Empire Summary

It is October 1854. Jane Shockley is leaving Sarum and is waiting for the train. She wants to serve as a nurse but is rejected by Florence Nightingale. She must train at a hospital first. Jane is twenty-three, and both her parents and grandfather are dead. She inherited from them and has no financial worries. Her brother invites her to visit his family in India but she decides on nursing and begins writing letters to hospitals.

Joseph Porter calls on her. He is an engineer who is working on Salisbury's drains. They discuss the Chartist movement of one man, one vote and the reform movement. He asks for her hand but she says she is determined to be a nurse. But her plans are altered when her uncle returns home from Africa.

By 1861, Salisbury is a rail hub. Jane teaches school and spends the...