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Despite her lower-class upbringing and a secret in her past, Ruby May managed to secure a scholarship spot at the prestigious Norland Institute, where she was trained to become a sought-after children’s nurse, or nanny.
Now it’s 1904, and she works in a very satisfying post with a kind and welcoming family in London. But when they tell her they’re moving to the United States, she sadly declines the opportunity to move with them.
Ruby manages to find a new post with the England family, which pays well but requires her to move from the city to the isolated Yorkshire. Charles England owns a textile mill, and his wife, Lilian, is the daughter of longtime mill owners. The couple have four children, so it’s an adjustment for Ruby to go from taking care of one child to a group of them. But she needs continued work and income, so Ruby swallows her concerns.
She comes to enjoy and care for the England children, but the situation is off-putting: the staff at the house treat her coldly, and Mrs. England mostly keeps to her room. She spends little time with her children and doesn’t get to know Ruby at all. Charles England is the only person in the house who is friendly and interacts with her. But Mr. England still makes Ruby a little uncomfortable, though she can’t really say why.
The story moves forward step by careful step, with Ruby and the reader feeling uneasy and not sure whom to trust. The secret she is keeping about her background is not revealed until late in the book, but it’s clear that it haunts her and keeps her from being able to live fully and settle in the life she has crafted for herself. The reader wonders what is going on with her, with the distant and distracted Mrs. England, and the charismatic but suspicious Mr. England. Mrs. England is a well-paced and slow-burning thriller set in an earlier time, where men had much of the power and women did what they could to make the best of their situations. It’s a great read that held my attention until the very last.
Rated: Mild. There are a couple of uses of the British bl- swear word and one instance of mild profanity. There are a few mild references to couples having or having had sex but no details. Violence includes attempted murder and a death by a fall, as well as oblique references to domestic violence.
