The Housekeeper’s Secret

Grey (The Glittering Hour) delivers a fervent upstairs-downstairs drama set against the backdrop of WWI. At Coldwell Hall, Kate Furniss works as a housekeeper under a false name, having fled her abusive husband. She keeps a low profile until the arrival of Jem Arden, who’s taken a job as a footman to find out what happened to his younger brother, Jack, a former servant who disappeared at Coldwell during a shooting party there years earlier. Relationships between staff members are forbidden, but Kate and Jem’s mutual attraction overwhelms them, and they embark on a secret affair. After the death of patriarch Sir Henry Hyde, the estate passes to his son, Randolph, whose self-serving valet discovers Kate’s true identity, prompting her to flee without alerting Jem. The consequences of the pair’s forbidden romance are teased out in letters written by Jem, now a soldier, on the eve of the Battle of Somme in 1916. In them, he professes his love for Kate without knowing where to reach her. Meanwhile, Kate works as a housekeeper near Brighton and volunteers at a convalescent hospital for soldiers. Grey’s insightful narrative sheds light on ways in which the war “jolted [Britain’s servant class] out of their “torpor,” as one former Coldwell servant puts it, opening new opportunities for factory work and military service. This will keep readers turning the pages. Agent: Deborah Schneider, Gelfman Schneider. (Aug.)