RATING: GOOD
SPOILERS!!!
Judith gets two surprised on the same day. Her boss tells him about a request from her superiors to give a hand, welcoming a ship full of former prisoners of wars. It is here that she sees a man and reallises that it is Gus. He is not dead, and he tells her that after the Japanese invaded Singapore he was captured. They talk about everything, and he eventually asks about Loveday, and Judith has to tell him that she is married as she thought that he was dead. Gus is bitterly disappointed and tells her that he will go back to Aberdeen. His parents are dead, but he will manage. Judith says that she will write and when the pain of losing Loveday fades, he needs to visit.
When Judith returns home, Uncle Bob is eager to talk to her. He tells her that he has been contacted because contrary to what they had believed, Jess is alive. She survived and has been living at a camp in Burma,, and she is arriving in Colombo the following day. Judith is nervous to see her sister for the first time after so many years. Jess is now fourteen, and she is thin but looks fine. Judith gets a letter from Ruth, the Australian woman who has been looking after Jess. In the letter Ruth tells her how she and Jess manages to board a boat, and then in Jakarta they pretended to be sisters, and she is very fond of Jess. At the end of the letter Ruth asks Judith to let Jess visit her in Australia when she is older, and Judith tells Jess about it and how she thinks it is a good idea. When she is seventeen, she could do it.
Judith and Jess return home in Cornwall. Jess remembers Phyllis and is happy to see her. Biddy leaves for Devon as she has bought a house in Cornwall, and now she needs to sell the one she has in Devon, but she promises to return for Christmas. Judith and Jess also visit the Carey-Lewises, who are pleased to see them. Loveday's boy is three and he is very naughty, but Loveday says that he adores him. It is then that Judith tells Loveday about Gus, and Loveday is clearly upset that she had betrayed the person she loved.
Judith talks to her former teacher, Miss Catto, about Jess going to school at St Ursula, and they decide that she should be a full boarder. When they visit, Jess makes friends with a student, and when Jess starts school, she has already someone there. The day Judith leaves Jess, she is more upset than her sister. Then she decides to drop in at Loveday's. Judith can tell that Loveday's life is very different to what she was used to when growing up. The cottage is small and in disarray. Loveday tells Judith that things between her and Walter are not good, and he has a lady friend. When she confronted him about it, he complained that he would not have anyone tell him who he sees, and Loveday was a disappointment as a wife. Judith is shocked that this is happening to her friend, and Loveday makes her promise not to tell her parents.
In December Rupert is in London when he sees Gus. He discovers that Gus is living in a poky apartment that someone has let him use, and he tells him that his father's fortune is gone after the war. Rupert tells him that he should come with him to Gloucestershire or to Cornwall with Judith, but Gus refuses. Then Rupert calls Judith to tell him about the encounter, and he thinks she could be the one to persuade Gus to go to Cornwall. Judith agrees to go but realises that the next day Diana had organised a homecoming dinner for Jeremy, but Judith knows that this is more important. When she goes to London, Gus is surprised to see her, and he says that he got his letters but didn't know how to reply. After a lot of discussion, Gus agrees to come to Cornwall and stay there for a while.
One morning Loveday realises that her husband hasn't come home, and she makes the decision to leave him. So she wraps Nat in layers and walks to the house where the butler helps her. Nettlebed tells her that he did see Walter with his fancy woman in the bar. Loveday says that she needs to be on her own, and she decides to walk to the cove while Mrs Nettlebed looks after Nat. In the cove she runs into Gus, and they start to talk.
Nettlebed gets alarmed when Loveday has not returned at breakfast time, and he tells Diana and Edgar about it, and they are both shocked to learn about Walter's betrayal. Diana tells Jeremy to go and see Judith because she may help find Loveday. Jeremy gets there, and then Loveday calls Judith from the Warrens. She tells her that her parents already know. She is at the Warrens with Gus, and he has decided to rent a studio in Penzance and stay there, and it is implied that Loveday will be with him, and Gus is happy with the idea of having Nat.
When Judith hangs up, Jeremy and she talk, and he wants to know why she did not write back, and Judith says that she never got a letter from him. Jeremy imagines that his letter may have been in one of the many torpedoed ships. Jeremy tells her how much he loves her and wants to marry him. Judith then says that she does not want to leave her house for Truro, and Jeremy says that he and a colleague have been talking about opening a surgery in Penzance and he could commute or stay there, and he also says that he has no problem with having Jess. So the novel ends happily despite the many losses.
I loved the novel but I have to say that some parts and characters did not add much to the storyline, and the novel could have been better if certain parts had been removed from the plot.
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