The Dwelling Place — Catherine Cookson

Cissie Brodie was an impoverished orphan, the daughter of a farmer, and a proud, beautiful young woman. Clive Fischel was Lord Fischel's arrogant son, a man raised to despise his inferiors in Victorian England's class-conscious society. One afternoon Clive came upon Cissie in the dwelling place--a stroke of fate that would plague them both for the rest o f their lives.

When Cissie Brodie's parents were taken by the fever in 1832, Cissie suddenly found herself the head of a family of nine brothers and sisters. She was just fifteen and the youngest was but a babe in arms, yet she decided that rather than have the family split up in the workhouse, she would try to find work to keep them all, for they would be happier together. But how? And where would they live?

To her relief, Cissie found a dwelling place. It was a mere shanty on the fells, true, but it was shelter and it was rent-free. She also gained a friend in Matthew Turnbull, the wheelwright, although his protection could not save her from the fierce enmity of the landowner's daughter, nor from his son, Clive Fischel.