get a very detailed description of Jason's house; it's quite large, though, with at least four good-sized bedrooms. He also has a cook, whose husband works for the doctor as well.

Awakened Heart, chapter 3

Sophie and Rijk see each other a few more times in this chapter. They eat together, go on walks, and even see his house - yes, he has a house in London. Of course Rijk has a house in London, given that he's there for - what? probably about 40 days of the year? Clearly, one would need a house with two servants for those times.
At the end of the chapter, Rijk proposes to Sophie. I wish I were making this up:
Rijk: "May I take it that we are now good, firm friends, Sophie?"
Sophie: "Oh yes."
Rijk: "Then perhaps you know what I am going to say next. Will you marry me, Sophie?"
Sophie: "Marry you? Why? Whatever for?"
After a few minutes of chatter, during which she tells him about the man whom she loved when she was 19, and who left her for a small girl (that's where Sophie's fixation with height comes from! Good to know), they go on:
Rijk: "I think that we may be happy together, Sophie. We do not know each other very well yet, but we have so little opportunity to meet. Would you consider marrying me and getting to know me after?"
A bit more chatter, then:
Sophie: "I'm not sure, but I think this is a very funny kind of proposal."
And how!

Apple from Eve, chapter 6

This is one of my days off, but I worked for literally ten hours. So this will be very brief, because my head's a bit muzzy.
Euphemia is in love with Tane, and he kisses her and calls her "Phemie" (memo to self: write a post about the names Betts chooses for her heroines!). Diana doesn't know about the kiss, but she realizes that Euphemia is competition. Diana invites Euphemia on an outing with Tane and Diana, so that Euphemia can see Diana mark her territory, as it were; Tane seems uninterested in Diana's increased demonstrativeness. (Query: is "demonstrativeness" a word? Heavens, I must go to sleep!)
On the way back to England, Tane takes the women back to his home in the Netherlands. It's very similar to every other house that a Dutch hero owns - basically, a stately home (this one's 17th-century) with servants and manicured lawns. Tane's parents are there to greet everyone - predictably, Euphemia enjoys their company and is charmed by the house as it is, but Diana is bored by Tane's parents and planning to put modern furniture (gasp!) into the house. They're like Goofus and Gallant, honestly.

Always and Forever, chapter 2

In this chapter, we hear about Oliver's house in London. It's a narrow Regency house, complete with a servant (Bates) and a black Labrador (Tiger). We also hear that he's been in the company of Miriam Potter-Stokes lately, one of those elegant and well-dressed women who often throw themselves at Betts heroes. She's well-dressed, but Oliver isn't very enthusiastic about spending time with her - Miriam clearly likes him more than he likes her. Odds are that Miriam and Amabel will meet in later chapters, and that Miriam will be condescending, and that I'll enjoy reading all about it. Anyway, seeing Miriam reminds Oliver of Amabel - possibly "because the difference in the two of them was so marked" (p. 40). So he visits Amabel, finds her having a good cry about her mother's new marriage, and is very comforting - he even takes her out to dinner.
Amabel has been looking for jobs in the newspaper. She writes to her mother about the splendid apple crop, and about all the fruit she has harvested. She actually does quite a lot of gardening in the weeks before her mother's return. They have a large garden plot, an orchard, and an old greenhouse. Sadly, once Keith (Amabel's stepfather) arrives, there goes the orchard - on the first day of his arrival, he announces his intentions of taking out all the trees and putting a new greenhouse there. Keith assumes that Amabel will stick around and do the lighter gardening, even though he doesn't like her and even declares that "I'm the boss here" (because Amabel's mother is a doormat). After Amabel finds him mistreating the animals she takes some money (with her mother's permission) and runs away with the pets to her great-aunt Thisbe in Yorkshire. Her aunt is very welcoming, saying, "Welcome to my home, child. And yours for as long as you need it." (p. 59)

All Else Confusion, chapter 3

Was Betts a Monty Python fan? I'd never noticed before that when Mrs Duvant falls ill, she says, "I'm not dead yet." Of course, she dies a few pages later of cancer, which she's had all along. I find it odd that Mrs Duvant chooses to spend her last days with Annis, a new acquaintance; that Matt never mentions the illness to Annis's family; and that Mrs Duvant wants Annis to call Jake, not Matt. OK, that last one's for plot reasons, but I still don't see the logic; Matt's her nephew, and his father is Mrs Duvant's brother. It's Annis who suggests contacting Matt's father. But this way, Annis amd Jake get to trade philosophies at the deathbed.
The only other event in this chapter (if we can call it an event) is Annis's realization that she's in love with Jake. And since it's pretty clear he likes her, and has even said he has found the person he wants to marry, it means the reader has to plow through six more chapters until the end - because nearly every Betts has nine chapters (if it's a novella, there are five). Oh, and Jake inherits the house.