She longed to be reunited with her family. The compelling new novel from the Sunday Times top ten bestselling author of The Workhouse Girl.
Eleven-year-old Stella Barry is forced into service when her family find themselves living hand-to-mouth.
Leaving her mother and younger brother and sister behind, Stella goes to a big country house outside London. When she returns home one Sunday, she discovers they have disappeared. Thrown out of their lodgings, no one knows where they have gone.
Seven years later it looks likely Stella will soon become Cook. But circumstances compel her to flee with no references and only a few personal possessions to her name.
She has never forgotten her loving family and is determined to find out what happened to them - once and for all.
When Eloise Cribb receives the news that her husband's ship has been lost at sea she wonders how she is ever going to manage. With two young children, the rent overdue and almost nothing to live on, she has no alternative but to turn to his estranged family for help.
She sets off on the long and arduous journey to Yorkshire, but is met with hostility and soon realises she has little choice but to return to London. Virtually destitute and desperate, Eloise is faced with her worst nightmare: she must either go to the workhouse, or abandon her children at the Foundling Hospital. But she is determined to keep them safe and under her protective wing at all costs...
When Hetty Huggins made a promise to her dying mother that she would look after her younger sister and brothers, little did she know how difficult this would be. But despite the threat of being turned out onto the streets by the unscrupulous tallyman and the never-ending struggle just to exist, Hetty is determined her family will never starve or want for a roof over their heads.
Longing for something better out of life than the daily grind of making matchboxes for a pittance, she dreams of setting up her own business. With the help of friends she sells hot potatoes on the streets and things begin to look up for them all. But when the tallyman comes calling, they are faced once more with a future full of hardship and despair ...
When seventeen-year-old Belinda Phillips falls in love with a handsome Anglo-Indian officer, she knows that he is a man she can never hope to marry. When he is reported missing, believed killed in action, Belinda discovers that she is pregnant. Facing disgrace and ruin, she has no option other than to accept an arranged marriage with a middle-aged widower, knowing she must keep the secret of her child's birth for ever.
Reluctantly she sends her beloved daughter to a foster mother in Cripplegate, little realising she has entrusted Cassy's care to Biddy Henchard, a woman who runs a notorious baby farm in an area full of poverty and disease. Despite her terrible upbringing, Cassy survives the old woman's cruel neglect. All the while she dreams of a mother she has never known, hoping she will come and save her from her dreadful fate. But when Biddy dies suddenly, ten-year-old Cassy finds herself destitute and with little hope of ever finding the mother she so longs for...
Phoebe Giamatti lives with her boisterous Italian family in the heart of London's East End. Phoebe's father was killed in gang warfare and she and her family share a deep hatred for the Paxman brothers - whose lawless ways strike terror into the whole community.
Despite her English mother's feckless ways, Phoebe is fiercely protective of Annie. Then just as the family are about to go to Italy for the winter, Phoebe discovers Annie is in trouble - and the Paxmans are involved. Phoebe is determined not to betray her mother's trust and, giving up her own chance of happiness, she stays behind to care for her. But when Phoebe and Annie are forced to leave London and Annie falls dangerously ill, Phoebe has little choice but to turn to the man she holds responsible for all her family's troubles...
Since the untimely death of her husband, young mother Effie Grey has been forced to live on a narrowboat owned by her tyrannical father-in-law Jacob. In spite of her own despair, she is determined to protect her brother Tom and her baby son Georgie from Jacob's bullying ways - for she is all they have in the world.
But when Jacob hires villainous Salter and his vile wife Sal to run the barge, Effie's life becomes even more unbearable, and Tom is sent packing without a penny to his name. Forced to live on deck with little to shelter her and Georgie from the elements, tormented by the Salters, Effie is driven to desperation. And stealing Jacob's hidden cache of money she escapes with her son. As she begins her frantic search for Tom, Effie vows that whatever happens she will make a home for little Georgie and keep him safe from harm.
The wonderfully nostalgic and heartwarming new novel from the Sunday Times Top Ten bestselling author of The Beggar Maid.
Born out of wedlock when her mother was only fourteen, Lucy Pocket has spent all her life in the care of her disreputable but charming grandmother, Eva. They dodge from one poor lodging house to another, always in debt and resorting to theft in order to exist.
Until her wealthy paternal grandfather buys her from Eva, determined to bring Lucy up to be a lady. When her grandfather dies, his despicable nephew cheats Lucy out of her inheritance, except for a run-down lodging house in Whitechapel, where she is forced to look after his three illegitimate children.
Jilted by her would-be fiancé, Lucy is determined to make a life for herself and the children, and to search for her long lost grandmother, creating the family she has always longed for.
The No.1 Sunday Times bestselling book!
The second book in the dramatic new Village Secrets trilogy from the Sunday Times bestselling author – the perfect, uplifting book to curl up with.
It was her wedding day… the roses and bluebells were blooming and their sweet-scent was filling the air, so why did Daisy feel the cold fingers of fear run down her spine?
Spring in the village, April 1869
It’s spring in Little Creek and wedding bells are ringing. After their hasty marriage the Christmas before, Daisy is overjoyed to be finally marrying dashing Jay properly, in front of the whole village.
But then, on the evening of their wedding, amid the festivities, Jay disappears. Daisy doesn’t know if Jay is dead or alive, if she’s his wife or his widow. And what’s more, without her husband, she has no means of supporting herself or her household.
Refusing to give up hope, Daisy must draw on all her strength and courage – after all, she has people who depend on her. But the secret of Jay's disappearance is more scandalous that she could have ever imagined…
Don’t miss the latest spellbinding story from Dilly Court – the sequel to The Christmas Wedding!
Lily Larkin is the youngest of six and the least important member of her family. With their father dead and their mother a stranger to them, she must stay at home and keep house whilst her elder siblings go out to work. As she goes about her daily chores, her head is full of dreams. And she longs for the day she can have a life of her own.
When a fire threatens to destroy the nearby docks, Lily's act of kindness towards a handsome foreigner has disastrous consequences for the whole family. For shortly afterwards they are thrown out of their home and have no choice but to move into two mean rooms above the fire station where Lily's brothers work. Here the family struggles to make ends meet. But just when things might be looking up for them all, Lily makes a terrible error of judgement. In anger her eldest brother turns her from the door. Forced onto the streets, Lily wonders if she'll ever see her family again...
Don't miss the brand-new heartwarming novel from the No.1 Sunday Times bestselling author Dilly Court!
Rockwood was home and she would do anything she could to stop it being stolen from them.
Abandoned by their parents and left to fight for themselves, headstrong Rosalind Carey has no choice but to take charge of her younger brothers and sister in Devonshire's grand Rockwood Castle. But their once much-loved home is crumbling like the family that lives within it. Living hand to mouth and desperate to provide for the estate that depends on them, the Carey family are one debt away from ruin. Until the day comes when the dashing Piers Blanchard appears on their doorstep from Cornwall, claiming he is Rosalind's distant cousin and that Rockwood Castle is his.
Piers says he wants to help pay off the family's debts. But how can Rosalind be sure he isn't out to take what is his and leave them all homeless? Only a closely-guarded secret will convince Rosalind she can trust Piers to protect her family - and her fragile heart.
Book One of The Rockwood Chronicles
Reader reviews for Fortune's Daughter
'I literally could not put this book down'?????
'Dilly Court never disappoints . . . gripping and highly entertaining' ?????
'It is so easy to immerse oneself in the story and feel part of it' ?????
'If you love family saga, you will definitely love this'?????
'There are so many twists and turns along the way' ?????
'A brilliant start to the series!' ?????
'Loved this book from start to finish' ?????
The new novel from the Sunday Times bestselling author.
Taking one last look around her attic room in Covent Garden Nettie knows there is no turning back, they must run for their lives...
London, 1875. Thanks to her hapless father, Nettie Carroll has had to grow up quickly. While Nettie is sewing night and day to keep food on the table, her gullible father has trusted the wrong man again. Left with virtually nothing but the clothes they stand up in, he's convinced that their only hope lies across the English channel in France.
Nettie has little but her dreams left to lose. Even far from home trouble follows them, with their enemies quietly drawing closer. But Nettie has a secret, and it's one with the power to save them.
Can she find the courage to trust in herself and pave the way for a brighter future?
Don’t miss the brand-new winter saga from bestselling author Dilly Court.
Paradise Row, London. December 1865.
Snow is falling fast and Sally Suggs is working tirelessly to bring in enough money to keep bread on the table. Her father, a skilled rag-and-bone man, has fallen ill and now Sally has taken up his trade.
But this is a man’s world and competition is fierce, and Sally’s rival Finn Kelly always seems to be one step ahead. Her family’s one valuable possession is their horse, Flower, yet with no one to protect them, London’s underbelly of black-market traders circle closer.
Sally needs to find help in the most unexpected places if they are to survive…
Don’t miss this festive treat from Dilly Court – available to buy now!
