The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion: Vol. 4

The fourth volume in Beth Brower's series, this novel is written entirely as the journal entries of Emma M. Lion, a young Englishwoman of mixed Irish and Portuguese heritage living in Victorian London in the autumn of 1883. Emma resides at Lapis Lazuli House in the eccentric neighborhood of St. Crispian's, a property she inherited but which has been largely usurped by her Cousin Archibald Flat, who cheated her of much of her fortune. With limited funds, no parents, a fictional chaperone she invented to satisfy propriety, and a growing circle of unlikely friends, Emma navigates the challenges of independence in a society that expects women to marry.

The volume opens in September as Cousin Archibald recovers enough to resume using the stairs, a development the household greets with dread. Meanwhile, Niall Pierce, a war photographer who rents an attached apartment and studio called Lapis Lazuli Minor, warns Emma that his growing client correspondence will arrive at her address. A pattern of shared teas and conversations develops between them, their exchanges flowing through a chink in the shared wall. Emma's social world also expands through her best friend, Mary Bairrage; her childhood nemesis turned friend, Roland Sutherland; and The Reprobates Ten, a band of young churchgoers who leave nine bottles holding pink roses on her doorstep.

Emma's formidable Aunt Eugenia Spencer departs for the countryside, leaving instructions that shape the volume. Eugenia has assembled a list of 16 eligible men for the upcoming Season and expects her daughter, Arabella Spencer, to become engaged by August. She commands Emma to serve as a social spy, orders her to a dressmaker for a new wardrobe, and disparages Emma's desire to study, advising "pleasing stupidity" as preparation for marriage. With Eugenia gone, Emma settles into contented routines of reading, churchgoing, and Pierce's company. On the anniversary of her father Declan Lion's death, she sits quietly with Saffronia March, an artist and old family friend, and lights a candle in his memory.

The volume's first major escapade arrives when Jack Hollingstell, Mary's dubious "pretend cousin" and a confidence man, calls in the first of two favors Emma owes him. He instructs her to wear a ruby and diamond bracelet to The Drunken Duck, a London dance hall, and deliver it to a specific contact. When Emma protests, Jack implies he has leverage involving Saffronia and Emma's cousin Damian Spencer. She reluctantly agrees. At the dance hall, a backstage dresser does her hair and sets a bird's nest with fake birds atop her head. An overzealous stagehand shoves Emma onto the stage mid-performance, leading to comic disaster. She delivers the bracelet but, on her way out, collides with the Duke of Islington, a friend and prominent figure in her social circle. Furious, Islington seizes her arm and marches her to his carriage. They argue all the way home, where they encounter Young Hawkes, St. Crispian's vicar, who simply compliments the birds in Emma's hair. The next morning, Hawkes delivers a pointed sermon recasting the biblical story of the woman taken in adultery: The woman becomes a dancer at The Drunken Duck, and the accuser becomes a duke, followed by 53 verses on hypocrisy. Islington sits through the entire sermon in rigid silence, then bursts out laughing and offers Emma a full apology.

Emma's precarious finances form a steady undercurrent. Her banker, Mr. Penury, reports that with Pierce's rent and her small savings, she has roughly two years of expenses. Mrs. Rebecca Penury, who stopped speaking nearly a decade ago after deciding she had said everything she wished to say, has written her husband a rare letter insisting he should have done more to protect Emma. Penury urges Emma to find work, but she insists on independence as a femme sole, a woman managing her own legal and financial affairs. Emma later visits Mrs. Penury for a silent tea and, after delivering a long, unplanned monologue, causes the woman to laugh aloud for the first time in years. Meanwhile, Aunt Eugenia writes to "Agnes Dowd," the name of Emma's fictional chaperone, requesting a correspondence. Emma drafts a self-deprecating reply and has Saffronia transcribe it in different handwriting to avoid detection.

Eugenia summons Emma to a weekend at Mulberry Hall in Hampshire, where the guests include Roland and Charles Goddard, a towering, awkward man whom Eugenia has designated as Emma's future husband. Charles corners Emma after dinner, whispering at excruciating length about their supposed wedding breakfast and the 10 children he envisions. Emma escapes by stomping on his foot and later forges a note in his name to ensure he does not share her return train.

Back in St. Crispian's, a transformative evening unfolds when Pierce brings Emma to dinner at Islington's. The party consists of Islington, Pierce, Emma, and Hawkes, with Islington's aunt, the Countess of Alwick, sitting in the library as a nominal chaperone. The four settle into a natural dynamic, and Emma senses something forming between them. Islington dubs her "Lion," a nickname previously used only by the deceased Maxwell Stuart, Emma's closest friend who died three years earlier in Afghanistan. The name echoes her father's surname, and she hesitates before accepting it.

The volume's emotional center arrives when Emma discovers a burial announcement: Maxwell's body has been brought home from Afghanistan, and the burial is the next day. She has no mourning dress, no money for a train ticket, and no time. Pierce finds her distraught, insists on buying her ticket, and declares he is coming because his friends do not go to war alone. He advises Emma to wear the green dress Maxwell would have loved rather than mourning black. At the churchyard in Berkshire, Maxwell's older brother, Evelyn Stuart, returns to Emma a small gold pendant she had pressed into Maxwell's hand before he left for war, confirming the body is his. The following day, Maxwell's mother, Lady Stuart, shows Emma a newspaper photograph of soldiers that includes Maxwell, credited to Pierce. Pierce had photographed Maxwell without knowing who he was. Lord Stuart, Maxwell's father, interrupts and attacks Emma verbally, blaming her for Maxwell's enlistment. Pierce quietly threatens Lord Stuart, and later punches Evelyn twice in the garden for saying something offensive.

Before they leave, Lady Stuart gives Emma an unsent letter from Maxwell's effects: a tender, longing message written days before his death, asking Emma to send him lines from Shakespeare's The Tempest in her own hand. Emma breaks down on the train home, and Pierce holds her through the journey. At London's station, Islington meets them and brings them to his house, where Hawkes appears as if by instinct. The three men hold Emma together through her darkest day.

In the volume's final days, Emma stabilizes. She sends Lady Stuart the requested Tempest lines as a suggested gravestone inscription. The Reprobates Ten storm Lapis Lazuli in fairy-court costumes and crown Emma their "Eleanor of Aquitaine," lifting her spirits with absurd ceremony. On All Hallows' Eve, Emma drifts to the churchyard, where Hawkes reads by lantern. Islington and Pierce arrive, and the four settle among the graves. Hawkes tells the story of King Leonidas and the Spartans at Thermopylae, ancient Greek warriors who replied to the Persians' threat of sky-darkening arrows: "Then we will fight in the shade." Islington asks what they make of the connection forming among them. Hawkes names it: "Alchemy," the transmutation of disparate elements into gold. Through the wall that night, Pierce confesses that belonging unsettles him, as he has never known a right place. Emma assures him the entanglement is good and that without him, the alchemy does not work. Their final exchange echoes Leonidas: "We will fight in the shade."