The second book in the Lovely Lane series, by Nadine Dorries.
Lily hates the sound of children playing — the ceaseless shouting and laughter and kicking of balls to and fro in the street outside the rough Liverpool tenement where she lives. Somehow those innocent voices seem to make a mockery of her existence — working in a dockside processing plant by day, caring for her younger siblings during her every hour off.
There is a boy who would like to court her, but Lily is too ashamed of where she lives to encourage him. And always she is haunted by fear for her sickly four-year-old brother, Joe. When tragedy strikes, will the nurses in St Angelus Hospital — otherwise known as the Angels of Lovely Lane — be able to save the day?