Nottingham Lace (Book One in The Lace Trilogy) (The Lace Trilogy)

At the turn of the century, post-Victorian England is enjoying the height of the lace-making industry and the town of Nottingham is at its center. Ellen Johnson leaves her family home to work at the lace factory. In the mills, Ellen finds her modesty and innocence assailed as she learns that kindness is not a guaranteed trait or even one commonly found among her co-workers. Everything she knows of her world will be shaken, reexamined and remade. And always at the edge of her awareness is the darkness brewing in Europe. Barely comprehensible in its magnitude. She must face all that is means when Ellen finds herself propelled into a hasty marriage with Albert, a soldier about to be sent into battle. Throughout her pregnancy and her son's birth, Albert is hardly more than a figure in her memory and imagination. Will she ever see Albert again? Does she want to? What is family and what does the future hold? Ellen questions everything as she is tried and made stronger by the struggles she faces and the woman she has become.