Secrets of a Charmed Life

Emmy goes to the billeting offices with another WVS member to look for documents tracing Charlotte to Julia. She learns that Charlotte contacted Mrs. Howell and reported that her foster children Emmeline and Julia Downtree ran away on September 7. Nobody ever found the girls. The news devastates Emmy, and she walks back to Primrose Bridal. There, she hears bombs again and does not take cover, wanting them to take her life for failing to protect her sister. She falls asleep before waking up to the sensation of heat, the sight of fire, and someone knocking on the door, calling her Isabel. She believes that she has died and is in hell, and she imagines snakes taking her.

Days later, Emmy wakes up at Royal London Hospital with Mac at her side, who tells her that she has a fever. Emmy wants to go back to Primrose Bridal, but Mac says that the shop has been destroyed, along with every other building on the street. It turns out that he was the one knocking on the door; he originally went to the shop to take her to dinner, and he came in just in time to save her. He also retrieved her bag, for which she thanks him. Because Emmy no longer has a home, Mac asks where she could go. She realizes that Thistle House is still there, and she says she has an aunt in Gloucestershire. He offers to take her there, and she thanks him once again. He kisses her forehead and then her wrist before he leaves. She decides it is okay to be attracted to him because, unlike Emmy, Isabel is mature and wise.

The following day, Mac borrows a friend’s car to drive Emmy to Thistle House. While she stays with her aunt, Mac promises to continue looking for Julia in London and Emmy agrees to contact him. When they get there, Emmy tells Mac to drop her off, but he refuses in case her aunt might not welcome her back. Charlotte sees her through the window, however, and goes outside. Emmy gets out of the car, and she and Charlotte hug. Charlotte asks if she is okay, and Emmy says it is only her and that she does not know where Julia is. She then says her friend Mac drove her there. As Emmy is ill, Charlotte takes her inside, and Emmy points out that Mac thinks her name is Isabel. While Mac is out of the room, Emmy explains what happened. When Mac re-enters, they converse briefly until he leaves, giving Emmy a train ticket in case she decides to leave. Emmy thanks him again, and Charlotte permits him to visit in the future.

When he is gone, Emmy talks more about what happened and tearfully asks Charlotte to call her Isabel because the name Emmeline is too painful for her. Charlotte ultimately agrees and says that what happened was not Emmy’s fault. Emmy disagrees and says that she is 18. Charlotte believes they must help and support each other no matter what their name or age is. She accepts Emmy’s change in identity with the following conditions: She must allow Charlotte to report Emmy’s return and Julia’s disappearance, she must go to school, and she must never run away without talking to her again. Emmy agrees and thanks her.

Emmy is diagnosed with pneumonia and convalesces for much of November. Charlotte has her read books while she recovers and says she will have Emmy catch up with other subjects after the holidays. Once Emmy recovers enough, she lives as Isabel, a refugee helping Charlotte take care of Rose; she uses this identity when she does errands and attends appointments in Moreton-in-Marsh. Charlotte asks her if she would be fine with other evacuees staying in Thistle House, and Emmy approves. She then moves into the yellow room. Emmy wonders if the brides box is in the crawl space and considers destroying the sketches as payment for her abandonment of Julia. However, she fails to find them. Soon, she feels relieved that they were kept from her, so she did not have to enact that punishment on herself.

In early December, two evacuees, brothers Hugh and Philip Goodsell, come to stay at Thistle House after their flat was bombed. They quickly bond and sympathize with Emmy, due to her experience of losing her home and her mother in the war. For Christmas, they all decide to give each other presents they made. Emmy, who does not want to return to sewing, starts painting.

On Christmas Day, Emmy and Mac walk outside, and he reveals he has not learned anything yet about Julia. He starts asking about Emmy’s father, and she combines her mostly unknown father with Neville. She feels there is no use in thinking about him too much. They ask each other what they each want to do for the rest of their lives. Emmy does not know, but Mac says he wants to move back to Minneapolis or Saint Paul after the war, buy a radio station, marry, start a family, and retire early. Emmy notes that just because he wants something does not mean he will have it. However, he says one must know what they want if they want to seek it. To herself, Emmy thinks that trying too hard to get what one wants can cause horrible sorrow. Mac invites Emmy to a New Year’s party in Oxford with him, and she accepts. However, London is bombed again, and Mac does not respond until a few days later, when 1941 has already started.

Over the following years, Emmy, Charlotte, Hugh, and Philip set a routine of working in the victory garden and managing rations. Mac reveals his romantic feelings for Emmy, and while she feels attracted to him, she does not feel comfortable being with him; she sees herself as an imposter and cannot imagine leaving the Cotswolds. They agree to stay friends, but their connection fades as the war starts coming to an end. In February 1945, Emmy receives a letter from Mrs. Howell revealing she has an inheritance of 30,000 pounds from her father Henry Thorne.

Emmy decides to go collect her inheritance, not for the money, but so she can find answers about her father, who she just now found out knew about her. There, she talks to the lawyer Mr. Bowker. He gives her the inheritance check and tries to send her away. She refuses to leave, insisting that Mr. Bowker give her answers about her father. After receiving a phone call, he tells her to stay and wait for a car to take her to see Mrs. Thorne, Henry Thorne’s wife, who did not know about Emmy’s existence till the news of the inheritance. Mr. Bowker informs Emmy that her father died while holding her mother at the Sharington Crescent Hotel on September 8, 1940.

Emmy tries to deny it, but she realizes her mother had a secret relationship with her father the whole time. Before Emmy is driven away, Mr. Bowker says her mother was a maid who worked for Henry Thorne. He was unhappily married and impregnated her before agreeing to support her and Emmy. When she arrives at the Thorne mansion, she sees a picture of him with his wife and son. Mrs. Agnes Thorne enters the room and accuses Emmy of trying to get money from them. Emmy says she only wants answers about her father, but Mrs. Thorne discovered her husband was spending money on Annie and Emmy and believes Emmy knew about this all along. Emmy insists otherwise, sympathizing with her, but Mrs. Thorne tells her she is lying. Her and Henry’s son Colin enters and says his father wanted that money to go to Emmy. Realizing the trouble the inheritance has caused, Emmy gives Colin the check, despite his protests, and leaves.

Too distraught by her meeting with Mrs. Thorne to return to Thistle House, Emmy asks the driver to take her to the Savoy. There, she sees Mac and embraces him before bursting into tears. When he asks her what is wrong, she only tells him she had a bad day. To cheer her up, he takes her to dinner, and they dance together. They then go to bed at the hotel, with him promising to sleep on the floor. However, she has a nightmare about being crushed at the Sharington Crescent Hotel and seeing Julia’s body bloodied like that of the man she saw on the second day of the Blitz. She wakes up screaming, and Mac comforts her by kissing her. He then apologizes, but she initiates sex with him. The following morning, Mac tells Isabel to marry him and asks if she loves him. She does, but she is afraid to be happy. She tells him she is not ready to think about the future. He takes her back to the train, and she returns to Thistle House. When she learns she is pregnant, however, Charlotte encourages her to tell Mac and to allow herself the chance to be happy. She decides to leave the pain of her life as Emmy behind and marries Mac in May. In July, they move to America.

Kendra, knowing now that Isabel is Emmy Downtree, asks her what brought her back to England and Thistle House. Isabel says that God led her back. She realizes now that people are not always completely responsible for the things that happen in their lives. When Kendra asks who else knows about her true identity, she says Beryl and her daughter, Gwen, know. Kendra remembers learning that Isabel went with Gwen to England in 1958.

Isabel says that she and Mac were happy for a long time. After Mac failed to achieve his broadcasting goal, he started a children’s book series, while Isabel created watercolor paintings at her art studio. She did not keep in touch with Charlotte and Rose much because it was too difficult for her. However, in April 1958, she received a letter from Charlotte. In it, Charlotte revealed that she was dying but wished to leave Thistle House to Emmy, as she was like a daughter to her. Charlotte understood the difficulty Emmy had with the blending of her life as both Emmy and Isabel, and she wanted to give her space. She also revealed the cause of Rose’s injury: Rose had decided to swim alone, and Charlotte had not gone with her because she was angry at her. Charlotte blamed herself for what happened for years. She hoped that Emmy would forgive herself and that the house would give her peace.

Isabel reveals Mac saw the letter, and that is when she told him the truth. He did not talk to her for weeks, feeling hurt that she did not trust him. Isabel visited Thistle House with Gwen while figuring out the future in their marriage, but Mac joined them later. Isabel reveals she stayed not only because of Charlotte’s letter, but because of another twist of fate.