Publisher's Synopsis
Kingston Upon Hull, 1941.
German bombs are raining down on the city. Racing to the nearest air-raid shelter, Charlotte hears an almighty explosion. Her mother's haberdashery shop has taken a direct hit, reducing the shop to a pile of rubble - and killing her mother outright. Suddenly sixteen-year-old Charlotte is all alone in the world. But then mysterious Aunt Hilda comes forward - an aunt Charlotte never knew she had - and offers her a home in the sleepy Yorkshire village of Mornington where she runs the local pub with her husband George. Charlotte doesn't mind helping out in the pub, but she can't understand why her Aunt Hilda seems to resent her so. Nor why her mother never revealed she had a sister. Everything changes when a group of French orphans are brought to live in the big house. Charlotte volunteers to help look after them - and finds a new purpose in life. Then a band of Free French soldiers is billeted in the village, including a handsome young officer with the deepest brown eyes . . . But Emile has a tragedy in his past - and Charlotte must uncover both his and her own family's secrets if they are to have a chance of happiness.
