The Housekeeper's Secret : A Novel

A sweeping romance set in a crumbling mansion at the turn of the 20th century, where as the days darken, the secrets within grow harder to keep

Coldwell Hall is the perfect place to hide.

Standing in the remote windswept moors of Northern England, it's buried in the past and cut off from the outside world. The isolation gives Kate Furniss the chance she needs to make a fresh start. For the past five years, she has maintained her professional mask so carefully that she can almost believe she is the character she has created: Coldwell’s respectable housekeeper.

However, even Coldwell Hall cannot withstand the march of time. When change comes at the start of the hot summer of 1911, it brings an influx of new faces, both above and below stairs - including the handsome and mysterious new footman, Jem Arden. Just as Coldwell’s shuttered rooms are opened up, so Jem gradually unlocks Kate’s guarded heart, until they find themselves involved in a conflict of duty and desire, and a love affair that is as intense as it is forbidden.

But Jem has secrets of his own, and as the headiness of summer turns to the bitter cold of winter, Kate can feel her control slipping and she begins to question who she can trust in the house where she had previously found refuge.

Featuring alternating timelines - from the last sun-drenched summer of the Edwardian Age to the mud-filled trenches of WWI - Iona Grey’s riveting new novel explores the secrets we keep and how we find our way back to one another when it feels like everything is lost.