Elizabeth Gill

1820. Alice Lee, middle-aged, and unmarried, takes in a young murderer, Zebediah Bailey, when he's released from Durham gaol. Their acquaintance had begun when Alice's local Methodist minister had asked his congregation if anybody would help the young man, and Alice had volunteered. Alice dutifully writes him every week, sending him sweets from her shop. And when Zeb comes out and has nowhere to go, Alice takes him back to Stanhope in Weardale with...

1920, Durham. Since she was a child, Lucy Charlton has dreamed of working with her father in the family solicitor's firm. But a scandal shatters her dreams and, when her father disowns her, she finds herself on the streets, fighting for survival. Joe Hardy has returned to London after the Great War to find his life in tatters - his father is dead and his pregnant fiancee has disappeared. Then Joe learns he's unexpectedly inherited an old river house...

Determined to practise as a doctor, Prue Stanhope escapes a loveless marriage to journey far from home and join a surgery in the rural mining town of Tow Law, County Durham. But she soon finds that long hours and limited resources are only the beginning - gaining the townspeople's trust will be her greatest challenge of all.