2008 "First Edition" stated on copyright page; W.W. Norton & Company publishers, New York; hardbound with ebony and burgundy boards and large gilt lettering on spine; very good condition; dust jacket very good.
 
Plot -
In the autumn of 1876, nineteen-year-old orphan Esperanza Gorst arrives at the great country house of Evenwood in Northamptonshire.  There she will serve as the new lady's maid to the former Emily Carteret, now Lady Tansor.  But Esperanza is no ordinary servant.  She has been sent by her guardian, the mysterious Madame de l'Orme, to uncover the secrets that her new mistress has sought to conceal - and to set right a past injustice in which her own life is intertwined.  Unable to escape the reverberations of past misdeeds, Lady Tansor finds herself desperate to keep Esperanza from learning dark, dangerous truths...