Cynthia Harrod-Eagles - Anna - Kirov saga 1. (2. expenditure)

To love.
A man who cannot be yours.
A country that cannot be your home.

While Paris - albeit slowly - begins to recover from the stormy political upheavals of 1803, Anne Peters, the young, poor, homeless governess, the orphaned daughter of an English admiral, hesitantly searches for the possibility of staying on her feet in the newly revived, but in thousands of other cities full of uncertainty.
And as France prepares for more wars, she accepts the opportunity to escape unexpectedly and agrees to start a new life in the service of the irresistible Count Nikolai Kirov. With this, she finds a new home and family in the glittering Russian capital, and also gets a new name: she becomes Anna Petrovna.
Falling unprepared into the busy, eventful life of her new employer, Anne needs all her knowledge and her gradually developing, wise woman's insight to be able to stand her ground. His journey leads through St. Petersburg and the wild Caucasus mountains to the French attack on Russia, to Borogyino and to the scorched Moscow. And as Napoleon gathers his strength for the final showdown, Anne's heart must fight its own battle.