In this story, Mary Stewart deliberately set out to create a modern
Cinderella tale. In achieving that goal, she has
also devised a
mystery which keeps the reader guessing to the end.
Linda Martin is half French and half English. Although she spent
her early years in Paris, her parents later moved to England, where
they died during the war. Working in the English orphanage where
she grew up, the young woman is offered the chance to return to her
native France as governess to the orphaned child Philippe, Comte de
Valmy. Although she must pretend ignorance of the French language
to achieve the position, she does so in order to return to the country
she considers home.
Once at Valmy, Linda finds that she likes young Philippe very much, but
she is somewhat mystified by the need to hide her facility with the
French language and by Philippe’s position on the estate which he has
inherited. Philippe’s Uncle Léon, who is wheelchair-bound as the
result of an automobile accident, manages the Valmy estate extremely
well – even to the detriment of his own estate Bellevigne – but Linda
finds herself resenting the man’s nasty treatment of the boy.
Then the accidents begin, occasions on which Linda’s alertness barely
saves Philippe from sudden death. At first, there is no question
that they are anything but accidents - until Raoul, Philippe’s cousin,
moves to centre stage.
Linda is swept away by this handsome elder cousin of Philippe, who is
heir to Bellevigne and every bit as lonely as the orphaned Linda and
Philippe. True to the Cinderella legend, the governess is now
pursued by the story’s most eligible bachelor. However, unlike
Cinderella, the night after the ball she is dragged squarely into the
middle of a murder plot when she is told that someone is very
definitely trying to murder Philippe, and Raoul is implicated.
In the dead of night, Linda spirits Philippe away to keep him safe, not
knowing whom she can trust. Reason is at war with sentiment, for
although Linda knows who is playing the role of first murderer, she
cannot be sure who are the accomplices. She must sacrifice her
own needs to those of the child.
The ending of this modern Cinderella story is more violent than the
original, resolving as it does both the Cinderella romance and the
twentieth-century mystery. It also contains insights on human
loneliness which the original lacked, and deals with the issues of
justice and suffering in much more mature fashion.