Windsor Selection S.
4 total works
Abandoned as a child in 19th-century London's East End, Harriet was taken in by Mary Dean and brought up as a sister to Mary and her brother Arthur. But 17 years later, Harriet and Arthur have fallen in love, and when Harriet then falls pregnant, they are driven out of Bow by prejudiced neighbours. Arthur is then caught pilfering and faces a prison sentence. However this is soon to be the least of their worries. Harriet has kept a diary she stole as a child - the diary of a midwife - and perpetrator of the Jack the Ripper murders. And now the midwife has returned to the East End in search of Harriet and her diary - and will stop at nothing to get it back...
When Mary Dean is suddenly and tragically orphaned, she must find an extra source of income if she and her young brother want to escape the workhouse. The matchbox factory where she works pays poorly and she is desperate. Tempted by the lure of the House of Assignation, she accepts an invitation and becomes a courtesan in the exclusive establishment. Her very first client, Sir Walter, is entranced by her beauty and innocence, he insists that she be his and his alone. But another threat lurks in the shadows. Her neighbour, a midwife, righteous in her hatred of prostitution, holds the key to a menacing secret. She knows the identity of the terrifying Whitechapel murderer...the infamous Jack the Ripper. Mary has no idea of the peril she has placed herself in or the intentions of those who surround her. Who can she trust...if anyone?
Not all is what it appears at number 10 Beaumont Square. The seemingly perfect marriage of Tobias and Isobelle Wellington is fractured when a dark secret surfaces. But to the public eye, nothing changes. However twenty years later Tobias' past catches up with him. Flora Brown and her daughter Beanie are employed below stairs as cook and scullery maid. Beanie is the illegitimate daughter Flora conceived with Tobias all those years ago. Tobias fears that she will talk if he sacks her, so he has no choice but to let them stay. Him above the stairs and them below. The Wellingons' offspring, Sarah and Herbert, have no idea that the scullery maid is their half-sister. Sarah and Beanie become great friends and become models for a naughty photographer. Herbert however is a class snob and dislikes Beanie intensely. In the meantime Isobella finds that she likes and trusts her cook: they are both suffragettes. One drunken night the truth about Beanie comes out. After tears and apologies, the two women vow never to tell the children that they share the same father and become even closer. However, secrets are hard to keep and inevitably the wrong person gets hold of the information.
The war is over and the soldiers are coming back to the bomb-ravaged East End. Tom Smith is one of the thousands who are returning home. It's been an eventful war, what with a spell of desertion, and Tom can't wait to see his wife Jessie, their son Billy and the new baby daughter he hasn't even laid eyes on. But life back home wasn't easy either, especially when Jessie's army pension was stopped. So when she was told to put Emma-Rose into a home for her own good, she thought it was best. But how will Tom take the news - and will they be able to get their daughter back?