Tilda is an important supporting character whose experience of the war provides an alternative and contrast to Peggy’s. Tilda is an actress and a suffragette, a flamboyant, independent, confident woman who had a close relationship with Helen, the girls’ mother. After Helen’s death, Tilda came to help the girls grieve and learn how to go on, and she continues to play the role of mentor and friend.

Tilda puts on the front of a brave and insouciant attitude, trying to hide her hurt behind sarcasm or indifference, but she is emotionally perceptive and feels things deeply. The injuries she witnesses and the emotional toll of nursing weigh heavily on her, and she seeks support from her friend Iso as well as the German doctor, Hugo, whom she comes to love. Tilda tries to be practical about giving Peggy advice, but she is also the voice of wisdom when Peggy needs it. Tilda is another example of someone who—much like Jack or Bastiaan—survives the war, but is permanently scarred by it. The loss of her brother Bill affects her deeply, showing the impact of war and trauma and the ways people recover and survive.

Maude, as Peggy’s twin, is an important supporting character and a foil to Peggy. Maude shows qualities that would, in modern terms, place her on the autism spectrum. She is intelligent and perceptive to the emotions of people around her, but she communicates largely through a type of echolalia, in which she repeats fragments of speech she has overheard at different times. Peggy thinks, “My sister had a simplicity that unnerved people, an honesty that made them uncomfortable. It suited most to think that her words were nothing more than sounds bouncing off the walls of an empty room. It suited them to think she was feeble-minded” (180).

Maude’s directness makes her a quiet mirror for the turmoil going on around her. Her ability to be still and focus on one task for long periods of time suits her for work at the bindery, unless she loses direction and starts making her own folds on the book pages. She takes comfort in the act of folding, which might be considered a version of perseveration, as she can engage in this activity for hours. This ability for precise, focused attention and a love of order make Maude a good librarian for the books on Calliope and as a helper to Miss Garnell. After the traumatizing experiences as a result of the war, Tilda, Lotte, and Jack all take comfort in Maude’s steadiness and quiet.

Maude’s experience of kissing the strange man at the bridge provides a parallel to Peggy’s deepening intimacy with Bastiaan, and Maude’s increasing independence over the course of the book bears out the truth of the observations that Tilda shares: Their mother feared Peggy had so attached and defined herself by Maude that she might not let either of them grow and mature to their full potential. Lotte’s teaching Maude to cook and make tea with the help of simple songs shows that Maude could potentially live independently, while Jack’s individual letters to Maude from the front also suggest that Maude might develop her own romantic relationship. Maude emerges to be more fully herself over the course of the novel, and her self-acceptance provides a lesson and model to Peggy, who has had a more difficult time individuating from her twin.

Lotte is a secondary character who becomes a mentor to Peggy, providing a reflection of loss and grief. She also has a relationship with Maude that Peggy doesn’t have. Lotte’s ability to nurture Maude at first shames Peggy, who wishes for more freedom and to have activities of her own, like volunteering at the hospital.

Lotte enters the book as an early indicator of the horrors of war: She is Belgian, a survivor of the German army’s attack on the city of Louvain (present-day Leuven), but she has lost everything—her home, her possessions, her post at the University library, and, most significantly, her son, Réné, who was around 12 years old at the time he was killed and who was like Maude in that he manifested indications of autism.

Lotte is a kind of warning to Peggy also, a reminder to be grateful for what she has, as it could be easily taken away, but Lotte’s ability to nurture Maude, like cooking for her or teaching her how to cook, also represents nurturing skills Peggy doesn’t see herself as having. In the last section, Lotte’s ambiguous actions toward Mrs. Hillbrook, the woman who has just lost a son, indicate that Lotte has been so deeply traumatized by her loss that she is unlikely to recover. Her death is both a kind of justice, a deliverance, and an example of the lasting scars of the war.

Guinevere Hertha Artemisia Jane Lumley is Peggy’s friend and mentor, and occasional antagonist, all at different times. Gwen is around Peggy’s age but from a completely different world where her family has property, money, and status. For all that Peggy resents the opportunities that have been handed to Gwen, and that Gwen should be so casual about them, Gwen shows herself to be a sincere and devoted friend. She befriends Peggy at once as a fellow hospital volunteer, and not in a condescending way but because Gwen, a confident and good-natured person, is sincerely interested in being a confidante and friend.

It is Peggy who feels disgruntled when she thinks Gwen has turned her into a good case, but Gwen simply behaves as a well-meaning friend, helping Peggy pursue her goals, making connections and finding allies, and providing encouragement as well as the occasional diversion when Peggy is working too hard. Gwen never judges Peggy for her work or her lifestyle, and she never scolds Peggy for her occasional bursts of temper, either. She is a steady, cheerful, good-humored constant in Peggy’s life—somewhat like Maude.

Gwen undergoes her own sort of maturing when she finally, upon graduation and being granted her degree, realizes what she wants to do with her skills and talents. Gwen provides an example of what Peggy could have and could be if she refused to dwell on the barriers that have been placed before her.