Book description
Craven Bay lay on the beautiful Welsh coast. But behind the beauty of the green-covered headlands lay the gaunt features of the mining industry. The mines gave work to the majority of men who lived there – and fortunes to the lucky new.
Orphan Alys Hughes gathered cockles from the sea and beaches, and sold them at the quay, to supplement the few paltry shillings her stepfather earned and spent in the pub each week. She was riding her donkey across the golden sands one bright summer’s day, when artist Marcus Dillon saw her and was transfixed by her grace and vulnerability. Persuading the reluctant Alys to become his model, Marcus found his feelings towards the girl, at first strictly businesslike, gradually changing.
Life for Alys could never be the same after that summer. For it was then that she met Evan Jenkins, the son of a wealthy pit owner. The pair of them fell deeply in love, meeting in secret. But Evan did not have the strength of character to stand up to his dominating father and Thomas Jenkins was determined to remove his son from the clutches of this cockleshell girl…
