The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion: Vol. 7

The seventh installment in Beth Brower's series takes the form of a personal diary kept by Emma M. Lion, a 21-year-old orphan in Victorian London. Emma owns Lapis Lazuli House in St. Crispian's, an eccentric London neighborhood, and her journal entries chronicle March and April 1884 with characteristic wit and self-deprecation. She shares the house with her difficult elderly relation, Cousin Archibald Flat, and her maid Agnes. Her tenant, photographer Niall Pierce, occupies a studio in a connected section of the house; a shared wall allows them to pass notes. Emma's closest friends form an unusual quartet: Pierce; the Duke of Islington, a wealthy and exacting aristocrat; and Young Hawkes, St. Crispian's brilliant and enigmatic vicar.

The novel opens with Emma struggling to find words after she and Pierce shared a kiss at the end of February. Her first attempt to address it is thwarted when Ben Chambers, a one-legged, one-eyed shopkeeper Emma calls "The Pirate," arrives injured at Pierce's studio. Over the following days, obligations and awkwardness prevent the conversation: Pierce works at the British Museum photographing artifacts, takes on commissions, and helps Chambers at his shop, The Hound. They communicate through notes slipped through their wall, repeatedly agreeing to talk "tomorrow." Emma visits Chambers to commission a replacement journal; after a combative exchange, he proposes a custom binding and plans to split the journal by year.

Emma is also summoned past midnight by the Reprobates, a band of rowdy young men loosely managed by Hawkes, to witness a duel on Primrose Hill. One of the Reprobates, Night Watchman, is grazed on the arm, and when constables arrive, Hawkes hides Emma against a tree before vanishing. Their friendship deepens through shared pastries in his vestry, literary quotations, and comfortable silences.

When Islington invites the four friends to dinner, Emma fears the kiss has altered their group dynamic but is relieved to find their rapport intact. Walking home, Hawkes studies Emma and Pierce with an expression of cautious comprehension. Alone, the two agree to talk the following afternoon, but their plans are disrupted when Aunt Eugenia Spencer, Emma's imperious aunt, and her beautiful cousin Arabella Spencer arrive unannounced at Lapis Lazuli, their London home having suffered a leaking roof. Emma panics, blocking Pierce's studio door with a chiffonier to hide his existence. Aunt Eugenia demands to meet Agnes Dowd, a fictional chaperone Emma invented to satisfy propriety requirements. Desperate, Emma turns to Jack Hollingstell, a confidence man in her debt.

Jack summons Emma to The Drunken Duck, a gambling hall, at midnight, using her as his "lucky charm" during a card game before they flee through secret passages. On the way home, they encounter Hawkes sitting on a bench outside The Cleopatra pub. Hawkes recites Wordsworth, and Emma falls asleep on his shoulder until dawn. Jack delivers on his promise: a woman arrives playing Agnes Dowd with extraordinary precision, winning Aunt Eugenia's approval with her judgmental monotone. When Aunt Eugenia discovers Pierce is Emma's tenant, she is delighted to learn he has photographed society families and insists he dine with them and photograph Arabella. Pierce handles Aunt Eugenia with surprising confidence, laughing off her remarks about his limp and proposing Arabella's portrait be taken at the family's country estate.

After Aunt Eugenia departs, Emma and Pierce finally have their long-delayed conversation, throwing darts in his studio as a distraction. Pierce lists his concerns: their age difference (he is 34, she 21), the risk to Emma's reputation, and his troubled past. He reveals he was stabbed multiple times with bayonets by British soldiers but refuses to explain why. Emma articulates her own feelings: she has said goodbye to Maxwell Stuart, the boy she loved who died, and wants to move forward but worries about what remains unresolved in her heart. They establish "The Great Considerations of 1884," a period of mutual reflection with three protocols: act normally, speak honestly without pressure, and allow physical affection "appropriate to the time." Pierce kisses Emma twice before they leave for a walk.

Over the following weeks, Emma delivers Pierce's portraits to Victoria Braithwaite, her childhood enemy whose parents have recently died in a carriage accident. Victoria is hostile, but her composure cracks when she reads Pierce's condolence note. Emma, drawing on her own experience of loss, tells Victoria, "It feels like all the pictures have been taken out of their frames." Before this errand, Pierce kisses the corner of Emma's mouth; Emma responds with mortifying politeness: "Thank you. How very kind."

Pierce is attacked by soldiers who recognize him at The Cleopatra. Islington and Hawkes join the fight, leaving all three men battered. Islington explains privately that the soldiers held Pierce "responsible for something" and deliberately struck his injured leg. Emma overhears Dr. Fairchild, a physician and Pierce's old friend, pressing Pierce about the accusation, but Pierce shuts the conversation down. During a walk, Emma discovers Hawkes absorbed in a letter on expensive, pear-scented paper. She asks if the letter-writer is lovely; Hawkes replies, "She is." Islington later reveals Hawkes's extraordinary academic history: Admitted early to Eton, he earned degrees from both Oxford and Cambridge in half the usual time and had intended a different profession from the church.

The Season, London's annual period of aristocratic social events, begins in April. Aunt Eugenia adds Islington to her list of candidates for Arabella's husband, provoking Emma's horror. Emma serves as Arabella's protector, intercepting unwanted suitors under her aunt's military-style orders. Lord George West, a horticultural enthusiast Aunt Eugenia had provisionally included on her list of candidates for Arabella, attempts to propose to Emma during a waltz; Islington intervenes. Charles Goddard, Emma's "Unintended Intended," a man who considers them secretly betrothed, lurks at events, treading on her toes.

Islington falls gravely ill at the ball of Lady Frankland, a society acquaintance. While feverish and trying to escape a fortune-hunting young woman, he stumbles into Emma's arms in a servants' corridor just as Lady Frankland opens the door. To avoid scandal, Islington impulsively claims to be Emma's legal guardian, a lie that strips Emma of the autonomy she has fought to establish. They argue furiously before Islington faints. Pierce carries the unconscious duke upstairs at Lapis Lazuli, and Hawkes stays through the night. During his fever, Islington calls Emma "Hannah" and quotes Hamlet.

The society pages publish the story of Islington's "secret ward." When Aunt Eugenia arrives at Islington's house with a doctor intending to have Emma declared mentally unfit, Hawkes produces a letter from Emma's deceased father, Declan Lion. Addressed with an ambiguous "you," the letter names its unspecified recipient as Emma's rightful guardian, warning Lady Spencer to remember "I know what I know, even from beyond the grave." Aunt Eugenia recognizes the handwriting, and Islington threatens her with his full resources; she grudgingly accepts a truce. Alone with Hawkes, Emma reads a second letter from her father addressed directly to Hawkes, referred to as "F" and by an Irish name. Declan entrusts Hawkes with guardianship papers as a safeguard for Emma's freedom. Hawkes, not Islington, was always the intended guardian. When Emma presses for an explanation, Hawkes asks her not to inquire further, citing "forces at work in my life." Emma, quoting Shakespeare, grants him his silence.

Emma and Pierce bring The Great Considerations to a close during a quiet Sunday at Lapis Lazuli. Emma tells Pierce she is "a sovereign country" whose borders she has guarded since Maxwell's death. She wants Pierce to cross in but asks him not to seek the center of her heart until she is ready. Pierce responds that their relationship could be "a triumph" or "end in disaster," but he commits to seeing it through. He draws one firm line: If he ever hurts Emma in a way that leaves permanent scars, he will walk away rather than leave her worse than before they met. They agree to move forward. Pierce kisses Emma's forehead and leaves her alone in his studio.

As April closes, the arrival of Lady Eloise Silver—a reclusive beauty widely considered the most beautiful woman in England—at the Fouquet Ball threatens Arabella's supremacy; Aunt Eugenia declares a "Council of War." Emma receives word that Tybalt the cat's owner will return to reclaim him, and she is heartbroken. The volume ends on the eve of May Day, with Emma reading Whitman at her garret window during a thunderstorm, the mysteries of Pierce's past, Islington's secrets, and Hawkes's hidden connection to her father still unresolved, while the tentative hope she and Pierce have claimed together carries her forward.