Trust Me

Lesley Pearse wrote another goody in this story of two sisters. Dulcie Taylor, and May her younger sister were raised in an orphanage by nuns who were as cruel as it gets. They were sent there from the time they were very young because their father murdered their mother and was sent to prison. Dulcie was the more sensitive sister, and May the more charming one, knew how to work the nuns to get her way. When they were sent to Austrailia to another orphanage, knowing it would be better there, it was anything but that. The nuns worked the girls like slaves, and the least little incidents were very severely punished. May was the favored one, but there were secrets there no one knew about until much later. Dulcie found jobs much later when she was old enough to leave the orphanage. She was treated shamefully in her first job as servant to the Masters, and finally after about 2 years could stand it no longer. From there she found a loving family who loved her like one of their daughters. It was at that time she met Ross, a boy who also grew up in an orphanage and was very embittered by that. The two of them got married eventually, but it was not a good thing. Dulcie connects with where May is when a letter arrives. Feeling she must find her sister, she leaves for Sydney, and finds that May has turned to a life of prostitution and stealing, which she had done all along. And another shocking thing was that May had had a baby she couldn't take care of. So when Dulcie finds the terrible state of neglect the child, Noel, was in, she manages to take him into her care. The child's father Rudie gets custody of Noel, and eventually, he and Dulcie fall in love and the chips will fall where they may there. The book is a bit lengthy and has many details. It is impossible to go into each one of them here, so I have mainly summarized the story. It is very worthwhile reading, and Pearse is one of the best!