An Offer from a Gentleman [Mass Market Paperback]

A thumbnail sketch of the opening of this story is simple enough: Cinderella with a few twists, before veering off in a different direction. :) This is a love-at-first-sight story with some general similarities to Quinn's earlier novel of that type, EVERYTHING AND THE MOON, but with less initial bitterness between the leads. After the romantic leads first meeting, they're separated for a few years by circumstances, during which the lady has to earn her living as a servant. And when they meet again, the differences in their respective status prompts the gentleman to make an offer of something other than marriage (though here he doesn't recognize the lady from their earlier encounter).

"Cinderella" herself is Sophie Beckett, illegitimate daughter of the Earl of Penwood, brought up on his country estate as his "ward". Her stepfamily occupies the "evil" role because her stepmother wasn't pleased that her new husband demanded that Sophie continue in the "ward" role and be educated accordingly, alongside his stepdaughters. Naturally, upon the Earl's death, the countess had a great deal of resentment stored up. Although the earl's will was written to protect Sophie as far as possible (by making most of her stepmother's allowance depend on looking after Sophie until her twentieth birthday), the earl neglected to install safeguards about *how well* his widow had to care for the girl (e.g. vigilant trustees).

Sophie's life becomes that of a servant in her late father's house: an unpaid lady's-maid with a lady's education.... But the senior servants who see her as one of their own (the earl's blood daughter, and a good girl they've known from birth) take a hand as impromptu godmothers when the Bridgertons throw a masquerade ball, seeing a chance for Sophie to get a taste of her proper life, if only for a moment.

Unfortunately, as they're not magicians, they achieved the effect by borrowing bits and pieces of the stepfamily's wardrobe. The stepmother (in a very nice touch of characterization) turns out to be the kind of demanding employer who notices ANYTHING out of place - so Sophie gets caught, and sacked.

Two years later, Sophie leaves her employer to escape harassment by the son of the house, to be rescued by Benedict - who offers her a job in his mother's household. And so Sophie enters the housemaid wars of 1817, when society is finding that a good worker can be *much* harder to find than a marital prospect, and employees are competed for accordingly. :)

Information about the later lives of some of the supporting players can be found in TO SIR PHILLIP, WITH LOVE. Passing references are also made TO EVERYTHING AND THE MOON (Macclesfield) and SPLENDID (Ashbourne). Read more ›