The Secrets of Hartwood Hall

“Of course I did not believe the house was cursed – but when people feared a place, there was usually a reason.”
-Margaret Lennox, The Secrets of Hartwood Hall.

Margaret Lennox is a young widow, with some mystery regarding her husband’s death and whether he was poisoned or not. She has been taken out of his will and must secure employment in order to live. It is 1852 and everything is done by word of mouth. She hears of a position at Hartwood Hall, as a governess to young Louis. Worried that her deafness in one ear will prevent her from securing this position, she is delighted when Mrs. Eversham offers her the job.  

When she arrives at Hartwood Hall, she finds an odd cast of characters including maids who believe the house is haunted, Louis, who has never had a governess and has been sheltered his entire life, and Susan, a maid who blackmails Margaret for money. There is something not right about the dilapidated mansion, with half of it boarded off and instructions to never enter the East wing. Even she sees figures that don’t belong there and hears strange noises in the night. The first half of the book is all about setting the characters and layout up. When Margaret meets the gardener, Paul, she is instantly attracted to him and they begin an intimate affair almost immediately. This seems out of character for a governess in 1852, who had recently been widowed several weeks before. Mrs. Eversham, her boss, mostly keeps to herself in her room but is often traveling. Even Louis seems very sad. It doesn’t take her long to feel like everyone is hiding something. 

The Secrets of Hartwood Hall is an easy book to read. It is fun to dive into the details of life in 1852. Margaret is an interesting character who makes interesting choices. Her affair with the Gardener seems odd and her dismissal of him seems even more strange, because of her reasoning. She doesn’t want to get married again because she had a terrible first marriage. It seems to be a strong feeling that we don’t even see until the end of the book. We know she has had a hard life and felt owned by her late husband, but her feelings seemed to come out of nowhere and when confronted with the perfect life with Paul, the gardener, it made no sense for her to turn it down. Maybe now in the 2000s but not in 1852. It made for an interesting ending and not one I saw coming.