The Slow Awakening - Catherine Cookson

In the mid-1850’s life for an orphan was grim, as Kirsten MacGregor discovered when her parents died suddenly, leaving her penniless and alone in the hands of a cruel baby farmer.

Somehow, Kirsten survived her terrible childhood – only to be sold, at the age of fourteen, to a travelling tinker – a vicious master who raped her and held her captive until the fateful day they were separated during a storm. Rescued from the flood by the Flynn family, she gave birth to a child – at the same time Florence, mistress of the great house nearby, was told her newborn son was dead. The two women entered into a secret bargain, an arrangement that was to change Kirsten’s fortune – and place her in the middle of a bitter feud between two families.