Miss Martha Mary Crawford

Ever since her mother died, Martha Mary had had to take over the running of her home, a sprawling mansion called The Habitation.  But more and more she found herself nursing her aunt who was prone to fits and playing mother to her sisters, with no tasks too demeaning for her, as the bills mounted and there was no money to pay for supplies.

She did everything she could to make ends meet but always managed to ensure her father was looked after well and had a good table laid when he came home.  Her sisters and their loyal servants, Peg and Dilly, were often cold and lived sparsely.  She could not understand why they were in such financial straits especially as when her mother was alive, they had several profitable businesses and even after she died, one of them had been sold well.  She hoped that her father€s frequent visits to Great-Uncle James would finally come good when he died and they could sell his house to alleviate their great need of money.

But when her father died suddenly, his last words to her were to go to Great-Uncle James€ house and deliver a message but never to disclose to anyone especially to his only son, Roland, who was away boarding at a private school, what she was to find there.

That journey was to change Martha Mary€s feelings for the men in her life and brought home to her the huge burden she now carried on her young shoulders and the responsibility of those lives that depended on her.  Her father€s shameful secret filled her with anger as she feared she would never escape from her drudgery

This is an impossibly gripping story of an angry, self-righteous and neglected young woman, made so because of circumstance, who makes bad, even cruel decisions as she struggles towards maturity.  Cookson reveals a sympathetic understanding of a proud character forced to confront her own errors of judgment and who journeys painfully towards love and humility with the unswerving devotion of Dilly and Peg.