The flight of Gemma Hardy

By: Margot Livesey
Location: FIC LIV
Genre: Jane Eyre Retold. ChicLit. Brit Lit

This book is set in Iceland, Scotland and believe it or not Orkney.
I had never heard of Orkney until I met Peter Bichan.
Bichan is an Orkney name and now I have it myself.  It is a small Island of the top coast of Scotland, they belong to the Scots but it is full of Viking blood. They have crooked fingers. I bought this book only because it was set in Orkney. Then I found out it was a goody!

Gemma Hardy is an orphan with a relatively stable life until her beloved uncle who is raising her dies when she is 10. Her stepmother hates her and soon puts her in a boarding school in Scotland. She is more a servant than a student but she is a tough young woman and holds her own. When the school is forced to close when Gemma  is 17 she goes to one of the Orkney Islands at the tip of Scotland as an aupair to care for young Nell.
The remote Blackbird Hall belongs to Mr. Sinclair, a London businessman; his eight-year-old niece is Gemma's charge. Even before their first meeting, Gemma is, like everyone on the island, intrigued by Mr. Sinclair. Rich (by Gemma's standards), single, flying in from London when he pleases, Hugh Sinclair fills the house with life. An unlikely couple, the two are drawn to each other, but Gemma's biggest trial is about to begin: a journey of passion and betrayal, redemption and discovery, that will lead her to a life of which she's never dreamed.