RATING: VERY GOOD
SPOILERS!!!
I am so sorry to have to say goodbye to this series and these wonderful characters.
At the end of the book things change for almost everybody in the book.
William and Beattie finally find the common ground, and Beattie realises that she has finally let Louis go. Then there is a turning point for everybody when Edward is given a baroncy and a job in the government. That means that he will have to work many long hours in Whitehall, so he and Beattie think that the best thing will be to sell the Elms and move to London.
This means changes in the household. David has realisd that banking is not his thing, and after talking to Christophere Beresford, he decides to work in politics and Beresford suggests he become his assistant, which will be a first step to be an active politician himself.
David's stint as a passenger pilot comes to an end when his boss can't keep him as there are not many passenger flying to Birmingham. However, when he is visiting his old plane factory, he meets another company owner, and he hires him to pilot his planes taking people and goods to Paris.
Peter doesn't want to go to a London school as all his friends are in his present school, so Beattie and Edward suggest he board during the week and go to London at the weekend. Peter is delighted about the idea.
Diana and Guy get closer, and unexpectedly he proposes to her, and they get married. This time Diana does not have doubts about loving the man he marries.
Sadie is very sad, and the move to London means that she can't keep working at Highclere. The work they did during the war is over, and Mrs Cuthbert has turned the place into a shelter for sick horses, and following Sadie's suggestion she decides to create a charity to fund the place. Sadie is sad to go, but while she and Diana look for a house for her parents, Sadie proves to have an eye for decorating, and the woman who shows the houses offers her a job as a decorator, and this is going to be her new career. Sadie is sad to leave Nails behind, but she reasons that the dog, used to run in the fields, may not settle in London and may run into the house. So Munt, who will stay as a gardener for the new family, tells him to leave Nails with him.
Laura has also returned to London with Jim, and they are now married. He has a job in a hospital and Laura also works there as an almoner.
The move to London means that Beattie has to find new staff as none of the servants go to London. Ethel finally get married to Frank Hussey. When she runs into him one day, he tells her that he has been ill in hospital with the Spanish flu, and that is why he stopped going to the house. Frank still wants to marry her, but Ethel says she can't. In the end, he manages to get the truth from her, and he makes her see that her origins are not her fault. So they finally marry, which is a nice note.
Cook and Ada talk about getting a house together and have some paying guests. Cook and Fred went their separate ways because he came, rushing her to go to Australia with him, and she panicked and sent him packing. So Cook and Ada talk, and with her widow pension and Cook's pension they could live independently and have paying guests. This is something they come up with because Cook can't see herself in London, in a new house, with new servants. Then Fred appears, saying that he behaved badly towards him, and after they quarrelled, he got drunk and lost all his savings. So he got a job at a butcher's, and now he has the money to buy a new passage to Australia, and he still wants to marry Cook. Ada persuades her to say yes, because she knows Cook loves Fred. And then Cook says that she will marry Fred, if Ada can come to Australia with them, and that way she will have a friend there. Fred thinks it is a brilliant idea, and he says that they will open a butcher, and Ada can invest in it and help in the shop. So Fred and Cook marry, and the three leave England for a new life in Australia.
And at the end of the book Edward and Beattie are getting settled in their new life in London. Diana has married again, and Edward gets an unexpected surprise when Beattie tells him that she is pregnant again.
I really loved the series, and I am so sorry that it has finished. I hope that the author retakes the characters in the future.
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