The Path of Thorns by A. (Angela) G. Slatter
The Morwood family has its secrets. The new governess is aware of many of them, and has come to fulfill promises, a fulfillment that could leave the Morwoods shattered. Familial love and betrayal, the relations of mothers and daughters, and the shifting power among the monied classes, all merge to affect the eventual denouement and direct the future of the Morwood family.
This is set in Slatter's Sourdough and Bitterwood short stories. It is a beautifully written, immersive, Gothic with overtones of fairy tale, examining the lives of women, specifically of women in a mid- to late 19th century setting different from but rather like England. (Note: Slatter does not skimp on her portrayal of the ugliest side of women's lives, and there are scenes and language that some will no doubt find offensive. For me, both scenes and language were appropriate to time, place and the class(es) of women involved.)