Halifax, 1848. A dying mother’s secret. A daughter born from love—and made to pay for it.
When nine-year-old Dorcas Fenwick loses her mother in the bitterest winter Halifax has ever known, the workhouse gates seem certain to swallow her. Only her formidable great-aunt Effie—eighty years old and armed with little more than good manners and an iron will—stands between Dorcas and a pauper’s fate.
But Effie brings more than refuge. She brings a sealed letter, entrusted to her by Dorcas’s dying mother, with one solemn command: it must not be opened until Dorcas needs it more than anything else in the world.
Eleven years later, poverty drives Dorcas through the gates of Blackwood’s Mill, where two men are waiting to change her life.
One is Nathaniel Crowe, the lamplighter’s son who once carried her dying mother home through the snow—and whose quiet, steadfast heart has never forgotten Dorcas.
The other is Josiah Blackwood, the wealthy and ruthless master of the mill. From the moment he sees Dorcas, something in him changes. He watches her. Threatens her. And soon he is willing to pay almost any price to drive one penniless mill girl out of Halifax forever.
But why should one of the richest men in Yorkshire be afraid of Dorcas Fenwick?
As Blackwood tightens his grip, Dorcas is forced to sacrifice her one chance at happiness to protect the people she loves. But an old workbox conceals a hidden seam. A sealed letter is finally waiting to be opened. And a mother’s voice, reaching across eleven winters, may hold the secret that can bring a powerful man to his knees.
A sweeping, heart-wrenching Victorian saga of an unwed mother’s devotion, a love that refuses to die, and a daughter who discovers that the shame she carried all her life was never hers to bear.
Perfect for readers who believe the poorest girl may carry the richest heart—and that no child is ever born a mistake.
Genre: Inspirational
When nine-year-old Dorcas Fenwick loses her mother in the bitterest winter Halifax has ever known, the workhouse gates seem certain to swallow her. Only her formidable great-aunt Effie—eighty years old and armed with little more than good manners and an iron will—stands between Dorcas and a pauper’s fate.
But Effie brings more than refuge. She brings a sealed letter, entrusted to her by Dorcas’s dying mother, with one solemn command: it must not be opened until Dorcas needs it more than anything else in the world.
Eleven years later, poverty drives Dorcas through the gates of Blackwood’s Mill, where two men are waiting to change her life.
One is Nathaniel Crowe, the lamplighter’s son who once carried her dying mother home through the snow—and whose quiet, steadfast heart has never forgotten Dorcas.
The other is Josiah Blackwood, the wealthy and ruthless master of the mill. From the moment he sees Dorcas, something in him changes. He watches her. Threatens her. And soon he is willing to pay almost any price to drive one penniless mill girl out of Halifax forever.
But why should one of the richest men in Yorkshire be afraid of Dorcas Fenwick?
As Blackwood tightens his grip, Dorcas is forced to sacrifice her one chance at happiness to protect the people she loves. But an old workbox conceals a hidden seam. A sealed letter is finally waiting to be opened. And a mother’s voice, reaching across eleven winters, may hold the secret that can bring a powerful man to his knees.
A sweeping, heart-wrenching Victorian saga of an unwed mother’s devotion, a love that refuses to die, and a daughter who discovers that the shame she carried all her life was never hers to bear.
Perfect for readers who believe the poorest girl may carry the richest heart—and that no child is ever born a mistake.
Genre: Inspirational
Used availability for Faye Godwin's The Mill Girl's Secret