Mothering Sunday

Jane Fairchild, orphaned at birth, has worked as a maid at an English country estate since she was sixteen. And for almost all of those years, she has been the secret lover of Paul Sheringham, the scion of the estate next door. On an unseasonably warm March afternoon, when all the servants have been let off work for the day in order to pay their annual visits to their families, Jane and Paul will make love for the last time in Paul's own bedroom—though not, as Jane believes, because Paul is about to be married.

The events of the day will alter Jane's life forever. As the narrative moves back and forth from 1924 to the end of the century,…