The Scarlet Pimpernel

This song/book combo was recommended to me by Melissa, a friend of mine (you can recommend combos too!) who is a huge fan of this particular book.

Set during the French Revolution The Scarlet Pimpernel, by Baroness Emmuska Orczy, is the story of an estranged husband and wife struggling to make sense of how their marriage could have fallen apart.

"She knew from old experience that Sir Percy would speak little, if at all: he had often driven her on his beautiful coach for hours at night, from point to point, without making more than one or two casual remarks upon the weather or the state of the roads. He was very fond of driving by night, and she had very quickly adopted his fancy: as she sat next to him hour after hour, admiring the dexterous, certain way in which the handled the reins, she often wondered what went on in that [head] of his. He never told her, and she never cared to ask."

They secretly adore each other, they are silently and madly in love with one another and yet for reasons beyond her understanding Percy has withdrawn completely from her.

"He was but a man madly, blindly, passionately in love, and as soon as her light footsteps had died away within the house, he knelt down upon the terrace steps, and in the very madness of his love he kissed one by one the places where her small foot had trodden, and the stone balustrade there, where her tiny hand had rested last."

Unknown to her, Percy is convinced she is a French spy. A theory only more solidified in his mind when an old acquaintance reappears and blackmails Marguerite into discovering the true identity of the English vigilante called the Scarlet Pimpernel.

That's when things get dicey. Percy disappears, Marguerite is mad with fear for his life and races off to save him from the villains she assumes must have him.

You with the sad eyes
don't be discouraged
oh I realize
it's hard to take courage
in a world full of people
you can lose sight of it all
and the darkness inside you
can make you fell so small
True Colors, Cyndi Lauper

Don't worry, though, because as we should all remember, working--truly working--at making your love strong always has a happy ending. Even if it has a bit of a twist to it.

But I see your true colors
shining through
I see your true colors
and that's why I love you
so don't be afraid to let them show
your true colors
true colors are beautiful
like a rainbow 

Book: The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy
Music: True Colors by Cyndi Lauper