In this gripping saga, a single mother in 1905 northern England wants to give her son a better life but she’s unprepared for the consequences. The slums of Poor House Lane are no place to bring up a child, and Kate O’Connor struggles to make ends meet when her beloved husband is killed, leaving her a single mother with a baby to support on the meagre hand-outs she gleans from charity. So when the childless Tysons, owners of Kendal’s shoe factory, offer to adopt her son, Callum, and employ Kate as his nanny, she seizes the chance to ensure he has a better life. To be so close to her son, yet no longer be his mother, is bittersweet. But Kate is not prepared for the jealousy the new arrangement provokes in Eliot Tyson’s brother, Charles, who sees Callum as a direct threat to his inheritance . . . An unputdownable saga of motherhood and family love, the first book in the Poor House Lane Sagas is perfect for fans of Rosie Goodwin, Dilly Court and Downton Abbey. Praise for the writing of Freda Lightfoot “Freda Lightfoot’s talent for creating believable characters makes this a page-turning read.” —Newcastle Evening Chronicle “Charming and exciting. . . . A lovely story by an author with extraordinary feeling in her writing.” —Bangor Chronicle “Real people and real dramas are her mainstays.” —Westmorland Gazette “The writer clearly knows her Manchester well, especially the canals, warehouses, factories and humble shops and dwellings of the poor. Her historical research has been painstaking and the sense of the period is very real.” —Historical Novel Society
