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Abby Bryant at nine years old and is the happy youngest daughter of her mother, the best baker in the East End. They may be poor, but they have each other. However tragedy strikes and Abby's mother dies suddenly of consumption. Brokenhearted at her loss, Abby is shipped off to the workhouse.
At the workhouse, Abby is cheerful, despite her tragic life and circumstances, which seems to aggravate the masters even more. She recognises another boy, Ezra, as someone she used to feed scraps to, and the two of them soon become firm friends. He warns her to run and hide if anyone shows up looking for chimney sweeps, as he knows she won't survive - and one day, that's exactly what happens. A man arrives, asking for spare orphans to train as sweeps, and while Abby hides, Ezra is chosen, and taken away.
Soon Abby is also claimed to become a matchstick maker. She works in a huge factory with lots of other women, and while she's lonely at first, an older woman, Myra, takes her under her wing, and Abby comes to think of Myra as a second mother. One day when Abby is escorting her to the doctor, she sees Ezra, all grown-up. Overjoyed to meet again, they make plans to escape together, but fate intervenes and they're cruelly separated.
Will Abby and Ezra ever be able to find each other - and love - again?
Genre: Sagas
Abby Bryant at nine years old and is the happy youngest daughter of her mother, the best baker in the East End. They may be poor, but they have each other. However tragedy strikes and Abby's mother dies suddenly of consumption. Brokenhearted at her loss, Abby is shipped off to the workhouse.
At the workhouse, Abby is cheerful, despite her tragic life and circumstances, which seems to aggravate the masters even more. She recognises another boy, Ezra, as someone she used to feed scraps to, and the two of them soon become firm friends. He warns her to run and hide if anyone shows up looking for chimney sweeps, as he knows she won't survive - and one day, that's exactly what happens. A man arrives, asking for spare orphans to train as sweeps, and while Abby hides, Ezra is chosen, and taken away.
Soon Abby is also claimed to become a matchstick maker. She works in a huge factory with lots of other women, and while she's lonely at first, an older woman, Myra, takes her under her wing, and Abby comes to think of Myra as a second mother. One day when Abby is escorting her to the doctor, she sees Ezra, all grown-up. Overjoyed to meet again, they make plans to escape together, but fate intervenes and they're cruelly separated.
Will Abby and Ezra ever be able to find each other - and love - again?
Genre: Sagas
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