Nobody’s Darling - Josephine Cox

Lizzie Miller worries about her eldest daughter. A mother shouldn’t have favourites, but lovely Ruby, with her rich brown hair and speckled blue eyes, wins a special place in Lizzie’s heart.

Money is short in the overcrowded little house in Blackburn’s Fisher Street, and Ruby yearns to give her beloved family a better life. So determined is she to enjoy the security only wealth can bring, that she stifles her feelings for handsome Johnny Ackroyd. Though his kisses leave her trembling with desire, Ruby knows he cannot offer her the life she craves.

Ruby works as a maid in the household of Mr Banks and his daughter, Cicely, a shy, gentle creature with few friends. Between them, the two girls hatch a mischievous plan to introduce Ruby to society at a party for the ‘gentry of Blackburn. It is a fateful occasion on which Ruby meets Luke Arnold, the dissolute heir to his father’s fortunes. Once he sets eyes on Ruby’s dark beauty, he determines to despoil her innocence. When Luke slyly turns his charm on Cicely, Ruby feels compelled to warn her friend of his evil nature, a warning that costs her her job.

Despite this bitter blow, Ruby quickly finds employment in a milliner’s shop. and eventually takes over the business. But her worldly success still leaves an emptiness that riches cannot fill, and Ruby learns at last that the love of family and friends is beyond price…