The Heart of the Rose — June Barraclough

The Yorkshire home of the Hardow family, Fontaynes Castle, is still run along feudal lines, and presided over by the aging though formidable Earl.

Young Ann Tessyman travels a vast distance from the isolated countryside of her birth to take a job as a sewing maid at the magnificent castle.

She works hard and earns a promotion to work in the nursery, coming into contact with the children of the house and through them their oldest brother George, the dashing heir to the Earldom and future owner of the Fontaynes. Sensitive and intelligent, George becomes deeply attached to the simple Yorkshire girl, and the two fall desperately in love.

A charming Cinderella story with a touch of "Upstairs, Downstairs."