The Kirov Trilogy Series by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles

When Anne Peters, a young Englishwoman, is offered a new life in St Petersburg as governess to Count Kirov's children, she finds herself caught up in the intense lives of the family. The author won the Young Writer's Award in 1972 for her book "The Waiting Game".

The year is 1851, and Victorian England is at the height of its self-confidence: the greatest industrial nation in the world, vigorous, inquisitive, self-reliant, generous. Young Fleur Hamilton is truly a product of the era.Intelligent and independent, she is also utterly innocent in matters of love and the ways of men. So she is unprepared, while visiting St. Petersburg, for the feelings provoked by Count Sergei Kirov, the vibrant, enigmatic Russian with a tragic secret... moreThe year is 1851, and Victorian England is at the height of its self-confidence: the greatest industrial nation in the world, vigorous, inquisitive, self-reliant, generous. Young Fleur Hamilton is truly a product of the era.Intelligent and independent, she is also utterly innocent in matters of love and the ways of men. So she is unprepared, while visiting St. Petersburg, for the feelings provoked by Count Sergei Kirov, the vibrant, enigmatic Russian with a tragic secret. In the gilded splendor of his city, Fleur falls in love with Kirov and with the mystical, barbaric beauty of Russia. But their two countries are on the brink of war, and Kirov is on the verge of a marriage of convenience with the daughter of Fleur's host. From the sophistication of Imperial Petersburg to the rustic simplicity of the Crimea: from elegant country house parties to the agona and squalor of besieged Sebastopol, Fleur follows her heart and tries to unravel the mystery of Kirov, to learn what binds the threads of her life so closely to his. Rich with historical and romantic drama, Fleur is a worth sequel to the acclaimed Anna. less

Though the granddaughter of an earl, Emily Paget is still a poor relation, living on the good graces and large estate of her aunt and uncle, but determined to earn her own living. This disgraceful ambition moves her aunt to take action: Emily must be married off respectably. Onto the stage steps her Russian grandmother, who takes her back to Russia to find the freedom and intellectual stimulation she craves. But Emily also falls in love for the first time - with another woman's husband... moreThough the granddaughter of an earl, Emily Paget is still a poor relation, living on the good graces and large estate of her aunt and uncle, but determined to earn her own living. This disgraceful ambition moves her aunt to take action: Emily must be married off respectably. Onto the stage steps her Russian grandmother, who takes her back to Russia to find the freedom and intellectual stimulation she craves. But Emily also falls in love for the first time - with another woman's husband. Drawing room revolutionaries and the dangerous glamour of their politics offer Emily a distraction, but when the brutal 1917 revolution does arrive, she finds herself called upon to rescue the wife and children of the man she lvoes, without knowing if he is dead or alive. less