Carnegie's Maid by Marie Benedict

Two young women named Clara Kelley left Ireland in 1862 for America. They never met but both were headed to Pittsburgh. One planned to stay with relatives until she could find a job and send money home to her desperately poor family.  The other already had a job offer as a ladies maid to the mother of Andrew Carnegie. One Clara died aboard the ship and the other assumed the job at the Carnegie household in her place.  Clara had no experience with this kind of wealth but her father had made sure she was well read which gave her enough imagined experience to step into this role.  It was her cleverness, independence and great curiosity that made her so attractive to the young Andrew.  As their friendship grew they learned much from each other which sent both down paths they has not anticipated.  Clara was not a real person but Benedict imagines the kind of interactions that would have caused one of the most ruthless giants of the gilded age, the real Andrew Carnegie, to give away his fortune mostly to promote education.  Maybe, maybe not. Either way it is a new lens for that time.