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What chance has a girl born into poverty of achieving a position of trust, unless a person in authority deems her worthy of notice?
Set in Shropshire during the Pre-Regency era (1808-1816), Living in the Shadows follows the story of an orphan's struggle to gain respectability and the people who help her.
The Foundling's Path - Part 1, tells of an alliance between a homeless girl, a country midwife and a physician; each ready to help the other - in secret - at a time when it is illegal to cohabit with gypsies and herbal treatments are likened to witchcraft.
Turned off from her job, Nell Walcote seeks shelter with a relative stranger. As a foundling she grew up expecting to be treated with disdain but finds that a gypsy lives a harsher existence than even Nell has known. Whilst they are together, she finds companionship and discovers links to her birth from someone who was present at the time.
Meg Chapel, an enigmatic gypsy midwife, herbalist and keeper of secrets. An outcast, with the uncanny ability to pass chameleon-like between the social classes - and to teach Nell new skills that will prepare her for the challenges ahead.
Dr James Althorpe, a country physician, has a novel idea to improve his clinical practice. When he meets Nell Walcote, he recognises in her gentle demeanour the person he has been seeking. But it was not his intention, when employing Nell as a nurse to his private patients, to expose her to the licentious attention of so-called gentlemen.
Living in the Shadows is a tale of Georgian country life that demands answers to many questions.
Does Meg Chapel's gift of gold truly come from the mother that Nell has never known?
Will Nell ever meet the kind benefactor who took an interest in her welfare as a child?
How can Nell, the victim of an attack, return the fine woollen cape that her mystery rescuer loaned her when she does not know his name? Therein is her dilemma, for without his testimony she might be accused of theft. Nell will never forget him, but would the gentleman recall his meeting with a bedraggled country girl in a woodland clearing?
Dr James Althorpe perceives an inexplicable likeness in Nell Walcote to someone he has seen in the past - but to whom does it relate - where might that have been - and when?
Meg Chapel's distinctive features set her apart from the common folk of Linmore Dale. Are they also the reason why her late mother's gypsy kinfolk do not accept her?
Cast out into a harsh world, Nell's first steps towards respectability take her through uncharted territory, but will the skills she is taught help her to navigate the pitfalls ahead? Or will her vibrant looks prove a distraction for others? And will the memories of her tainted origins impede her progress?
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