Beryl Matthews

London, 1900. Hester Stanmore watches in disbelief as the jury declares her attacker 'not guilty', and the courtroom erupts into chaos. The man in the dock is being congratulated as if he were a hero, but she has seen the madness in his eyes when he had attacked her and left her for dead....

Major Harry Sterling has had to leave his regiment after the death of his father and brother. Now Duke of Ranliegh, it is his duty to marry without delay. His friend Captain Atterton makes a surprise appearance, and the men are drawn into a web of treachery....

As if everyday life in London's slums wasn't hard enough for Jane Roberts and her three children, the day that ne'er-do-well husband Bert walks out on his family as rent day draws near is a particularly dark time....

London 1941. Sirens warn of danger as German bomber planes approach the city. Ever cautious, Kathy and her mother head immediately for the nearest public air raid shelter, and when the building is destroyed in a direct hit, it is a miracle Kathy survives....

Christine Banner is alone after her father's death. Determined to make her own way in the world, she stumbles onto an estate in the New Forest where she finds work that she loves....

October 1943. Nancy Dalton, working at the RAF base at Scampton in Lincolnshire, has been holding vigil for the Lancaster bomber pilots whose missions seem endless. But her watchfulness has not prevented her own pilot brother from failing to return....