Maggy

by Sara Seale

Maggy was young, alone in the world after her father's death, untrained and too inexperienced to make much of a way in life; although she had a job of sorts, as companion/dogsbody to a tyrannical old lady, life did not seem to be holding out much of a future for her. Garth Shelton, years older than Maggy, crippled and embittered, was indifferent to anything that life might have in store for him. All the same he was touched by young Maggy's plight - and in a quixotic fit he proposed marriage to her as the one way in which she could escape. And so began their strange life together - a marriage that was no marriage, between two people who might yet come to realise their growing feelings for each other, if only Maggy could forget the one barrier to Garth's loving her - his former love, the elusive and lovely Sabrina.

"Don't shut me out" she begged. "Please!" Maggy knew her words violated the terms of their relationship. But she was no longer the immature girl who had married Garth with no thought to the future. Even Garth had changed. He had thought nothing mattered, saw no reason to live. But the strange months of their marriage had revealed startling chinks in his armor of detachment. Could she now persuade him to grasp the one chance that might give them a full life together?

Genres: Harlequin Romance, Harlequin, Contemporary Romance

191 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1944

About the author

Sara Seale was the pseudonym used by Mary Jane MacPherson (d. 11 March 1974) and/or A.D.L. MacPherson (d. 30 October 1978), a British writing team who published over 45 romance novels from 1932 to 1971. Seale was one of the first Mills & Boon's authors published in Germany and the Netherlands, and reached the pinnacle of her career in the 1940s and 1950s, when they earning over £3,000/year. Many of Seale's novels revisited a theme of an orphaned heroine who finds happiness, and also employed blind or disfigured (but still handsome) heroes as standard characters.

Mary Jane MacPherson began writing at an early age while still in her convent school. Besides being a writer, MacPherson was also a leading authority on Alsatian dogs, and was a judge at Crufts.

Reviews

[boogenhagen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This a very lovely story. Sweet young innocent h brings surly,grumpy heartbroken dying man back to life.

There is a LOT of upset because the book ends with the h finding out the H has recovered and we don't see the HEA.

The reason is that these books had a very strict page count at the time, in fact sometimes to squeeze more in they would use a smaller font and it practically takes a magnifying glass to re-read these, especially since I have gotten older.

The strict page count is because almost all of the early M&B's were sold to magazines as serializations, The Australian Women's Weekly magazine, as well as several other publications had really stringent boundaries on how long these books could be.

So if an author overwrote the page allowance and the font couldn't be made smaller, the editor would cut out the ending, correctly presuming that the readers could extrapolate the HEA. There are several books from this time period like this, a lot Jane Corrie's books come to mind, but what I wouldn't give to get ahold of the original manuscript for some of these books and this is definitely one for that list.

[bookjunkie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nooooooo I'm very angry with this book! It draws you in all slow and quiet and subtle-like and then it doesn't give you the complete ending! WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY?
It's a very nice story.... you'll get to love both characters... Just be warned, the ending is left wide open. Not that it's too hard to guess what happens but IT WOULDA BEEN NICE TO SEE IT, THANKYOUVERYMUCH. I guess this is why people do fan-fiction.

[Naksed · Rating 2 out of 5]

Such a gloomy novel, which was too obviously inspired by Du Maurier's Rebecca, from the initial meeting of the protagonists at a hotel where she is the mousey, downtrodden ladies' companion, to the haunting specter of a sinister beauty silently coming between the would-be lovers (though this time, she is named Sabrina) and of course the Mrs. Danvers clone who is just as mad and dangerous. All this and the ending left me totally and utterly depressed because after that torturous journey, I was even robbed of the pay-off of the protagonists reuniting in joy and happiness. Instead, we have a telephone message delivered to the heroine informing her that the hero's life-saving operation was successful, and then she stares at the sea with tears streaming down her face. Cue for me to stick my head into the oven.

This is all the more disappointing given that I really enjoyed the vintage writing style of this author, who takes her time developing the characters and the very evocative, gothic setting of this dusty, twist-and-turny, old Irish castle surrounded by bubbling bogs and sharp rocks.

The characterization of the heroine was especially wonderful. It would have been so easy to simply let her be a dull martyr. Instead, she had just the right combination of timidity and uncertainty mixed with a fiery sense of injustice and stubbornness when she was pushed too far. Her background story involving her eccentric parson father and life at a dilapidated rectory, her rich internal life (I especially loved the passage where he reads for her and she stares into the fire, as in a trance, and makes pictures in her mind to accompany his words), her little gusts of childish delight at some ordinary, elemental things, and her lack of guile when answering rather off-putting inquiries. It was really a lovely, well-rounded portrait and it was quite easy to fall in love with her.

As for the hero, the author held him so much at arms length, all cold and aloof, and quite cruel too in his callous treatment of his bride, whom he brings to his remote, unwelcoming home through what he thinks is charity, and then proceeds to ignore her for lengthy periods of time, that I never warmed up to him. Even after the heroine worms her way into his life, and you catch glimpses here and there of his humanity, he just struck me as someone whose shell was just too tough to be really likable as a romantic hero.

I will definitely try more of Sara Seale's books and hope for a little ray of sun here and there amidst all the gloom and doom.

[Kay · Rating 5 out of 5]

4 1/2 Stars ~ Left penniless and homeless upon her father's death, 19 year old Maggy took the job as companion to an older bitter woman. It's 40's 50's England where it's common for the wealthy to visit various hotels known as health spas, where they can socialize and be pampered in opulent surroundings. It's at one of these hotels that Maggy meets a man confined to a wheelchair who is as indifferent to his surroundings as Maggy's employer is cruel in her treatment of Maggy.

"Does a paid companion have any privacy?" he asked.
"Oh, yes, privacy is inside yourself, isn't it? No one can really touch that," said Maggy with dignity, then in a burst of childish candour added: "The nights are the worst. The rooms being so close, she hears."
"Hears what?"
"If you cry," said Maggy simply and unashamed.
He looked at her then, and for the first time she saw compassion in his face, a fleeting hint that understanding might lie behind those rigid shutters.

Garth's accident has left him numb of feelings until he notices Maggy's plight and when he learns that he has little time left to live, he decides to rescue her. Deciding to spend his last months home in Ireland, he offers Maggy a new job, as his wife and companion. The marriage of course is for Maggy's protection as the Irish would frown on a young girl living with a bachelor.

Garth gave her a brief smile, but said nothing, and presently a very old clergyman came out of the vestry, and without preliminary began to read the marriage service.
To Maggy, the words had an acute poignancy. With my body I thee worship ... but that was lies... to have and to hold from this day forward ... that was a sacred trust... in sickness and in health, till death us do part ... and that held a terrible truth.
She could no longer see the clergyman's face through a wavering mist of tears, and she knew a single moment of outraged revulsion. Then she heard Garth's unemotional voice making his responses, and presently she made her own, a little shaky but quite clear.

It's a strange life for Maggy in Ireland. Garth really doesn't need her help in any way as he has a man servant, Doolan, and a housekeeper Mrs. Duffy to run the house. At times Maggy wonders if she's left one misery only to enter into another, as Mrs. Duffy doesn't hide her resentment of her. Nor does Garth's sister, who has always had her eye on the family estate, especially the jewels. As the days become weeks and then months, Maggy matures and as she learns about Garth's past both as a child in a household that showed little affection, and the traumatic ending of his engagement, she begins to understand her husband. She also learns that Garth has the choice to live or die, for there's an operation available that would either kill him or cure him. Convincing him that he has a life to live for is up to her.

"If you were really thinking of my future," she said before she could stop herself, "You'd take a chance on getting cured instead of sitting down quietly resigned."
There was a painful silence.
His eyes narrowed suddenly, and he said very coldly, "Are you trying to suggest that I should risk an operation?"
The room was very quiet. The lamp beside Garth's bed made a small, persistent humming noise which sounded unnaturally loud. Maggy stood, feeling awkward and frightened, her anger giving place to a quiet misery. Not thus had she meant to tackle Garth about the operation. It was a subject which needed tact and delicacy, and here she had blurted it out in a childish rage. But she faced him bravely and said: "Yes, I am - only I hadn't meant to put it quite like that."
He seemed to lie very still in the bed. "Whatever way you meant to put it, Maggy, it's something we won't discuss, if you don't mind," he said.
Something of her old courage returned to Maggy. The time was past when he could escape her by these methods.
"But I do mind," she said quickly. "I think you owe it to me as much as to yourself to discuss this thing."
He moved his head restlessly on the pillow. "Very well," he replied, still in that cold voice. "If we must discuss it, we must. But you know quite well I made my decision six months ago and I see no reason why I should alter it now."
"What was your reason in the first place?" Maggy demanded, and when he didn't answer, she went on: "Sabrina. Oh, I know about Sabrina. I'm not going to talk about her. You thought nothing mattered - there was no incentive to take a chance. And later you knew you wouldn't live and you were glad. But now it's different. Everyone has something to live for. You're shirking your responsibilities."
He was silent for so long that she had time to be astonished at her own temerity in mentioning Sabrina, but when he spoke the coldness had gone from his voice and he sounded amused.
"You certainly have a most disconcerting directness at times, Maggy," he said. "Are you telling me I'm a coward?"
She blinked a little nervously.
"Yes, I suppose I am," she said with surprise. "Oh, not a physical coward — I know you're not that. But I don't think you've ever faced up to your chances since the accident. You haven't wanted to."
He held out a hand. "Come here." She went across and sat on the edge of his bed.
"All this fine talk about my responsibilities and moral courage! Have you thought what it would mean for you if by any chance I’m cured?"
She slipped a hand into his and was aware of the instant pressure of his fingers.
"Yes," she said simply. "I'm afraid I was thinking mostly of myself. You see - I don't want you to die, Garth."
"If I were to live," he said slowly, "I would have cheated you, Maggy. Your time is yet to come. You need youth and fun. That was in the bargain, wasn't it?"
"You don't know anything about me if you can think that," she said, and suddenly wanted to cry. "I want you to be cured more than anything in the world. If - later on - you didn't want me here, I could go away."
"Oh, my dear child!" His voice was suddenly harsh. "It's you I'm thinking of. I said I would have cheated you because if I lived I shouldn't want you to go away." His eyes were suddenly tormented. "I should expect a marriage as marriage is meant to be between a man and a woman. We don't believe much in divorce in Ireland, and for all the chilly automaton I've allowed you to think I am, I'm not made of stone. I'm sorry, Maggy, the thing's unthinkable."
"It's unthinkable that you should refuse!" she cried. "There are other people you matter to as well. Johnny, Doolan, Eunice in her queer way. And me. You matter terribly to me, Garth," she finished in a small voice, and all at once she was crying.
"Don't," he said, and touched her cheek with his fingers. "I should have sent you away, my child."
She tried to smile through her tears.
"I promised you I would never embarrass you if I stayed," she said. "I'll go to bed now."
He did an unexpected thing. He pulled her down into his arms and kissed her as a lover might. She leant her head against his shoulder and felt the lean hard line of his jaw against her wet cheek.
"Garth -" Her arm tightened round his neck. "For my sake-"

Sara Seale was a master story teller and I've enjoyed many of her tales of young down on their luck girls who are rescued by their white knights. In this moving story, Maggy may be innocent but she's not a fool and she realizes that her true joyful spirit is seriously at risk of being consumed by the sober burdened Maggy that her employer demands. Her innocent charm touches Garth and pulls him from his forced detachment. While I would have loved an epilogue for this story, the ending sweetly promised their HEA.

[Leona · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very compelling story. A young woman is orphaned and is forced to earn her living working for a vile and vain woman. A young man, crippled by a riding accident takes pity on her and proposes a marriage of convenience.

This story absolutely had me mesmerized as the mystery surrounding the hero's accident and his ultimate fate is slowly revealed. Extremely well written with a gothic feel to it, I think it is definitely one of Seale's best written stories. The heroine was too naive, but since it's an early 40's romance most of her oddities made sense.

My only regret was the ending. I needed a much less subtle ending.

[Fiona Marsden · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this story and have read it multiple times. It's the story of a young innocent girl alone in the world and working for a selfish woman as a secretary/maid of all work. Apparently the only option for a girl gently raised with no skills back in the day. 1950's I believe.

She meets an older man, crippled in an accident. He is dying and knows it and decides to rescue Maggy by marrying her with the intention of leaving her with a home and secure income.

Like many of Seale's heroine's she is sexually unawakened. When she is approached by a young man she responds innocently to the friendship which starts her on the road to an understanding of male female relationships.

It is Garth, her husband who isn't a husband who truly awakens her to love but even if he wasn't embittered by the defection of his former fiancee he is dying so there is no future.

Unless he sees in Maggy a reason to live, to take the risk of surgery that may kill him or cure him.

This is such a sweet story but the underlying emotions are very moving and make me cry. But then I'm a sucker for these stories.

[Margo · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wow, the author must have been up against a deadline because she ended this book at a really bizarre point in the series of events. It's quite jarring.

[Ellyn (Mrs. Darcy in my Dreams) · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 ⭐️ ⭐️⭐️I would call this book Gothic-lite. It reminded me of another vintage where the h meets H at a hotel where she is working as a companion. I thought I had accidentally started reading that one again. After going through my vintage books list, found it: A Trial Marriage by Anne Mather. This one was tamer, no OWs on the scene, but I wish one would have popped in to add some angst.

[Debbie DiFiore · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a very old book written by Sara Seale and I loved reading her when I was in my teens. I must say it is a little slow and very very dated for today's readers. It is very similar to the book Rebecca in my opinion. Not as good but that kind of story. I loved those kind growing up and I still felt that Cinderella type feeling while reading it. I didn't like the previous 'lover drama' so it only got three stars. I loved the first part of the story very much. But the ending was so abrupt. I kept thinking there had to be more. It doesn't even show them together. It just says the operation was a success and she cries and then THE END. So disappointing and intriguing at the same time.

[Taylijane · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one was great but it desperately needed an epilogue.

[✮ rach ✮ · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars :)

I actually like this book...but where's the end??!! It felt unfinished to me. I'm guessing they'll have the HEA because it works out, but too many unanswered questions for me.

Or did I read a copy that had the ending ripped out? :|

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was one weird book. The story was compelling as were the characters, however, it was very odd, hard to understand in places but it was the ending, there wasn’t one. No HEA but also it wasn’t sad, it just ended.

[Bryn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had heard so much about how weird this book was, I was really glad to finally read it -- and yes, it is pretty weird! Specifically, it is pretty weird for a Harlequin; it feels like it wandered in from another time altogether, which... it pretty much did, it was originally published in 1944, and originally printed by Harlequin in 1959, but it kept being reprinted well into the 70s with varying titles/covers to try to make it look more contemporary.

CW: Incredible age gap and weird, weird power dynamics, not really a 'romance' for a lot of modern readers.

Maggy is a fairly gormless 19-year-old who reads as about 12; her father has died and she is working as a paid companion, the only thing she has any ability to do, since it seems like she was given a Proper Upbringing circa 1910, which is to say minimal education in academics and absolutely no education in anything practical. Maggy would like to spend all day lying in bed daydreaming, with brief interruptions to wander around staring at scenery daydreaming, but instead she is trying to wait on a very unpleasant middle-aged woman with a lot of money and a bad temper -- trying and mostly failing, since she keeps wandering off to daydream.

One thing Maggy daydreams a lot about is a man named Garth who is at the same hotel as them; he is much MUCH older than her (at least twice her age, maybe more) and disabled and clearly suffering. Maggy's dreams about him are not romantic, but she wonders a lot about who he is and why he's at a luxury hotel where he clearly doesn't fit in, and what happened to him in the first place, etc etc etc. This being a romance novel, of course he starts to notice her, and a crazy yet somehow still moving plot ensues. Garth takes pity on Maggy's treatment by her awful employer and general air of being a vulnerable otherworldly creature and offers her a job as HIS paid companion -- but there's a catch, they'll have to get married, since he lives in Ireland and there's no way she can live with him and be Companionable without being married to him. The good thing about them being married is that he is slowly dying from the injury that disabled him, so he can leave her money in his will to function as the payment for helping him see out the end of his life with some dignity. Maggy says yes out of a mix of curiosity and compassion and lostness, and next thing she knows is going through a marriage ceremony and having a chaste wedding night and trying to wrap her brain around suddenly being a married woman when she feels like a kid. She misses her father dreadfully, and would really like to be helpful to Garth in some way, but isn't sure where to start.

From there the book goes to Ireland, where Maggy has to deal with Garth's house and manservant and unpleasant housekeeper and snobbish sister and various neighbours, and of course the hidden secret of why he is planning to quietly die of his injury, which has to do with a beautiful woman named Sabrina. It is clearly inspired by Rebecca, but the feel is very different despite a lot of the same plot furniture, including the malicious housekeeper -- the motion of the book is Maggy maturing, realising that she can be a person in the world who makes decisions and that her decisions will matter, discovering that she cares about Garth not just enough to mourn his passing, but enough to insist that he try to live -- and of course, by the end, it is not a marriage in name only, they are very much in love and he's having the surgery that will save him. I know a lot of people hated that the book ends with her getting the news that Garth will be all right, but it actually felt appropriate to me -- we know that they're going to be okay, now, but I think it is still going to be a long road to an adult loving relationship between them, so why not end there where we can see that they're getting the chance to figure it out?

Ooof, you know, when I sat down to write about this I wasn't sure what I thought about it, but ... I actually am pretty fond of this book. I think it is really weird as a Harlequin, but it's pretty moving as a middlebrow novel, and while the age gap is fearsome, I loved watching Maggy grow into herself and start to choose her own life.

[More Books Than Time · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a harder book to read than most romances. Maggy starts as a 19 year old child and matures in her marriage to Garth. She starts by treating her marriage as a job - which is how Garth framed it when he proposed - and was bewildered and somewhat resentful that Garth did not need her and there was nothing for her to do the first few months. Garth marries Maggy to give her a home with him at Floyne in Ireland and provide for her financially. He doesn't love her or anyone.

The housekeeper, Mrs. Duffy, resents Maggy and believes the house and all the family jewelry should belong to Garth's sister Eunice, and refuses to have anything to do with Maggy or to allow her to take her place as mistress of the house. Maggy doesn't know how to assert herself and isn't sure she has any authority since Garth had told her initially that Mrs. Duffy was in charge of the house. Things change slowly as Mrs. Duffy overreaches herself and Maggy grows into herself, letting her upbringing as a parson's child come to the fore and showing her natural warmth, generosity and strength.

First Mrs. Duffy tells Maggy to stop playing the piano, that Garth didn't want to hear music, then she refused to use the holly Maggy bought to decorate for Christmas. Maggy in part ignores her commands and shops for and delivers the staff Christmas gifts herself. Garth also tells Maggy to use the piano whenever she wants, that he likes to hear her play. He asks about the holly but does nothing.

Meanwhile Maggy persists in having some tiny bits of time with Garth and slowly develops a tenuous relationship with him. She is able to help him with bad headaches and she sits with him in the evening, despite him telling her she should remain detached and not care that he likely will die soon from a massive blood clot that is also causing paralysis.

Things come to a head when Mrs. Duffy suggests Maggy take a different walk than usual, sending her through a treacherous moor with a bog hidden by snow. Maggy gets sucked in and nearly dies of the cold and the bog. Her friend, the neighbor Garth dislikes, Rory pulls her out and delivers her home. Garth later asks Maggy to avoid Rory and stop meeting him which she does, although she doesn't understand why he should tell her this. Mrs. Duffy has insinuated to Eunice, and Eunice to Garth that Maggy is meeting Rory for romantic reasons when in fact she is simply lonely and they talk sometimes. Garth still does nothing about Mrs. Duffy although Maggy starts ignoring her dictates and spite.

Finally Maggy finds out that Garth could have an operation to remove the blood clot. It is risky, with about a 40% chance of survival, but survival also means he would be free of the paralysis and able to live. Maggy talks to him about the operation, tries to convince him to try.

Things come to a head when Garth tells Maggy that if he is cured he will want to be a real husband to her, she makes it clear that she wants that too. Garth kisses her the way a husband would kiss his wife and Maggy feels senses that he has woken up to the possibility of life and regrets having kept himself so detached and dead. That same evening Mrs. Duffy tells Maggy that everything in Floyne will go to Eunice as it should, that she will never have anything. She acts insane, Garth hears it and fires her. Things are balance on a precipice now. Will Garth have the operation? Will Maggy and he have a true marriage?

Author Seale does not spend a lot of time inside Maggy's head. We don't get any tortuous dawning realizations nor does Maggy feel sorry for herself. The only thing she regrets is that Garth doesn't need her. The book slowly builds, growing Maggy as an adult, Garth finally fiercely determined to live and the romance develops subtly.

I enjoy books like this so much more than the modern Harlequins that substitute sex for emotional connection and character growth. I've read several Sara Seale novels and this is my favorite.

[Melody · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was published only 6 years after "Rebecca" by Daphne du Mauier and uses many of that famous book's plot points, especially in the beginning.

Yet, it is a good book. The biggest complaint I have is the same as other readers: the ending is rushed. It is incomplete and unsatisfying after reading the whole book. I'm sure these old Harlequin romances have a word limit, but I would have rather had the author cut down the descriptions of the moors and the weather and use that space toward filling out the ending.

I liked Maggy and Garth. Poor Maggy. It took so long for Garth to open up to her, and then he'd shut down again. His sister Eunice was insufferable in a way that Maxim's sister in "Rebecca" was not. Maxim's sister meant well, but Eunice did not have one sympathetic bone in her body. Her two little brats were just like her. Her husband, Johnny, was the doctor. I appreciated his character. He was kind and insightful, truly trying to help them both. I also liked the doctor who treated Maggy at the beginning of the book.

[Anuradha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some stories are breezy and fun. Others are full of passion and sex. While a great many are just ridiculous and not worth reading in the first place.

But this one is touching, poignant. And that's a difficult emotion to rouse in a reader. As always, my all time favorite author Sara Seele does an outstanding job.

This slow and mellow affair between an absolute innocent and an embittered cripple is a lovely journey.

Maggy starts off as a hapless orphan agreeing to marry the hero Garth thinking of it as just another job. But how her naive candour and purity of spirit heals him and revives the will to live in him forms the rest of the story.

In a way, not having an explicit HEA is a nice idea. It's often said, no writer can do better than what a reader's vivid imagination can produce !

Few hours that I spent reading this story, I consider as time well spent.

[Cerulean · Rating 2 out of 5]

Could have been 4 stars with a strong epilogue but the book ended in the middle of nowhere.

[Ségolène · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pas mal pour un livre à l'eau de rose de cette époque!

[Su · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good book with no ending!

[S Joseph · Rating 3 out of 5]

Also available as Maggy! Familiar trope but told in a gothic background . Found it similar to Rebecca!

[Sorhija · Rating 4 out of 5]

they lived happily ever after. I refuse any other end :)))

[Melinda · Rating 4 out of 5]

One that ended to soon for me. I really wanted another chapter of this one.

[Nancy Brady]

I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/11450894

[Lynn Smith · Rating 2 out of 5]

Originally published in the 1940s, then reissued in the 1950s & 60s and this edition in the 1970s. A tame read by today's standards but it was enjoyable for me a pre-teen.