There are two sides to every great story. The tale of how General Sir Richard Fitzwilliam, Baron St. Jean, fell in love with a governess, Kitty Bennet, after she was terribly injured while protecting the Cecil heiress is well known. Now discover how an unbreakable bond between a footman and a maid grew in the face of that same tragedy and a developing international intrigue.
The Maid and the Footman explores the increasing affection between a young lady’s maid and a retired Army sergeant, which was as great as any love written about by the immortals. In the Jane Austen universe, the celebrated novels are written from the point-of-view of the landed gentry. Servants are rarely seen except to open doors, serve dinner, or fetch smelling salts. The Maid and the Footman asserts that class is an imaginary distinction conferring no better manners on the “haves” and no lesser nobility on the “have-nots” and that the deepest human emotions are universal.
The Maid and the Footman also reveals how Annie Reynolds and Henry Wilson teamed up with General Fitzwilliam to fight the nefarious plot that had penetrated to the heart of the British government after Napoleon’s fall. The hidden motive driving the attack on Kitty Bennet in Hyde Park is gradually revealed. Throughout it all, Annie and Henry circle around one another finding remarkable depths of love in spite of the great forces tossing them about.
The Maid and the Footman is a companion and simultaneous novel to the popular novella Of Fortune’s Reversal. Listeners may find that revisiting Of Fortune’s Reversal will make for a broader and more rewarding experience.
