The Girl

Hannah Boyle was barely eight when she and her mother trudged the 23 miles from Newcastle to Hexham. Her mother delivered Hannah to the man she claimed was Hannah's father. And she left a letter in safe keeping with the church, a letter that was to be given to Hannah on her wedding day. Then she died. Protected by her father from her stepmother, who could only bring herself to refer to Hannah as "the girl," Hannah becomes an educated, accomplished young woman. But she makes a loveless match and nearly disintegrates when she reads her mother's letter.