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Countess in Exile
By Ross Richdale
Countess in Exile is a thriller, a love story and the story of human endurance all wrapped in a journey that stretches from 1939 to the new millennium.
Download Excerpt: Countess Excerpt.pdf
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Description
Anna Vladisciuszko tucked her fingers in the necklace as she often did when she was nervous and stared up at the circular stairwell of The Chateau standing majestically above the central Polish village of Zlodek. Tears were in the twelve year old eyes for she knew this was the last time she would see her home.
In their escape from the invading German Wehrmacht, Countess Vladisciuszko, gives her daughter a Swiss numbered bank account card and tells her never to lose it. Moments later the train is bombed and the countess is killed. Jozef Wishnowsky, an Royal Air Force officer on the train, rescues Anna and manages to get her to an airfield and onto an airplane flying a General Roworowski to England.
But is it a coincident that Jozef just happened to be sitting opposite her in the train and was the aircraft waiting for more than the general? And the general himself; what part did he play in the evacuation? And why are the Bolsheviks as well as Nazis trying to trace and assassinate the young countess?
In England, with a British identity as Anna Green, the youngster is placed in an orphanage. She helps Sally and Johnny, two other orphans who are victims of the sadistic supervisor Vera Johnston but, in doing so is badly beaten herself and turns to Jozef, now a squadron leader flying in The Battle of Britain. Can he help and if so, why doesn't he continue to do so throughout the war?
Johnny, Sally and herself are evacuated in the liner Princess World and head for Canada; a journey which is never completed. An attack on Anna by a communist assassin is foiled by a Polish secret agent on board but has a profound affect on her. Her affection for Johnny turns to love and they begin a relationship that lasts throughout their lives. The liner is sunk by U-Boats and, after a harrowing experience, Anna and her friends are rescued and taken to Gibraltar. Anna is given a new identity, which includes Sally and Johnny, showing they are sisters and brother with the surname Baker. This seemly innocent deception helps Anna to escape the Nazis and Bolsheviks at that time but proves disastrous in the years that follow.
Countess in Exile takes us through the next sixty years of Anna's life. She is with John and Sally and together they build a new life, a business and another generation joins the Baker family. But old secrets need to be solved. Is Anna's aristocratic background so hated by the communists cannot be forgotten? And what part does the Swiss numbered bank account play? Will Anna ever return to her homeland or find her inheritance?
