The Nanny 2 (Pages 34 - 136)

 SPOILERS!!!

The skull found on the island causes quite a turmoil in the village. Jo starts thinking if the skull could be Hannah's, and it is the first time she has stopped to consider that Hannah is dead. Virginia is very nervous and shaken, and she thinks it is a question of time that the truth comes out. She plans to confess the truth and then disappear forever. 

In the novel the parts of the present combine with chapters in the 1970s, and we learn about Linda, a young woman who flees from home and an abusive father, and she finds a job cleaning for a family and his children. She lives in a rented flat with another girl, Jeanne. Linda is smitten with her employers, and she envies the nanny as she would like to be in her position. Then one day when she is alone with Mrs Burgess, the lady of the house, the baby girl is sick and her mother seems unable to cope. The next day she goes to the house and learns that the baby is dead. The nanny tells her that Mr Burgess has had a terrible time as both his sister and daughter, who shared the same name, have died in a few months. The death certificates are on the table, and she remembers learning that when one wants to change her identity, the best way is to use the details of someone dead. Fearing that her father may come after her, she decides to leave and use Hannah Burgess's identity after she gets her birth certificate. Even though she wants to leave in secrecy, Jeanne finds out and tells her that she wants to leave with her.

The constable, Andy Wilton, is investigating, and he gets interested in an incident in the Holt household. During a hunting party a young man was shot, and there were enquiries for a witness, a woman who apparently saw Barry being shot, but the witness disappeared. For some reason Andy thinks this is important and connected to  the skull.

The thing that I didn't expect and surprises Virginia and Jocelyn is when a woman comes to the house and says that she is Hannah and is moving back to the village. She leaves her address, and Virginia can't understand who this woman is because she knows that Hannah is dead. That's why she goes to the cottage where Hannah lives. It is rough terrain, and Virginia stops to rest on a fallen treet branch. At some point she stands on the branch when she sees Hannah come out of the house, and Virginia falls and loses consciousness. Hannah's face appears before her, and when the ambulance arrives, she wants to say that she wants this woman away from her, but she can't. In the hospital she wakes up and through the door she sees Jocelyn and Hannah talk, and Virginia wants to warn her.

I have to say that Virginia's character intrigues me. The perspective we have through Jo makes Virginia appear as cold and unfeeling, but I think this point of view may not be as simple as that. I have the hunch that Hannah is not the ideal nanny Jo thought she was. And I am very curious to know if this woman who has turned up is Hannah, and if not, who is she? And if this is Hannah, who is dead? Whose is the skull?