The Tinker's Girl — Catherine Cookson

Close to her fifteenth birthday, Jinnie Howlett, a reluctant inmate of a northern workhouse, was offered a position as a maid-of-all-work by the Shalemans at Toilet's Ridge Farm, a bleakly isolated farm near the Cumbrian border.

Before long, however, she was to discover she had exchanged one kind of drudgery for another, for the Shalemans -- Rose, invalid wife of Pug and mother to Bruce and Hal -- demanded much of her. If it had not been for Bruce's willingness to defend her against the brutish Pug and Hal, she would have gladly returned to the workhouse.

Then she became acquainted with Richard Baxton-Powell, but eventually his over-familiarity made her realise that despite everything her future would owe more to the Shalemans than any outside influence.

The Tinker's Girl explores the life and fortunes of a spirited girl who lived in an age when it was customary for servants to know their place.