The Kitchen Maid

Jenny is determined to make her own way in the world, and she secures a job as the kitchen maid in a grand house in Beverley .She gradually gains the attention of Christy, the young master of the house, and they fall in love. But slowly their hopes and dreams turn to nightmares and culminate in a scandal which will force Jenny to leave Beverley and everything she knows. Cast aside by her own family, and all alone in the world, Jenny has to rely on her ailing aunt Agnes, who was banished from the family many years before. Living with Agnes and her husband, Stephen St. John Laslett, she learns that Stephen's wealthy family have disowned him and they have to eke out a meager living on their small farm. Times are hard, and as Agnes grows weaker, she asks Stephen to make her an unusual promise, one that will affect the rest of Jenny's life. Jenny the kitchen maid becomes the mistress of Laslett Hall, and although she tries to fit in with the world that she now inhabits, she never forgets the words that the gypsy told her: that one day she will return to where she was once happy—and there Jenny will find her true love . . . If you've liked books by Katie Flynn and Dilly Court, you'll love Val's heartwarming stories of triumph over adversity.

Val Wood is the author of The Hungry Tide, which won the Catherine Cookson Prize for Fiction, as well asChildren of the Tide, The Doorstep Girls, and Nobody's Child.