The Letter from Briarton Park by Sarah E Ladd

Cassandra Hale lived a very orderly, quiet life. With very little knowledge of her parentage, she at times felt the need to know more but it was not be. A deathbed confession by the woman she looked upto as the closest mother figure she had known indicated a world far outside the limitations of the genteel school Cassandra was brought up in and where she worked. A letter dated two years previous calling her to Briarton Park by a Mr. Clark was one of the surprises. Now homeless and jobless Cassandra looks to Briarton Park as a means of finding something about her parents. Her presence in this small village does not go unacknowledged. The vicar and his housekeeper befriend her firstly, and then the new owner of Briarton Park employs her as a governess for his two small daughters. There is antagonism all around - mainly from the step brother whom she expected much of because he does not want to part with any bit of his inheritance and what has been willed to Cassandra is substantial. With the murder of Mr. Clark's lawyer, Cassandra knows she has to be wary whom to trust and whom she can call a friend. The gentle story set in Regency times though a romance as well, also indicate the travails faced by gentlewomen of the time who were restricted by strict codes of conduct and who were beholden to the men in their circles for any kind of independence. A very pleasant story. Sent by Thomas Nelson Fiction for an unbiased review, courtesy of Netgalley.