Jane Harris
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The Observations: A Novel
Jane Harris
An extraordinary historical novel about a peculiar friendship between the mistress of a Scottish estate and her irresistibly appealing housemaid
Scotland, 1863. In an attempt to escape her not-so-innocent past in Glasgow, Bessy Buckleya wide-eyed and feisty young Irish girltakes a job as a maid in a big house outside Edinburgh working for the beautiful Arabellathe missus. Bessy lacks the necessary scullery skills for her new position, but as she finds out, it is her ability to read and write that makes her such a desirable property. Bessy is intrigued by her new employer but puzzled by her increasingly strange requests and her insistence that Bessy keep a journal of her mundane chores and most intimate thoughts. And it seems that the missus has a few secrets of her own, including her near- obsessive affection for Nora, a former maid who died in mysterious circumstances.
Giving in to her curiosity, Bessy makes an infuriating discovery and, out of jealousy, concocts a childish prank that backfires and threatens to jeopardize all that she has come to hold dear. Yet even…
