No ocean too wide : a novel

Summary: Between the years of 1869 to 1939 more than one hundred thousand impoverished British children were sent across the ocean to Canada with the promise of a better life. Those who took them in to work as farm laborers or household servants were told they were orphans -- but was that the truth? After the tragic loss of their father, the McAlister family at the edge of the poorhouse in London in 1909, leaving their mother to scrape by for her three younger children, while the oldest daughter, Laura, works on a large estate more than an hour away. When their mother falls gravely ill and is hospitalized, twins Katie and Garth and seven-year-old Grace are forced into an orphans' home before Laura is notified about her family's situation. With British children being sent to Canada, whether truly orphans or not, Laura knows she must act quickly. But finding her siblings and taking care of her family may cost her everything. Andrew Frasier, a wealthy young British lawyer and heir to the estate where Laura is in service, discovers that this common practice of finding new homes for penniless children might not be all that it seems. Together Laura and Andrew form an unlikely partnership--