Both appear and act helpless, feeble and weak. Both the main character, Linda, and her young charge, Count Philip, have a split personality of sorts. It is the story of two orphans and it is not clear which one is the real Cinderella of the story. This Cinderella pastiche starts out well. Not with swords, but their minds and voices. They are lovely voices, but they do not sound like a woman who fights back the way these heroines do. I wish the choice of people reading her work had stronger voices. I love that her early work is still in print.

Current authors who set their stories during WWII or the Roaring Twenties, or the time between the wars will never give us the feeling that we get from Mary Stewart's descriptions of time place and people. Words do matter and in this book the twisted truth could have resulted in death. Except this trope is dealt with in ways that could and have happened in yesterday's news. I want to be ironic about the standard governess falling for the son of the castle and being taken off to riches. These books will be loved through even more generations. They reflect the time in which they were written, but her characters deal with their current problems and pleasures just as people have through the ages. Stewart sets her early novels in the time she wrote them. There are some authors whose work survives changing fashions. Enjoyed this more than the first time I read it.

Nine coaches waiting