Secrets of a Charmed Life

Emmy panics when she realizes that Julia had switched the brides box with the fairy-tale book back at Thistle House. In her meeting with Mrs. Crofton, Graham, and Graham’s wife, Madeleine, Graham mentions her asserted desire to open her own boutique, which Emmy confirms. When he asks when Emmy’s mother will be there, Emmy says that she is working but treats her like an adult and will be there in the future. Graham is not persuaded; Emmy is 15 and needs her mother’s permission for him and Madeleine to take her in. He admits that he is impressed by Emmy’s two sketches, and that she shows promise despite not being formally trained and having no sewing experience. He wants to take her to his wife’s estate in Edinburgh on Tuesday to learn how to create the costumes for La Boheme. After he asks to see the rest of her sketches, Emmy confesses the truth about her sister’s plan to keep the two of them together and asks Graham to give her a few days to retrieve the brides box. Graham expresses concern but allows her till Tuesday to retrieve it. Emmy says she can get it back from Gloucestershire and give it to him on Monday at four with her mother present. She thanks him for giving her another chance, and Mrs. Crofton tells her to make sure she gets the sketches and brings her mother there with her on Monday. She also tells her she will always be welcome at Primrose Bridal.

Emmy rushes to Mrs. Billingsley’s house to find her mother when she gets off work. She recalls going there once before at the previous year’s Christmas party on Boxing Day, with her mother and her attending as guests. When she reaches the door, Gladys opens but reveals that Annie had left an hour ago. Before Gladys can continue their conversation, the air sirens start wailing, and the Luftwaffe starts dropping bombs. Though Gladys begs her to take shelter in the cellar under the house, Emmy goes to the train station to get back to the flat. She feels relieved that her mother left because she will have come home to Julia. While waiting for a train underground, bombs continue, and she begins a brief conversation with a woman, Mrs. Grote, who is taking shelter with her dog. She soon leaves, and, after the explosions and sirens stop, she goes above ground to look for her mother and Julia. However, the sirens start again and an explosion occurs nearby. This causes her to fall and hit her head on a brick, at which point she loses consciousness.

Emmy wakes up in a basement under Saint Paul’s Church, which is being used as a bomb shelter. A woman is tending to her and informs her that the day has not passed yet. Emmy gives the woman her name and says she must go back, but the woman says Emmy hit her head and that it is too dangerous for her to leave. In response to Emmy’s thirst, the woman gives her water before telling her to rest. Emmy sleeps until the following day, when she goes out to find her mother and Julia. At the flat, her mother arrives and is surprised to see her in London. Equally surprised, Emmy says she thought her mother came home already and got Julia. Her mother asks her where Julia is, and Emmy asks her why she did not come home after leaving work at four. They both become upset, and a man who lives on their street asks what is wrong. When Emmy asks him if he saw Thea or Julia, he replies that he has not seen Julia, and that Thea and her mother left for Wales a few days before. He also says no children were in the shelter other than a mother with her infant. Emmy goes outside and calls for Julia while her mother follows her, asking what she has done.

Emmy and her mother go to the crowded police station to look for Julia. There, Emmy learns that her mother did not return home the previous day because she had an appointment. The police officers express displeasure at neither one being at home with Julia. They look at the hospital and all throughout their house, and they ask offices around London, but nobody has seen Julia. They also try to find out if Julia was taken to her school to be re-evacuated, but they learn that the school was one of the many buildings destroyed.

After Emmy tells her mother why she returned to London, her mother stops talking to her. They return to the flat, and Emmy once again apologizes to her mother for what happened. Her mother is frustrated and disappointed. Emmy explains that she only wanted her mother to be proud of her, but Annie says Emmy did it because she was ashamed of her, which Emmy denies. Annie puts on a nice gray dress and plans to look more for Julia. Emmy tells her not to go, assuming her mother is going to provide sexual services in exchange for information about Julia. She offers to go and provide them instead of her, saying it was her fault. Her mother puts her hand on Emmy’s face and tells her it was not her fault, but hers, and that she must make it right. Her mother tells Emmy to wait at the flat and to cover the broken windows, then she leaves.

Emmy boards up the windows and cleans up the shattered glass in the flat before going into Thea’s house. She boards up the windows there, too, and eats some of the food Thea left. While Emmy waits for her mother, the Luftwaffe returns, forcing Emmy to go into Thea’s bomb shelter. She continues this routine until Wednesday, though her mother and Julia still have not returned. After taking some food with her, she goes back to the police station and asks about Julia again. When the policeman is unable to help her, they both become frustrated; he says she is a child and tells her to return with her mother. A woman who is also waiting there advises Emmy to check an Incident Inquiry Point (IIP) for casualty listings. Emmy goes to one of the IIPs and finds her mother’s name on the casualty listing.

Emmy goes to a school that is being used as a morgue for people to claim their dead loved ones. There, Emmy realizes that she needs to say she is older than she is; otherwise, if the authorities know her mother is dead, she will be put in a foster home. In addition, she decides that she must grow up so that she can find Julia and take care of her. She tells the official that she is 18, and that she is there to claim her mother’s body. The man tells her that Annie’s body has already been taken and buried in a proper grave. He also says that she was in the Sharington Crescent Hotel when it was bombed. Everyone there was killed, including those in the basement. When a woman there recognizes Emmy as Annie’s daughter, she says she was visiting with her foster mother, whom she had asked to stay outside before going to give her sister medication. Emmy goes to the flat to collect some belongings of hers, her mother’s, and Julia’s, as well as the food from Thea’s house and the hammer she had been using while boarding up the windows. She decides to stay at Primrose Bridal, and when she arrives, she is relieved to discover that it is still there.

Emmy uses the backdoor key to enter Primrose Bridal and stays in the alterations room. She pours herself tea, eats marmalade and bread, washes her body, and changes into some of her mother’s clothes, since she has no pajamas to wear. When she uses her mom’s hairbrush, she starts to think deeply about her mother’s death and begins to mourn her. She then remembers the Brighton Beach trip. Nearby, the Luftwaffe starts dropping bombs again, and Emmy uses bridal gowns from the store to cover her while under the sewing machine.

The following morning, she looks at Mrs. Crofton’s private papers, including her daughter Isabel’s birth and death certificates, and sees a letter to Mrs. Talmage from Sunday. In it, Mrs. Crofton explains that she will be closing the shop and leaving with Graham and his wife to Edinburgh. Seeing that Mrs. Crofton’s suitcase is still there, Emmy hopes Mrs. Crofton and Graham might not have left yet, but because it is already Thursday, she realizes that Mrs. Crofton either left her luggage there in a hurry or was killed. She considers going to the IIP again to check the casualty listings, but she is not ready to deal with the possibility of her death. She hopes that after finding Julia, she will be able to train with Graham, but she knows she must figure out a way to survive on her own now as she looks for Julia. She decides to volunteer with the Women’s Volunteer Service and looks at Isabel’s birth certificate.