It starts with the girl working in a fake antiquity-making factory where she drops a large and heavy vase, shattering it. She was in a heavy labour kind of work. It was a very dreary setting. Workers were paid a pittance and the owner's wife distributed as minimal food as it was possible.
When she drops the vase, the owner comes out and is extremely angry enough that he takes out a whip to hit her. She expects to be stricken, but the male protagonist holds the whip with his hands. Some talk later, he gives the owner some money and takes the girl to his carriage. Another thing, the owner has a wife that also supervises as a lunch distributer.
The male protagonist/love interest was an older gentleman (easily above 30). He was noble (as in earl/marquis). He helped the girl out of goodwill. He thought it was a boy, not a girl (due to getup). He hears her story and offers the female lead a job as personal valet/worker at his mansion. He also finds work for her family as a stewardcaretaker (or something) in one of his lands. He only realises that the female protagonist is a girl when he accidentally rides by a secret lake where the girl used to swim naked (halfway through the story). Before that, he considers the lead a very effete boy and thinks he feels something for his valet who happens to be a boy. He feels a bit disgusted with himself for falling for a very young boy.
This person also had a close friendship with another lord. His friend was a typical rakish/proud lord (the author had 2nd book on Inkitt about him), as you expect in Regency novels. He is the first to find that the valet is a girl because she lands onfalls over him or something (but keeps this a secret).
All this time, the male lead thinks he has to marry (societal norms), if not out of love then to have a women marquess kind of role. There was a small group of women (vying to be married) with their close family invited to stay at his home. We see lot of competition and typical maneuvering of the nobles.
The male and female protagonists had POV but in the third person). The girl was reffered with she/her pronouns in both their PoVs. It was confusing becasue in the starting male lead didn't know about the actual indentiy of girl. So theThe girl was reffered with he/him pronouns when the male protagonist actively thought about her and adressed her.
LamguageLanguage English
Title Don't know. The book is first in series. The author's second book was also on Inkitt whose protagonist was the close friend of this book's protagonist.And thusthis books leads make a cameo in the second one.
Time read between 2018-2021