Archangel Called Ivan

Arliva Ashdown is not only the most beautiful girl in London Societybut the richest as she has inherited her father?s huge fortune.Ata ball she is giving she overhears two people talking outside thewindow and she is horrified to learn that, although they are very much in love with each other, the man is telling the girl that the onlychance he has of obtaining money for his crumbling house and estate is to marry Arliva.A little later she overhears another conversation between the Countess of Sturton and her son, Simon, who is a ratherunpleasant young man Arliva has been trying to avoid.The Countessinsists that her son proposes to Arliva as they too need money toupkeep Sturton Castle and, although Simon has no wish to do so, theCountess persists, saying that Arliva will accept him because of hisgrand title.Disgusted by what she has heard, Arliva makes adramatic decision.She decides to hide away in the country and seeif she can find someone who loves her for herself and not for hermoney and so she manages to become a Governess to Lord Wilson?s threegrandchildren whose parents have been drowned at sea.With greatbrilliance she leaves her house in London where she is chaperoned byher aunt without anyone realising where she is going and installsherself in Lord Wilson?s house in the country.Here she is able not only to make the children happy with new ideas and activities that no one has thought of before but to drastically change the routine ofthe household.Suddenly, when she least expects it, she iskidnapped by the Countess of Sturton, who makes her a prisoner inSturton Castle and she is starved until she can no longer refuse tomarry her son.How she is prays fervently that she will be rescuedfrom a terrible fateHow a man, who she thinks is an angel, savesher by what seems to her a miracle just before the day of thewedding.How they both find a happiness that only comes from Godand is the love that all people seek, is told in this unusual story by BARBARA CARTLAND.