Secret Heiress
by Luke Devenish
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Pub Date Apr 01 2016 | Archive Date Feb 01 2016
Simon & Schuster (Australia) | Simon & Schuster Australia
Description
Dark shadows fall across the golden summer of 1886. Naive country girl Ida Garfield longs to escape the farm and when Miss Matilda Gregory, the elegant mistress of Summersby House, offers Ida employment as a housemaid, Ida leaps at the chance. Yet it’s not for her servant’s skills that she’s wanted.
It’s her inquisitiveness...
But before Ida starts her first day, Miss Gregory is found dead. Fearing her one chance of bettering herself lost, Ida goes to the funeral, hoping that someone else from Summersby will still want her.
Someone does. Handsome blond Englishman Mr Samuel Hackett is the late Miss Gregory’s fiancé. He expresses a keen need for a housemaid – and a friend.
But Miss Gregory’s will brings to light an extraordinary deception and a terrible wrong from the past. Summersby has a secret heiress, whose name is also Matilda Gregory... A strange, ethereal girl with an irrevocably broken memory.
Could Samuel Hackett be responsible for his fiancée’s death? A pact made with Barker, Hackett’s dark and dangerous valet, is effective in silencing tongues. The two young men return the second Matilda to her inheritance – and set off a series of bizarre events.
Secretly in love with Samuel, yet determined to aid the fragile heiress, Ida uncovers eerie messages from beyond the grave hinting at Summersby’s disturbing past – and its foreboding future.
And Ida learns the terrible truth about the secret heiress … and an even more shocking legacy.
Available Editions
| EDITION | Paperback |
| ISBN | 9781922052155 |
| PRICE | A$29.99 (AUD) |
Average rating from 1 member
Featured Reviews
Tracey R, Reviewer
In this Australian gothic novel two young women 17 years apart, find themselves entangled in the mystery that surrounds the inhabitants of Summersby House. The story is told in alternating viewpoints and we start with Ida Garfield in 1886. Young and naïve she is employed by the mistress of Summersby House, Matilda Gregory as a housemaid. Yet Ida is not being employed just for her labouring skills but also her natural curiosity. Full of excitement for the start of a new job Ida’s hopes are crushed when Matilda Gregory is found is dead in circumstances that leads to an exodus of staff and a lot of town gossip. Undeterred Ida commences work and soon discovers that there are mysteries to be discovered in Summersby House including unravelling her attraction to recently widowed and handsome Samuel Hackett. The second point of view is by Biddy, some 17 years later. Biddy is an independent young woman who is estranged from her family and trying to make ends meet. Through a series of coincidences, finds herself employed at Summersby House and embroiled in the same family saga. The story of Ida’s is the strongest and the anchor point for everything that happens. Her pain, her suffering is real and you really become invested in what is happening. Yet the focus is on Biddy as it is her narrative that brings about an outcome. There are some great twists and turns in the novel and it is difficult to review without giving anything away. Luke Devenish leaves enough clues throughout the novel for you to draw your own conclusions as to what may be going on.
