For Want of a Penny — Fenella Miller

For Want of a Penny is the first part of a two book Victorian saga â€"The Nightingale Chronicles is set in 1840s Colchester and the east end of London. A family tragedy means Sarah is forced to go into service at Grey Friars House as an under nursery-maid. Meanwhile her younger brother Alfie, to avoid being taken into the workhouse, runs away to London to seek his fortune.
Although the situation wasn't of her making Sarah thrives, but just as she is becoming established in the household her past returns to shatter her happy life and she is dismissed without references.
Alfie arrives in London but is tricked and sold to work as a slave on a coal barge. However, eventually he prospers and begins to make himself a better life.

'One Good Turn' the second part of this series will be published in July.