title: Bonnets and Aprons
author: Williamson, Kerri Bennett
description: Upon the sudden death of her mother, nineteenth century Fionna ardently endeavors to fill that honored role for her younger siblings. When their father remarries, tentative hopes that their father's new wife will come to benefit their family with added happiness, are trampled by the harsh reality of their bitter stepmother's selfishness and their father's continuing indifference. Sacrificing her own romantic prospects for the greater good of her younger siblings, Fionna struggles to guide her sometimes imprudent sisters towards better matches than their vain flirtations might secure them. As time and circumstances pass, Fionna stoically resigns herself to life as a spinster, as her younger sisters begin to marry off and move away one by one. Fionna ultimately fears that her selfless dedication to her brothers and sisters may have forever closed the door to a future with the one man she ever loved.