Book about two women attending a historic trial
My Mum described a book she’s reading and I want to read it myself to surprise her and have something fun to talk about. Asking her what the book was called would give the surprise away. Here’s everything I remember.
The main character is an educated maidservant to this eccentric author, and was in an emotional affair with his first wife before she died. After she died she stuck around to care for their children. Then he remarried a poor uneducated woman.
The story is about the two of them attending a trial where a woman put out a big reward for finding her lost son and this obvious imposter was declared her son and then she died. So the courts are trying to decide if he gets the money.
The trial is like rich vs poor and then the two women are also “one is poor, one is rich” kind of dynamic. Sounds interesting.
I know it’s historical fiction but I’m not sure of the exact time period. I also know it was written by a woman.
I thought it was written by Aliya Whiteley but I couldn’t find anything in her bibliography that sounded like this. I say that because my Mum mentioned she read two books by this author, and I thought the first book she mentioned was “The Beauty”. But I might be misremembering?