The Winter Child

A Victorian Romance of Secrets, Sacrifice, and Two Mothers' Love

London, 1842. On the coldest Christmas Eve in memory, nineteen-year-old widow Florie White faces an impossible choice: watch her fevered infant daughter die in a rat-infested boarding house or abandon her on the doorstep of a wealthy family's mansion, praying they'll save the child she cannot.

That same night, Eliza Stanford has just lost her third baby and learned she'll never bear another. When she discovers an abandoned infant on her doorstep, she sees divine providence-and makes a desperate decision that will haunt two families for decades.

Twelve years later, fate brings Florie to Stanford House as a servant, where she comes face to face with a accomplished young lady who bears a haunting resemblance to her dead daughter. As Florie cares for Beatrice Stanford, she notices a distinctive crescent birthmark that confirms the impossible: her daughter is alive.

Now two mothers must navigate an unbearable truth. One raised Beatrice in privilege and loves her as fiercely as any birth mother. The other has mourned her as dead while writing over a hundred letters to her "Angel in Heaven." And between them stands a remarkable young woman who senses something is missing from her perfect life but can't imagine the explosive secret about to shatter everything she knows.

When a suspicious husband launches an investigation, a predatory suitor threatens exposure, and the truth finally erupts, three women must decide: Is love stronger than blood? Can forgiveness heal the wounds of deception? And is it possible for a daughter to belong to two mothers-one who loved her enough to give her away, and one who loved her enough to live a lie?

Set against the gaslit streets and grand estates of Victorian London, The Winter Child is an emotionally gripping saga about the lengths mothers will go to for their children, the families we're born into versus the ones we choose, and the redemptive power of truth.