A Loving Family - Tapa dura

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.

Stella stuffed her hand in her mouth, stifling a sob. She looked around but the normally busy street was quiet at this time on a Sunday, and the small shops were closed and shuttered. There was no one to whom she could turn and she had to be back at Portgone Place by nightfall.

Tears coursed down her cheeks. She must find ma but where to start. Her breath hitched in her throat and she felt a sharp pain in her chest. There was only one place where a destitute woman and her children could go and be assured of being taken in, and that was the place that struck fear into the hearts of the poor. She set off for Limehouse workhouse.

The iron gates were locked and she had to ring the bell several times before an elderly man shuffled across the yard to glare at her through the ornate scrollwork. 'Well?'

'Please, sir, can you tell me if my mother and brother and sister are here?'