Hold My Hand by Serena Mackesy

Bridget knows she must leave London to give both herself and her young daughter, Yasmin, a better life. Her ex-husband, Kieran, is abusive and won't leave them alone. Bridget prays she gets the job as housekeeper at Rospetroc, an old manor house in Cornwall that the owner rents out to vacationers. Bridget gets the job and figures it will be a fresh start for them, being on their own in a great big house. What she doesn't plan on is the presence of Lily, a girl who came to Rospetroc from Portsmouth as a refugee during World War II. Interspersed with Bridget's story is Lily's nightmarish tale of living with one Mrs. Blackmore, who detests her. Bridget's concerns at first are for settling in and the hope that Kieran never finds them. But when Yasmin begins to talk about a friend named Lily that no one is familar with, she becomes worried. Soon, the past and the present collide violently. Serena Mackesy has created a compulsively readable novel about a woman starting over amidst the tumult that surrounds her.