Anne Loveday, a surgeon's daughter, feels unwelcome in her family home. Her father married again, and the new wife has produced children – Anne is in the way. She goes to the town of Painswick to visit family. WHISPERS AT PAINSWICK COURT start shortly after, as Anne accepts a job as nurse to rich neighbour Lady Celia Fitzjohn.
 
Anne has considerable knowledge of herbal remedies, as well as up-to-date medical skills. Since she’s a woman, she can’t train as a doctor. By now in her mid-twenties, she has to admit it’s unlikely she’ll marry well, or perhaps, marry at all. In the Gothic tale, romance is understated, but suspense and suspicion are constant. Lady Celia is one of those women hovering between waking and sleeping, using medicine, laudanum and digitalis. Anne knows these drugs are potentially dangerous, so she is extra careful. After all, two local doctors are prescribing the drugs and checking the patient. This doesn’t prevent odd incidents.
 
Painswick Court sees drama as the adult sons of Lady Celia arrive and bluster, one of them trying to flirt with the maids, the other reluctantly helping to manage the woollen mills. The doctors include Dr. Ernest Finch, the protégé of Dr. Marsland and quite handsome and enlightened. Dr. Finch sees the value of a woman attendant and nurse while he treats the women of the parish. But Anne already has a job, and it would not be respectable to go around in the company of an unrelated man.
 
For a Gothic romance, we see a great deal of careful research and an examination of the place of women. Some local ladies are proponents of the smallpox vaccine made from cowpox. Painswick is a real historic town, and some of the names used are typical, but the main characters are invented. Yew, foxglove, willow bark and lavender are all growing in profusion for potions. I saw some Americanisms, such as a medicine made from milkweed, which grows in the Americas but not in Europe. This isn’t to say Anne would not have it, but she’d probably find something nearer to hand (imported dry herbs would be expensive) that did the same job.
 
Even the ghost of King Charles I makes an appearance, and I’ll leave you guessing whether it is in spectral form or otherwise. Julie Klassen has produced a highly enjoyable romance, WHISPERS AT PAINSWICK COURT, fitting in with her earlier books about a governess, maid, apothecary, guesthouse keeper, and gatehouse girl. These non-wealthy women lead far more interesting lives than the debutantes.