for both her fiancé and her brother and is regarded by society as unlikely to marry given the ratio of men to women. But she resolves not to subside graciously into spinsterhood. On discovering a special service in Winchester Cathedral, she falls in with the broderers, a group of women charged with embroidering kneelers and cushions. They are led by the formidable Louisa Pesel and in them Violet discovers the community and companionship she never got at home.