Superbly researched, a real treat.'-Kate Furnivall, author of The Russian Concubine 'I found myself addicted to Rutherford Park, much as I was to Downton Abbey. The vivid characters and understated heartbreak of their conflicts, above and below stairs, are depicted with sensitivity and insight.

The exquisite intimacy of the writing and of the haunting love story drew me into this elegant world so entirely that I couldn't imagine ever leaving it. Cooke portrays an aristocratic dynasty that in 1914 was poised on the brink of extinction, as ponderous as the huge dinosaurs but just as magnificent. As the clouds of war gather on the horizon, an epic tale of longing and betrayal is about to unfold at Rutherford Park. She then spies the housemaid Emily out in the snow, walking toward the river, about to make her own secret known to the world. On Christmas Eve 1913, Octavia catches a glimpse of her husband in an intimate moment with his beautiful and scandalous distant cousin. Meanwhile, below stairs, a housemaid named Emily holds a secret that could undo the Cavendish name. Their son, Harry, is expected to follow in his footsteps, but the boy has dreams of his own, like pursuing the new adventure of aerial flight. With her family's fortune, her husband, William, has made significant additions to the estate, but he too feels bound-by the obligations of his title as well as his vows. Lady of the house Octavia Cavendish lives like a bird in a gilded cage. It is a way of life marked by rigid rules and lavish rewards, governed by unspoken desires. For the Cavendish family, Rutherford Park is much more than a place to call home. Snow had fallen in the night, and now the great house, standing at the head of the valley, seemed like a five-hundred-year old ship sailing in a white ocean.

Rutherford Park by Elizabeth Cooke