The Children's Pilgrimage
1883
Two orphaned children sit on a cold doorstep in London, holding onto each other and a dying promise. Cecile and Maurice D'Albert have just lost their stepmother, and with her last breath, she extracted a vow: find Lovedy, the daughter she lost years ago. Now Cecile must lead her brother and their faithful companion Toby into the winter dark, across England, with nothing but faith and the fierce bond between siblings to sustain them. It's Christmas. The days are shortest. They have one month to prepare for a journey they must take in secret, guided only by a name and a memory. This is a story about what children carry when no one else will: the weight of promises, the ache of belonging, and the terrible, beautiful courage it takes to keep going when you're small and the world is vast and indifferent. L.T. Meade understood that some pilgrimages are undertaken not by choice, but by necessity and love.
