The Lake House

Eleanor is in shock. Theo has gone missing. The police are there, as are some reporters and her doctor. Dr. Gibbons prescribes Eleanor some tablets to calm her down. Fortunately, Anthony, her husband and savior, is there to deal with everyone. Eleanor wants to see Alice; she remembers seeing her daughter briefly while the reporter was taking their picture. It seemed to Eleanor that Alice had wanted to tell her something, but Alice disappeared before Eleanor could verify who she saw was actually her daughter. Eleanor has to lie down. She falls asleep thinking about a yellow-and-black tiger.

When Eleanor was a girl, she had a tiger that lived under her bed. She called it Zephyr. Her grandfather Horace brought the skin back from one of his trips to India. Mr. Llewellyn told Eleanor a story about a tiger and a pearl. The tiger, Zephyr, brought Eleanor back from India in the form of a pearl he had swallowed. After Horace shot Zephyr, the pearl remained in him until one day some fairies found it and took it into the woods. Later, a bird found it, mistaking it for an egg. The bird brooded over the pearl and Eleanor was eventually born. The fairies found her and determined she needed to be returned to the house. They laid her on the front stoop in a wrap of woven leaves.

Eleanor doesn’t tell people the story of her birth, but she does tell her cousin Beatrice. Eleanor does not get along well with her mother, who finds Eleanor to be a rambunctious and wild child. Eleanor enjoys adventure and reenacting events from her grandfather’s life, which she reads about in his journal. Beatrice mentions London, and Eleanor remembers her parents arguing about London, that it was a city full of temptations, too many temptations for her mother.

It is 1911, when Eleanor is 16 years old, that talk of husbands first emerges. She is not interested in getting married. Because Eleanor’s mother and her Aunt Vera are very competitive, finding the best match for their daughters becomes a point of contention. When her mother takes Eleanor dress shopping, Eleanor is unhappy. At one point, Eleanor is reminded of whispers she’d heard about her mother and certain men. While getting measured for her dress, Eleanor caresses a tiger-tooth pendant that she wears around her neck.

Later, at a dance, Eleanor takes the first chance she can to steal away and explore the house. She discovers a room, an office. There is a newspaper laying open on the desk. She notices a headline about a pair of tigers arriving at the London zoo. She is determined to see those tigers for herself.

Two days later Eleanor slips away from the Crystal Palace and goes to the zoo using money she’d taken from her uncle. From the palace, Eleanor makes her way by foot to the bus station. While crossing a street, she is nearly struck by a bus, but she is saved from certain death by a young man. His name is Anthony Edevane. He is a doctoral student who was waiting for his friend, Howard Mann. Howard and Anthony take Eleanor somewhere she can sit and get a drink and recover. Eleanor and Anthony are quickly smitten with one another. Hours fly by before Howard mentions that someone is probably missing her. The two young men escort Eleanor home. Beatrice answers the door and, after learning of Anthony’s heroics, invites the two in for tea.

While taking tea and cake with Eleanor and her cousin, soon joined by Eleanor’s mother, Constance, it is discovered that Anthony is the third son of a very wealthy aristocrat. Constance does not approve of Anthony because he is the third son (and thus not entitled to much of an inheritance), but Anthony is not deterred. He openly admits that he wants to be a doctor, someone useful, and not some spoiled rich man’s son who does nothing with his life as some aristocrats do. Anthony asks Eleanor what she wants from life. Eleanor answers that she wants to see the tigers. Anthony laughs and offers to escort her. Constance can do nothing about it.

Anthony and Eleanor quickly fall in love. He takes her to see the tigers, and in a couple of weeks Anthony proposes. They marry and live in Cambridge for a time while Anthony finishes his studies. Anthony gets to know his parents-in-law and Mr. Llewellyn, with whom he has an affinity since Mr. Llewellyn used to be a physician.

Anthony’s, and thus Eleanor’s, life is changed when his parents and siblings die on the Titanic. He inherits his family’s entire wealth. Eventually, Anthony purchases Loeanneth, and he and Eleanor move to Cornwall. Eleanor is pregnant with their first child.

Eleanor awakens, jolted back to the reality that Theo is missing. She wants to see Alice. Constance is in the room with Eleanor and informs her that she doesn’t know where Alice and Mr. Llewellyn are. Eleanor is convinced that Alice knows something about Theo’s disappearance.

Sadie continues to explore Loeanneth over the next several days, and she is fascinated by the many A-L-I-C-E inscriptions she finds on the property. She is trying to get in touch with her partner Donald and has left six messages, but he hasn’t yet returned her calls.

Sadie reads A. C. Edevane’s novels and enjoys discerning the clues and hints before the main character, Diggory Brent, does. Sadie avoids her grandfather Bertie’s questions as to why she came to visit because he knows the story isn’t as simple as the one she’s proffered.

In her search to uncover the truth of Loeanneth, Sadie makes friends with the local librarian, Alastair Hawker, who helps her order newspapers from the 1930s from London and who recommends she read a chapter in a specific book. The book is Notable Cornish Families, and the chapter is “Chapter Eight: The deShiels of Havelyn.” In this chapter Sadie learns about Eleanor’s family history and that the deShiel family came to prominence in the 17th century, when a certain deShiel was enlisted as a privateer by Queen Elisabeth I. Eventually the family lost its fortune through poor business investments and the like. The chapter also speaks a lot of Daffyd Llewellyn (Mr. Llewellyn) and his book:

 If not for the unlikely rapport between Llewellyn and the perspicacious daughter of his friend, he might have remained a physician, never discovering his gift for storytelling, and generations of children would have been deprived of a treasured tale. (111)

Alastair lends Sadie a copy of the treasured tale, Eleanor’s Magic Doorway. It tells of a little girl who lives in a large and lonely mansion with her father and her cold stepmother. One day, playing alone in the house while her parents are away, the little girl stumbles upon a door she has never noticed before. When she opens the door, she is greeted by a wizened old man who introduces the girl to a whole other world filled with magic. The land is in danger from an evil usurper, and the girl joins with a band of trustworthy locals to help defeat the evil. After the war is won, the little girl returns to her home where time is as she left it.

It is easy for Sadie to see that the book is similar in form to other children’s novels. She recognizes that the text underneath one of the book’s illustrations about a trapdoor relates to the one she found on the Loeanneth grounds, but she was unable to open it then. Sadie feels a kinship toward Eleanor not only because of the story but also because on her previous outing to Loeanneth, Sadie uncovered an old love letter that Eleanor had written Anthony. Sadie feels that even without Llewellyn’s book, there’s something magical about Loeanneth. She feels that “houses weren’t meant to stand empty. A house without occupants, especially one like this, still filled with a family’s possessions, was the saddest, most pointless thing on earth” (115). It makes her all the more curious to find out what happened to Theo.

Another book Sadie receives from Alastair helps her reconstruct the timeline on the day of Theo’s disappearance. Theo was last seen at 11:00 p.m. in the nursery after being put to bed. The Midsummer Eve’s party continued into the night. Eleanor spent most of the night down at the boathouse. She was awoken at 8:00 a.m. by a maid informing her that Theo wasn’t in his cot. Clemmie often took Theo with her in the mornings, and it was at first assumed that this was the case again, but when Clemmie returned without Theo, telling everyone that she didn’t know where he was, they began to worry. There were two official theories as to what had happened: “the boy had wandered or he had been abducted” (118). Sadie sees too many problems with either theory.

Sadie learns the names of the investigating officers at the time, one of whom is still alive. However, he is on vacation, and so she will have to wait for him to return before she can ask him any questions. In the meantime, Sadie walks along the lake looking for a rock to skip. Bertie taught her how to find just the right rock for skipping. While she is searching, she notices a flash of light. Knowing what it is, “she tightened her lips and blinked long and hard. Sure enough, when she looked again, the backlit child with her hands raised for help was gone” (121).

Eleanor watches as Anthony teaches Deborah how to skip a rock across the pond. Howard is visiting. He and Eleanor are discussing the coming war and her fears of Anthony leaving. Howard tries not to discuss his recent breakup with Catherine. He puts on a brave face, but Eleanor knows the breakup hurt him. Howard goes off to play with Deborah, and Anthony presents Eleanor with a gift. She makes him promise her he will return.