The Foundling by Stacey Halls

 This was so amazing that I couldn't put it down and read most of it in a day! This is a beautiful piece of historical fiction, very evocative of the times.

When Bess finds out she is pregnant and the father has died, she realises that she cannot keep the baby. Heartbroken, she leaves her child at the Foundling Hospital in London and vows she will retrieve her as soon as she can. She leaves her with a token - half a heart made of whalebone - all she has of the child's father.

Six years later, full of trepidation, she goes back to the Foundling Hospital with money saved up to regain her child. She is sick with fear that her daughter may have died in the interim. However, when she arrives at the Hospital, she is shocked to find that the daughter she gave up was apparently claimed the day after she was left, and apparently by her!

When Bess has collected her thoughts she goes back to the Hospital to find someone who can solve mystery, perhaps someone who can remember the person who took her daughter, and there meets Doctor Mead, a very kindly young Doctor - grandson of the Doctor Mead who started the Foundling Hospital.

Meanwhile on the more affluent side of town lives a young widow who is a good friend of Doctor Mead. She has lost both her parents and husband and is so traumatised that she rarely goes out except to Church once a week with her daughter. Doctor Mead suggests that she should employ a nursemaid for her daughter to give her more freedom and someone else to talk to besides the servers.

The subsequent repercussions affect all their lives, and make for extremely compelling reading. I haven't read The Familiars, by this author, but will now make a point of it.