Marguerite Laurent, a Parisian needlewoman, is summoned to the Imperial Court of Empress Elizabeth to work as the Empress' personal embroiderer. She travels as part of a retinue of talented foreigners, several of whom worked in the same atelier as Marguerite. Each of the women has her own reasons for wishing to flee France, and they embark upon their adventure in a spirit of excitement mixed with trepidation, for the Empress' reputation is fearsome. Their journey is long, uncomfortable, and dangerous, but Marguerite makes friendships that will sustain her during the difficult months when she first arrives in Russia - most particularly with a handsome Englishman, Tom Harwell, a landscape gardener whose task is to create beautiful gardens for the Empress, and with an art dealer, Simon de Villiers...
- ISBN10 0727860429
- ISBN13 9780727860422
- Publish Date 26 March 2004
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 19 September 2009
- Publish Country GB
- Imprint Severn House Publishers Ltd
- Edition World ed.
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 314
- Language English