Uncertain Heritage

Set in Canada in the 1800s, this lively story of two innocent, warm-hearted orphan girls and their quest for happiness, success, knowledge of their parentage, and love.The two babies, found at the convent gates, wrapped together in a luxurious silk quilt, are cared for by the nuns of St. Joseph's Orphanage. Red¬headed Darra and flaxen-haired Catherine grow up in Kingston, Ontario, believing themselves to be sisters.The day comes when they have to leave the convent and go into service, for without a family, it is necessary that they earn a living. Catherine composed and bookish, and tempestuous Darra, step into a world of dangers and temptations for which their religious upbringing has left them totally unprepared. As unprotected girls in a barely settled country, they are on a knife-edge between survival and destitution and it is this that makes their adventures such compulsive reading.The Canada of the 1850s, is wonderfully evoked, with its stark contrasts of lawlessness and...