A Kiss and a Promise [antikvár]

Michael Gallagher is an Irish seaman, fighting with the Royal Navy. He comes ashore in Liverpool when his ship needs repairs and meets lovely young Stella Bennett on the quayside, searching for her lost kitten. The young couple fall in love and want to marry but the Bennetts have other plans for Stella and when she gives birth to a baby, Ginny, Michael is dismayed by the child's ginger hair and convinced she is not his. He returns to Ireland, leaving the slovenly Granny Bennett to rear Ginny. The child accepts her lot, expecting little from life but knows that, in order to escape from the slums, she must attend school. Granny Bennett prefers Ginny to skivvy for her, but when a sympathetic teacher, Mabel Derbyshire, comes into her life, Ginny decides she must better herself and the obvious way to do so is to find her father...