The Unborn Dreams of Clara Riley Author:Kathy Page This is the haunting story of two very different women in Edwardian England who break the law, and outrage society. Clara Riley is working class, a washerwoman burdened with the memory of two children -- one abandoned, the other murdered -- whom she has sacrificed in the hope of retaining what little independence she has. Christina Audley Jones,... more » her wealthy employer, is a committed suffragist: but her work for the Cause and her support for Onward House, a home for young girls, must, at all cost, be kept secret from her husband. Her utopia is a grander one than Clara's, but it spurs her to similarly desperate rebellion. When Clara becomes pregnant again, it is Mrs Audley Jones who, defyinh the law, organises her abortion. Neither woman, however, counts on the burden of guilt which Clara's action brings with it, and when in an unguarded moment she breaks her silence, the full weight of the law -- and of society's opporbrium -- comes down on them. But both women refuse to have their spirits broken and , in very different ways, confront the merciless judgement and hypocrisy of husbands and courts, and the silencing of incarceration.« less