Lucy Baxter is at the forefront of this standalone novella. She imagines she is simply going to take up the position of a companion to a young Victorian girl in genteel London but very quickly, events move out of her control, and Lucy finds herself on a journey she could not have imagined. She is shocked to find herself face to face with the horrors of the Crimean war and meets both Florence Nightingale and the Jamaican nurse, Mary Seacole. Separated from her brothers, Lucy is forced to make decisions based only on her own moral code and hope they will lead her to safety and success.