The Forgotten Maid (Cornish Echoes Dual Timeline Mysteries #1) by Jane Cable
Genre: Dual timeline, Historical fiction, Regency romance, Contemporary fiction, Women's fiction
Read: 7th December 2021
Amazon
Published: 3rd August 2021
★★★★ 3.5 stars (rounded up)
DESCRIPTION:
A captivating dual timeline romance set in Cornwall! Perfect for fans of Sarah Burton, Stacey Halls, Jessie Burton and Kate Mosse.
Two centuries apart, two lonely women seek a place to call home…
Cornwall, England, 2015
Nomadic project manager Anna Pritchard has arrived in the village of Porthnevek to oversee the construction of a trendy new glamping site. But with many members of the local community strongly opposed to the development, she quickly finds herself ostracised and isolated.
Seeking to ease her loneliness, Anna begins volunteering at a nearby National Trust house in Trelissick, once owned by the aristocratic Daniell family. In her new role, Anna soon feels her attachment to both Porthnevek and Trelissick deepening. And as she spends more and more time steeped in local history, it seems that the past and the present are beginning to collide…
Belgium, 1815
After losing her brother in the Battle of Waterloo, French army seamstress Thérèse Ruguel is taken to London by war artist Thomas Chalmers, becoming his reluctant muse. But with Thomas’s mother unhappy with the arrangement, Thérèse is soon sent to Cornwall as a lady’s maid to Elizabeth Daniell, a kindly relative of the Chalmers family.
Able to speak only a little English — and with the other servants suspicious of her — Thérèse feels lost and alienated. And when she discovers her brother may still be alive, she must decide whether to continue with her new life in England, or brave the dangerous journey back to her homeland…
What became of Thérèse? Can Anna unearth the ghosts of the past?
And has Anna finally found where she belongs…?
THE FORGOTTEN MAID is a beautiful time-shift romance set in Cornwall between the Regency era and the modern day. It is the first book in the Cornish Echoes Dual Timeline Mystery series.
MY REVIEW:
When I saw this book was set in Cornwall, I was immediately sold. There is just something about Cornwall that gives the setting its own character and personality. It has the ability to entrance you with its folklore and legends as well as its history of smuggling. It has a bit of Daphne du Maurier about it...and in this case, Trelissick a form of Manderley. There's a ghostly feel about Cornwall and its rugged coastline, as well as its sheer beauty. I've never been there except through books and of course, Poldark.
I am reminded of Poldark throughout the book, with its reference to smuggling, mining and the names with which they are called all beginning with Wheal, just as in 18th century Cornwall alongside Ross Poldark. But there is no real dashing rogue here...just rogues or even mysterious ones at best.
THE FORGOTTEN MAID is a dual timeline tale echoing the mists of time in this atmospheric depiction of the regency period of 1815 in the wake of the battle of Waterloo across the channel, whilst also adding a sense of eeriness to the present day of 2015. But how do the two timelines intersect?
After a somewhat mysterious prologue, the story begins in 2015 when Anna Pritchard arrives in Porthnevek to overseer the construction of a glamping site to be called Wheal Dream. At first glance, Anna is quick to make friends with the locals...until they realise the purpose for her presence in their sleepy little village. That's when she begins to come up against quite a bit of opposition even after the planning has gone through. Despite her attempts to placate the villagers that this will be good for their economy with the tourist dollar keeping their businesses afloat throughout the down season, locals refuse to budge and Anna begins to wonder why they are so against the project.
Spending much of her down time walking along the cliffside or stopping in for a pint or a meal at the local The Tinners pub, Anna meets some of the locals who aren't so opposed to her presence or project. It is also there she meets Sebastian, nicknamed Gun (for reasons we're not entirely sure). But as if one dashing rogue isn't enough, she also meets the rather attractive Luke Hastings when she volunteers at a local historical home, Trelissick. Although he flirts with her, Anna wonders if she should respond to him, knowing how well her last relationship - not to mention marriage then divorce - fared. Even so, he is nothing if not persistent.
Her role as a volunteer room guide at Trelissick requires her dress in period costume, in this case as a French maid from the regency period. But the more Anna learns about the house and the French maid whom she is representing, the more she wishes to know. For it appears that the maid was a real person, Thérèse Ruguel, who came to Trelissick in 1815 upon being hired by the then lady of the house, Mrs Elizabeth Daniell, as a lady's maid after she'd been rescued from the battlefields of Waterloo by war artist Thomas Chalmers whilst in search of her dead brother.
It is in Truro that Thérèse first encounters French speaking Cornish man John Coates, who claims to be familiar with her home village in Brittany. Thérèse is thrilled to find someone who speaks her language as she still struggles with English, both the language and the customs. When Coates offers to make inquiries about her brother's fate, Thérèse wonders if she can trust him...after all, he is a smuggler.
Despite the worry for her brother and wondering if he is indeed still alive, Thérèse proves to be a Godsend to Mrs Daniell with her handy tinctures to alleviate her headaches as well as her devoted servitude. But the sudden appearance of an unwanted presence threatens Thérèse's very existence at Trelissick. As well as the very fact that she is French and hailing from the very country with whom England had been fighting, not least the rumour that she is a witch with her herbal tinctures and the like.
And just when Thérèse thought she was safe her past, it seems, has come back to haunt her...leaving her in a quandary from which she sees no escape.
Unlike other dual timeline tales, THE FORGOTTEN MAID does not alternate between chapters, but is told rather in parts therefore devoting several chapters at a time to each timeline. As is usual, I was more entranced with the historical tale than the present day story although I urged Anna on willing her to dig deeper to find out the truth.
The story that unfolds is well-developed and plotted that moves at a more sedate pace than what I am generally used to. And yet at the end of each "part" we are left wanting to know what comes next. There is a slight paranormal aspect, but only a touch, that is fascinating and engaging as we yearn to know more of the whispers that only Sebastian is privy to.
And of course, Cornwall is a character all of its own. It's atmosphere, its scenery, its landscape...it's breathtaking. I think that's why I favour anything set in Cornwall. Because when written exceptionally well, it is completely atmospheric and immersive. It encapsulates you.
There is much going on in THE FORGOTTEN MAID that she is not so forgotten at all...until she is. And that is the the one heartbreaking aspect of this story. In the end, who was Thérèse after all? A sister? A muse? A maid? Or just someone caught in the mists of time...
Although I have not encountered this author before, I really enjoyed THE FORGOTTEN MAID and have no hesitation in recommending it for dual timeline fans and atmospheric historical fiction.
I would like to thank #JaneCable, #SapereBooks and #RachelsRandomResources for an ARC of #TheForgottenMaid in exchange for an honest review.
MEET THE AUTHOR:
She also writes emotional women’s fiction as Eva Glyn, published by One More Chapter.
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