RATING: VERY GOOD
SPOILERS!!!
I have been totally captivated by this novel and all the characters. I really love this series.
The worst thing to happen is when Charles dies in action just a few weeks before the wedding. Before this happens, Diana feels she is being snubbed by his family. When she spends some time in London with Beth, she sends her card, but Lady Broughton just sends a message acknowledging that she has receives her notification. Then Rupert tells her mother that she plans to make Diana have a change of heart by introducing her to a friend, who is the son of a lord and very attractive. When Rupert runs into her and Beth, he is all smiles, and Diana wonders if he has had a change of heart. She thinks his friend is pleasant, but contrary to what Rupert thinks, she is in love with Charles.
Then the vicar comes to talk to Edward and Beattie because he has heard from the telephone exchange lady that Charles was wounded in action and died in hospital. Edward gets confirmation from the Wroughtons, and Diana is totally devastated.
David is training to be an officer, and during his training he meets Antonia Weston, who runs a nearby café, and they become friendly, but he is still smitten with his friend Oliphant's sister, Sophy, and he talks to Antonia openly when they meet. After his training he and Oliphant are to go to the front, and before that, they have leave to go home. Yet, to Beattie's dismay David decides to go to his friend's, where he plans to tell Sophy how he feels. When they are alone one evening, he asks her about the man she is supposed to be walking out with, and Sophy tells him that Humphrey is just a friend. Then David declares his love to her and asks her to marry him, and she accepts. I think that Sophy has just humoured him but she hasn't considered marriage seriously. Then when he is in France, David writes to both Antonia and Sophy. For Sophy his letters are full of gallanty and declarations of love, and he feels that he can write to Antonia more openly, and his letters to her are long and full of details. I have the hunch that David and Sophy won't marry.
Bobby, the second son, has also enlisted and is training to be an officer in Oxford. Beattie is not happy either, but she is not so worried about him as she is about David. She feels that Bobby has always been the lucky child, and no trouble has ever disturbed him. This optimism from Beattie worries me. When he goes to the front, he may not be so lucky as his mother thinks..
Another character that worries me is Edward. He may slip and betray his wife. Through his job at the bank he meets Elise de Rouveroy, a young French widown, who comes to him for advice about her finances. The woman only has her maid, Solange, but both her husband and stepson have been killed in the war. Elise thinks that she may have money from her husband, but Edward has some bad news for her because since the outbreak of the war the money she had is gone. The only thing to do is to sell her jewels, and Edward manages to do so. He visits her when he manages to sell the jewels, and in her little apartment they start to talk about their lives, and Edward seems to like her. Then they get to meet again several months later, and they have dinner together. When the bombs start falling in the area where Elise lives, Edward runs to her and is relieved to find her safe, and feeling afraid she embraces him and he hugs her back. From then on they meet regularly for dinner, and Edward tells himself that nothing is happening as they are friends, and these encounters could be with any of his clients, but the thing is that he hasn't told anyone about Elise at home. I am afraid that Edward may start an affair with this woman.
Sadie is still working with the horses at Mrs Cuthbert's, and she also volunteers at the war hospital that the old tuberculosis clinic has been turned into. She is a very sensible and determined girl, and she starts going to the hospital to read to Tom Piper, a young soldier who had one of his arms amputated, but she has a terrible blow when the soldier dies. The Sadie helps Diana leave her pain by asking to accompany her to the hospital to give the soldiers some company. The hospital committee think that it is a good thing Sadie and her sister are doing, and they ask for more volunteers, and some months later they organise a concert for the injured. That is how Ada, the housemaid, finds herself cooperating, and there she meets Corporal Armstrong, who seems to have fallen for her. When the concert finishes, she agrees to meet him, and when she tells Cook, the latter is disapproving, saying that she doesn't know anything about this man. Ada had been excited about having her own man, but now she has mixed feelings. The problem is that Cook doesn't like change, and she fears that Ada, who has been her mate for twenty years, may leave if she falls in love.
Ethel has also had some problems. During one of the voluntary activities for the work effort in the village she meets Eric, who works on the railway and intends to be a train driver. They start to walk out together, and Eric is good to her, but she is still unsure of any man who comes to her. When he passes his exams to be a train driver, he starts working in London. So one day he asks her to come after his shift to see a film. They see the film and have lunch, and when he is walking her to Livepool Street Station, the zepelins bomb the city, and as they hit a bus, the debris strikes Ada and Eric. Ada is injured but alive, but Eric dies. Ethel is rescued by Laura, who was patrolling, and she makes sure that she goes back to the Elms. Ethel is devastated to learn that Eric, who was a good man, has died, and she feels that his death has changed her.
And Jack is injured in Ypres and spends some time in a hospital. He writes to Beth, telling him that he is fine. When he comes home on leave, Beth realises that her husband is a changed man and wonders if old Jack will ever come back. After his leave, Jack returns to the front to fight again.
I really loved this book, and I am just dying to know what happens to all these characters next. I am still hoping that Charles is alive and there has been some misunderstanding about his identity.
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