This book is quite inspirational for me. With Anna being a Countess and all, then suddenly she looses everything but is still determine to do what she can. She even hid the fact that she's actually a Countess just to have a job. You couldn't exactly say she's one of those damsel-in-distress that needs rescuing, because this damsel knows how to take care of herself.
Nothing completes a romance story without the Knight-in-Shining-Armor, right? But Rupert doesn't seem to be that kind of character, instead his the one that needs to be rescuing, from the evil clutches of his no good for nothing, pretend to be fiancee. And whose there to save him? Why, Anna of course.
Of course what is a lovely romance without a villain trying to separate the lovers apart. Muriel quite sticks to this job, having a snobby attitude, high regard to ranks and not to mention mistreating people. One of those ladies who choose to marry practically and tosses the issue of love out the window. Though I think it isn't quite bad for being practical but a loveless marriage? I don't think so...
All-in-all it's a good book to read. Be inspired by an improper romance such as this and learn that where love is concern "Boundaries Will Be Broken".
Summary:
After the Russian Revolution turns her world topsy-turvy, Anna, a young Russian countess, has no choice but to flee to England. Penniless, Anna hides her aristocratic background and takes a job as a servant in the household of the esteemed Westerholme family, armed only with an outdated housekeeping manual and sheer determination. Desperate to keep her past a secret, Anna is nearly overwhelmed by her new duties-not to mention her instant attraction to Rupert, the handsome Earl of Westerholme. To make matters worse, Rupert appears to be falling for her as well. As their attraction grows stronger, Anna finds it more and more difficulty to keep her most dearly held secrets from unraveling. And then there's the small matter of Rupert's beautiful and nasty fiancée....
Excerpt:
He had come to a little grass-fringed bay, clear of the reeds which thronged the northern shore. A girl was standing by the edge of the lake, already up to her knees in water. She had her back to him and her dark hair fell in a loose mantle to her waist. As he watched, she bent to the water, dipped her arms in it and began a strange and curious ritual. With one arm she pulled back the mass of her hair, while with the other she rubbed her neck, her shoulders, her narrow back...
A goddess invoking in the darkness some magic rite? A gypsy girl up to some incomprehensible trick? Then, his eyes growing accustomed to the dusk, saw in the girl's right hand a most prosaic and familiar object; at the same time a well-remembered and tranquil smell, faint gossamer, soothing as nursery tea, stole toward him-the smell of Pears soap.
The girl in the lake was methodically and dedicatedly washing herself. And as soon as he realized this, he knew who she was.
Chivalry now dictated, unquestionably, that Rupert should turn and move silently away. Instead, he stepped back into the shelter of copper beech and waited.
Anna had finished washing now and, putting down the soap, she twisted her hair into a knot high on her head and began to walk slowly into the water.
"She might get into trouble," Rupert reasoned with himself, for there was a place where the tree roots went deep into the lake. "I'd better stay."
But there was no question of her getting into trouble; he knew that perfectly well. She swam easily and somehow, across the silent water, he caught her delight, her oneness with the dark water and the night.
It was when she finally turned for the shore that Nemesis overtook her in the form of Baskerville, finished with his rabbit, bounding over to the water and barking for all he was worth.
"Durak! Spakkoina! Sa diss!" She began to berate the dog in her own language, her voice low and husky a little bit afraid, while she endeavored to wrap herself into her towel. Baskerville, suddenly recognized her, made matters worse by leaping up and trying to lick her face.
Rupert's voice, curt and commanding, dissolved this tableau in an instant.
"Here!" he ordered. "At once. And sit!"
Baskerville came, groveled, and keeled over, doing his felled-ox-about-to-be-conveyed-to-the-slaughter-house routine, his legs in the air. Rupert left him, picked up the bundle of clothes and walked over to the girl.
"You win," he said. "I'll build some bathrooms."
She took them, still clutching her towel. "Are you angry?" she asked. "You should not be, because nowhere does it say in the book of Selina Strickland that one may not wash after working hours in the lake of one's employer." And, as Rupert remained silent, she went on anxiously, "You will not dismiss me?"
"No, I will not dismiss you. But get dressed quickly. It's getting cold. I'll turn around."
It took her only a moment to slip into her brown housemaid's dress. Still barefoot, her wet hair tumbling round her shoulders, she looked, as she came toward him, like a woodcutter's daughter work-roughened and icy. Then he took off his coat and draped it over her shoulders.
"No!" Anna was shocked. "You must not do that. It is very kind but it is not correct," she said, adding with a devastating effect, "my lord."
A faint terror lest she should begin to curtsy took hold of Rupert.
"Do you often come out at night like this?" he asked.
Anna nodded. "Housework is not uninteresting exactly, but it is very dirty. And I do not understand... I mean, in Russia my gover... in Russia we were always being bathed. Hot baths, cold baths and the English grocer in the Nevsky had seven kinds of soap. But here-"
So she had a governess, his new housemaid. He was not surprised. Suddenly he felt, rather than saw, a new and fiercer anxiety take hold of her.
"You have been here a long time?" she hazarded. "You saw me...swimming?"
Rupert was silent, waiting for tears of indignation or the fury of modesty defiled.
Anna covered her face with her narrow, El Greco hands. Now her head came up and she peered at him through tragically splayed fingers.
"I am too thin?" she inquired.
And surprising himself by the fervor with which he lied, Rupert said. "NO!"
