Rachel comes within the day, and he returns her to her grandfather, telling him the truth, which they have already suspected. Grumbloch, gives Rachel his address and tells her to come in an emergency. In scorn of his son, the grandfather sends them away, but his trusty solicitor, Mr. Just as things begin to get better, the Pritchards' unveil their new plot, to take the grandfather's property when he dies. Rachel considers telling people of the Pritchards' lies on the ship, but she soon arrives in England and begins to develop a close relationship with her 'grandfather', who, like her, is very fond of birds. They persuade the reluctant Rachel to impersonate their daughter, sending her in Valerie's place to visit her dying grandfather in England, on the pretext that it will save his life. After Rachel's father dies and it looks as if the hospital will be closed, Rachel is taken in by the Pritchards. The Pritchards, arrogant and extremely rich people who live nearby, bring their daughter Valerie to the hospital, but it is too late to save her.

Many die from the sickness, including her mother and father. Life goes haywire as an influenza epidemic strikes when Rachel is 13, in 1919.

Her father is a doctor and her mother a teacher. Rachel Sheridan is the only child of British missionaries working among the Kikuyu and Masai tribes of British East Africa (present-day Kenya). Set in 1919, it concerns an orphaned girl who becomes involved in an inheritance swindle. Listening for Lions is a children's novel by Gloria Whelan, first published in 2005.

Listening for Lions by Gloria Whelan