When Molly McBride realizes that she is terminally ill, she arranges for Ruby, Billy, and Pearl to be taken in at Ignatius House, the local orphanage. Ruby is a rebel at heart and often in trouble with the strict nuns. When she is sixteen, she is forced to marry, but vows to get back Billy and Pearl once she has made a settled home. Eventually, she is also forced to accept that her sister Pearl is a bad lot, and that Billy has found a new life in Canada, so can't hope to recreate the family in quite the way she once promised her mother.
Born in Lancashire, Freda Lightfoot lived for a number of years in the Lake District where she ran a bookshop. She then tried her hand at the 'good life', kept sheep and hens, various orphaned cats and dogs, built drystone walls, planted a small wood and even learned how to make jam. She has now given up her thermals to build a house in an olive grove in Spain, where she produces her own olive oil. She has published over 30 novels including many bestselling family sagas and historical novels.
