The novel’s opening scene emphasizes the generational trauma that exists within the walls of Poole Manor, as each of manor’s past inhabitants re-enact their deaths. As Chapter 1 begins, “The dead [fill] the manor, but not as the spirits Sonya ha[s] grown used to, even fond of. They [fill] it now with blood and broken bodies, with agony and despair. She [feels] their pain and their fear as her own” (6). This scene emphasizes how the pain and trauma of the past impact the present. Sonya can only secure a different future for the house by facing that trauma head on rather than attempting to ignore or erase it. Her work centers on reclamation. Across the novel, she reshapes the rooms marked by loss into spaces that respect the past and honor those who have lived there.

Roberts uses the device of the magical mirror to give Sonya access to the manor’s past. Connecting to the past inhabitants’ lives motivates her to honor their legacy. The scenes she experiences through the mirror allow her to experience Lisbeth’s joy during her engagement, as well as the abrupt chill of Dobbs’s presence. She’s able to converse with Catherine on her wedding night and hear her perspective on her fate. Catherine confides in Sonya just as freely as she does with her mother, emphasizing their shared familial connection. Catherine tells Sonya, “For this day, this night, for the first time in my life I felt beautiful. I found the joy my mother hoped for me […] For a few hours I knew desire, and what it is to be desired” (112-13). These visions exhaust Sonya, but they also teach her how each bride lived and died and why the curse endures. Bearing witness to the past unlocks the key to breaking the curse in the present. Only by seeing these women clearly can she gather the resolve and information she needs to recover their rings and undo the spell that binds them.

Sonya’s physical renovations to the manor give her tangible ways to acknowledge the pain of those who came before her. Hanging the brides’ portraits in the music room becomes a concrete way to reaffirm their identities and acknowledge the lives that were taken from them. When she and Cleo find paintings of each of the brides created by Sonya’s father and uncle, they mount them one by one, continuing the work the previous generation began. Each portrait shifts the brides from a blurred group of local legend into individual women with names and faces. Cleo and Sonya also take time to find out the identities of each of the servants who lived in the staff quarters and redecorate their rooms with their individual preferences in mind. For example, in Molly’s room, Sonya hangs paintings of flowers and tells Cleo, “I love the little yellow and white flowers for that splash of happy. We need to get a nice duvet, some shams, throw pillows. Then this is a room that feels like Molly” (319). Their efforts counter Dobbs’s pattern of erasure by filling neglected spaces with warmth and purpose.

Sonya gives new purpose to spaces in the house that have gone unused and neglected, emphasizing her intention to build a future for herself and her family in the manor. She transforms Collin’s old office into an art studio for Cleo, and reupholsters the manor’s old furniture, maintaining the history of the house, but giving it a new life. As she explains to Maddy, “There’s a whole world down here. Collin remodeled some of it—put in a home gym, a home theater […] I want to keep that going. I’m doing a game room in what was the servants’ hall” (362). Sonya’s remodel of the Gold Room, which Dobbs once used as the base of her power, reclaims it as gallery of her family’s history, filling with photographs and mementos. As Trey tells Sonya, “What you’re doing? What you’ve done upstairs? It makes a difference. Collin lost his heart, and let a lot of it go. You’ve brought the heart back” (362). In the Gold Room, Sonya hangs the seven portraits of the brides, explaining that they will “turn the dark to light” (28). By shifting the room from a site of evil dominance into a place that honors the family Dobbs tried to destroy, Sonya reshapes the house’s future through remembrance and respect.