Caitriona Wallace, a young Scottish widow, is chaperoning two young adults, Jamie and Alice Arrol, on a world tour. Their last stop is Paris. On a hot air balloon flight over the city, Cait has a chance encounter with Emile Nouguier, a designer and engineer for the controversial Eiffel Tower. Although they meet only twice, both are affected by their visits.Once home in Scotland, Cait finds her life vastly constricted. Left impoverished by her husband's death she finds her options are limited. On the verge of accepting a marriage proposal from an older gentleman that would make her comfortable but miserable, Cait jumps at the opportunity to accompany Jamie and Alice back to Paris where Jamie plans to apprentice himself to Nouguier.
Cait yearns to break free from the strictures placed on her by society (is she destined to be a chaperone for the rest of her life?). Emile has broken from the family tradition of running a glass factory and faces the disappointment of his mother. Over time the two of them are drawn together but can their attraction succeed in a society that disapproves?
Told in alternating chapters from the point-of-view of Cait and then Emile, this story fairly quivers with what life in Paris in the late 1880s was like. From descriptions of the restrictive clothing women wore to how the public looked on the building of the Eiffel Tower, it was a fascinating look. I could almost taste the metal in the air that was in constant use to build the tower. The struggles that Emile and Cait faced in order to be together were also clearly drawn.
A good book that provides an inside look at a time I wasn't familiar with and the building of something I now take for granted.
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