On a windswept Derbyshire moor, nine-year-old Nell Cooper is determined to hold together a failing farm. Her grandfather is fading before her eyes, and the three hungry children she has taken in depend on her for everything.
Then, one bitter November evening, fifteen-year-old Isaac Ward arrives at the gate looking for work.
Quiet, capable, and carrying secrets from London he refuses to share, Isaac soon becomes indispensable. Together they weather harsh winters, failed harvests, and the endless struggle to keep the farm alive. As the years pass, the bond between them deepens into something neither quite knows how to name.
But when the money runs out, Isaac leaves with a promise. He will return within a year. He is gone for six.
Left behind, Nell battles to save everything they built. She hides her grandfather's death from the authorities, signs letters in a dead man's hand, and fights to keep food on the table as the parish overseer asks dangerous questions. Meanwhile, in the shadows of Victorian London, Isaac is trapped by a criminal past that refuses to release him.
As the years slip away, a kind and respectable young man offers Nell the security she has never known. Yet her heart remains tied to a promise made on a lonely moorland road.
Will Isaac return before circumstances force her to let him go?
The Girl at the Gate is a sweeping Victorian saga of hardship, hope, and enduring love—a story of two abandoned children who build a home against impossible odds, and the promise that survives even when everything else is at risk of being lost.
Genre: Historical Romance
Then, one bitter November evening, fifteen-year-old Isaac Ward arrives at the gate looking for work.
Quiet, capable, and carrying secrets from London he refuses to share, Isaac soon becomes indispensable. Together they weather harsh winters, failed harvests, and the endless struggle to keep the farm alive. As the years pass, the bond between them deepens into something neither quite knows how to name.
But when the money runs out, Isaac leaves with a promise. He will return within a year. He is gone for six.
Left behind, Nell battles to save everything they built. She hides her grandfather's death from the authorities, signs letters in a dead man's hand, and fights to keep food on the table as the parish overseer asks dangerous questions. Meanwhile, in the shadows of Victorian London, Isaac is trapped by a criminal past that refuses to release him.
As the years slip away, a kind and respectable young man offers Nell the security she has never known. Yet her heart remains tied to a promise made on a lonely moorland road.
Will Isaac return before circumstances force her to let him go?
The Girl at the Gate is a sweeping Victorian saga of hardship, hope, and enduring love—a story of two abandoned children who build a home against impossible odds, and the promise that survives even when everything else is at risk of being lost.
Genre: Historical Romance
Used availability for Faye Godwin's The Girl at the Gate