The Mill Girl
Life is tough on the cobbled backstreet courtyards of Abbey Street, Warwickshire, in the 1840s: boys are destined for the pit and girls for the mill. Despite this, clever, feisty Maryann is happy there - until her mother dies. Her family collapses, leaving Maryann coping with everything, exhausted and lonely. Especially as Toby, the boy she is set on marrying, insists they wait.
When things are at their bleakest, Maryann is offered a lifeline: a position as nanny to the daughter of the mill owner, Wesley Marshall. Though the house is filled with secrets and heartache, there is kindness, too, and to Maryann's surprise she grows close to Marshall. But their relationship has not gone unnoticed and it threatens to unleash a world of problems on them all . . .
The Empty Cradle
To the outside world, Charlotte is the privileged daughter of the local vicar. Behind closed doors, however, she is the prisoner of her controlling father. As she grows up, Charlotte longs for freedom, but her captivating innocence leads her into trouble. Sent to Ireland to hide a shameful pregnancy, she discovers that once again her father has deceived her. She is forced into a convent's harsh and humiliating regime, where she must eventually give up the one thing that makes her life worthwhile. When Charlotte returns to England, older than her years, she chooses to forget the past. Becoming a London midwife, she longs only to help other women at this hardest and most joyful moment in their lives. But her deep compassion, and desire to prevent anyone else suffering the same horror she did, leads her into a darker and more dangerous place.
Home Front Girls
Three girls all turn up for work, the day war is declared...Dotty has never known a life outside of the orphanage where she grew up, let alone love. Lucy is the sole carer of her little sister, now that her brother has gone to war. Annabelle has led a life of privilege but everyone has to pinch the pennies at the moment. Adjusting to life on the shop-floor at Coventry's only department store is hard enough, but then the bombs begin to fall... As the devastating effects of war come to bear on the three women, their bond deepens. One thing's for certain, the girls are going to need each other.
A Mothers Shame
One dismal day in 1857, Maria Mundy arrives at Hatter's Hall, the local mental asylum, not as an inmate but as a worker. Here, she is ordered to care for Isabelle Montgomery, the daughter of an influential land-owner. But Isabelle is not insane. She, like many other young women confined within the walls, has been banished here by her family. Hatter's Hall serves to hide unmarried women, in the family way, from prying eyes.
As the women's lives become entwined, they realise the dangers they face. But there is only one way out of Hatter's Hall. The women must escape and there is one man who can help, Isabelle's brother Joshua - who can barely keep his eyes off Maria. Otherwise, there's every chance they might never leave.
The Maids Courage
Ginny is devastated by the death of her mother, her two little brothers and her sister - but her father is destroyed by the loss. After a series of drunken mistakes, her father is imprisoned for murder, and Ginny and her little brother Charlie lose the only home they've ever known.
Worse is to come. Charlie is only eight years old and has a weak chest. Ginny is determined to keep him with her, but he is taken to the workhouse before she has a chance to save him. Lonely and desperate, Ginny wanders the streets of Nuneaton. She finds honest work at the pie shop - until she is forced to fight off the unwanted advances of the baker and she's out on the streets.
It's only then that she remembers her father's final words - the housekeeper of Lamp Hill Hall will help her. Soon Ginny is employed as a laundry maid, the very lowest rung of the ladder. Her beauty and grace mean that she catches the eye of the house's mistress, who raises Ginny up to play lady's maid to the difficult and demanding Miss Diana. All Ginny wants is to find her brother - and it will take all her strength of heart and courage to bring her family together again.
The Soldiers Daughter
Bryony Valentine lives at home with her mother Lois, father James and younger siblings. For as long as she can remember, she has been soft on the boy next door, Eddie, but her best friend Ruth has feelings for him too. Eddie is called up to serve, as is her father and Bryony's world is torn apart. As the telegrams pour in to different families along the street, Bryony can only pray for their safety. Lois' family disowned her when she met Bryony's father, but when the wartime evacuees need a safe home - Lois' parents open their doors. The three Valentine children are dispatched to Cornwall - far from the bombs and the only world they've ever known. A family displaced. Their futures in the hands of enemy bombs. Will the Valentine family ever unite and will Bryony ever see Eddie again?
