Ancestral Virgins

'What has possessed her to try to shake Lady Celia’s hand? Shouldn’t she have curtseyed? Do women still curtsey? May’s been away for so long now, she’s got city ways. She tries to hide her surprise as Lady Celia takes her proffered hand. Close up, she’s as sleek as a seal in her houndstooth suit and hat that fits close to her head like a helmet. There’s something intense about her stance as she holds the long stick of her cigarette between two fingers. What made her breach the close, dead air of the waiting room to speak to two anxious, hungry strangers fraying at the seams?'In the final volume of Ancestral Virgins, in the aftermath of war, the lives of Celia Ingham and May Hallam draw closer together as both bear the weight of a shocking family secret. Celia is struggling to accept the death of the only man she can ever love, and May is desperate to find her sister Lily, who has disappeared after becoming pregnant with her employer’s child. As Celia and May each go in search of what they need to feel whole, they meet face to face in a railway station waiting room. By the time the train departs, one must reconcile herself to a troubling and unwelcome truth, while the other is on her way to a new life with an unexpected infusion of hope.   Ancestral Virgins will appeal to fans of Sarah Waters and Kate Atkinson and to anyone enthralled by period dramas in film and television.  6