This HaBO request comes from Ashley, who is searching for this historical romance:
The book (I think set in England, not modern but do not remember the exact time) begins with a midwife showing up to a manor where a woman named Anne is giving birth. Anne ends up dying; Anne’s husband is there. While the midwife is leaving she meets the husband’s brother (who owns the manor I think) and faints. She ends up marrying him at some point. She also advocates (ahead of her time) that women should not wear corsets and I want to say she mentions meeting with Florence Nightingale at the end.
I don’t remember much after that except there is some mystery thing happening and the lord of the manor is very moody.
The lord of the manor is always moody.
If she’s meeting Florence Nightingale this would have to be somewhere in the 1830s/1840s, if that helps (Nightengale was intermittently bedridden by the 1850s): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florence_Nightingale#Later_career
In Victoria Holt’s “Secret for a Nightingale” I’m pretty sure the heroine meets her, but I don’t think the rest of the plot fits. I better go read that one again….
Don’t know the book but find it hilarious that there is a book titled “The Midwife Crisis”
@Lisa F:
Add 10 years to the Florence Nightingale scenario. She was born in 1820, needed time to shake off family constraints, and was most active during the Crimean War (mid-1850s). And though she was largely housebound for the final 50 years of her life, that’s not to say she didn’t maintain human contact. After all, someone had to feed the cats (she had many over the years) and empty the litter boxes.
And we’re sorta making the assumption the author has actually checked on Florence Nightingale’s dates…
The Florence nightingale thing was a really minor part at the end so I don’t think that detail is going to help narrow it down