Lady Semple's Secret

I really enjoyed this book, and I have reread it a couple of times. I found it a touching story, and I loved the characters. Meg and Richard are appealing as individuals and a couple, and many of the minor characters were interesting, too. Allegra was a selfish monster, Aunt Lydia an overbearing, conniving shrew, Edward a jolly, lighthearted friend, and Lady Semple was a gentle, suffering mother. I found the ending especially touching. I recommend this to any reader who is sensitive and likes to cheer the underdog!

Servants are the invisible portion of a household. Aren't they? If that is so, then why is it that Richard, Lord Beaumont, heir to the Marquis of Montclaire cannot seem to command his thoughts away from young Meg Quincy, lady's maid to Caroline, daughter of the Earl of Wallingford? 'Tis true that Meg is hardly your run-of-the-mill servant girl, being as knowledgeable about poetry and poets, painting, and butterflies as she is about mending and ironing. She hasn't dropped an 'h' since she first learned to talk. She could be a diamond in Society, if she weren't a lady's maid, and if she weren't crippled. But Meg has learned to accomodate the club-foot with which she was born, and the first eighteen years of her life were not all that bad. She was almost, not quite, but almost part of the Wallingford family. Until the Countess died, and the new Countess moved in. With her son. Poor Meg soon needed a new position, and, surprising even himself, Richard appealed to his friend and near neighbor, Lady Semple, to take the girl into her household. Lady Semple has, after all, a daughter-- Allegra -- desperately in need of a superior lady's maid, one who might curb some of the girl's hoydenish tendencies. Meg soon learns that it has been the fondest wish of the two fathers - Richard's and Allegra's - that their two children should marry. Richard being honorable, agrees, in spite of his feelings for the lady's maid. But then, Lady Semple's secret is exposed, and everyone's plans are turned topsy-turvey.How wonderful for readers that Shirley Kennedy has found a new publisher, as writing, plotting and characters such as she produces should not be kept secret.

This book is unlike any Regency romance I have ever read. The heroine was a lady's maid who was truly unique. She could read and write, and she soon fell in love - with a nobleman. She thought he had feelings for her too, but when he became betrothed to her mistress, she came to believe that nobility is all the same. Suddenly, she discovers a secret about her mistress, one that involves her, and could turn her entire world upside-down. It kept me guessing, until the end, what was going to happen.

This book has led me into the Regency genre. If I could find more books with this many twists and turns on an old idea, I'd be reading Regencies all the time. Ms. Kennedy has a fresh voice, and knows how to build her characters. Her heros are sympathetic and will win your heart. Her antagonists are fun, and get their comeuppance in a manner that will satisfy any jaded reader. Keep `em coming Shirley Kennedy. You gave me two very entertaining afternoons in my hammock.