House of Salt and Sorrows

After everyone leaves, Annaleigh spends time alone at Eulalie’s grave. She cries and asks aloud if Eulalie tripped or was pushed from the cliffs. She pictures Eulalie waiting for a lover, one of her mourning suitors, and then falling to her demise, where fishermen found her mangled body. Annaleigh never questioned her other sisters’ deaths but worries Eulalie may have been murdered. Annaleigh walks home in a storm.

After changing in Highmoor Manor with the help of her kind maid Hanna, Annaleigh braves the wake. Morella, her stepmother, asks for company. Since Morella is from the mainland and not much older than Annaleigh, she doesn't understand the island tradition of burying people in the sea, the Salt. She asks about the Salt, and Annaleigh explains that the islanders believe Pontus, the god of the sea, created their islands and humans from the personalities of sea creatures and strength of waves. Since humans were made in the sea, they must return to it in death. Though Morella is empathetic toward Annaleigh’s grief, she insists they shouldn’t have to wear black and gray for a year. She hates seeing the remaining eight sisters—Camille; Annaleigh; triplets Lenore, Rosalie, and Ligeia; Mercy; Honor; and Verity—depressed. She wants to wear her wedding clothes and focus on her pregnancy. Morella rings a bell for attention, calls Ortun to her side, thanks the mourners for honoring Eulalie, and announces the impending arrival of her son. Annaleigh is shocked by her improper timing.

After the wake, the older sisters gather in Annaleigh’s room. They and their maid, Hanna, who helped raise them, are aghast at Morella’s announcement. Camille, who is 10 months older than Annaleigh, mimics Morella’s announcement. The triplets, Lenore, Rosalie, and Ligeia, ask why Camille hates Morella since she’s been a good mother to the younger sisters. Camille feels Morella is trying to take their mother’s place and poising her son to take their wealth in the future. According to island tradition, the eldest child inherits their family’s estate regardless of gender, though Camille jokes Highmoor Manor will be Annaleigh’s fortune when she herself dies from the curse. Annaleigh believes the curse is nonsense. When the triplets beg for a 16th birthday ball to debut in society, which Morella encouraged, Camille storms out of the room.

Six-year-old Verity, the youngest sister, enters the room complaining that she can’t sleep because Eulalie keeps stealing her covers. The other sisters are concerned, reminding Verity that Eulalie is in the Brine, the open sea, with their deceased family members. The triplets leave to check on their other sisters, assuming they played a trick on Verity. Annaleigh comforts Verity and lets her sleep in her bed, and then she talks with Hanna about Eulalie’s strange demise. Eulalie hated heights, so she questions why she was on the cliffs alone at night. Hanna believes she was waiting for a suitor. Annaleigh asks if anything was suspicious about her body, but Hanna doesn’t want to discuss Eulalie’s corpse. She insists Annaleigh needs rest.

Before bed, Annaleigh watches a light in the rain outside her window. She sees her father go through the hedge maze, stopping at a bench. He sits beside Morella, who comforts him as he sobs. Annaleigh is grateful for Morella.

The next morning, Annaleigh and Morella eat at the breakfast bar, as they’re awake before everyone else. Morella is wearing bright blue, not black, which upsets Annaleigh. Ortun enters, admiring Morella and her pregnant belly. He tells Annaleigh to wake her sisters for some news. She goes to wake Camille first, who is readying herself in front of her mirror, which the family is supposed to cover as per the mourning tradition. Camille insists that Eulalie’s spirit won’t get stuck in the mirror and that the sisters shouldn’t spend their life in mourning, or else they’ll never find husbands or leave Highmoor Manor.

An awake Rosalie calls her sisters downstairs, where Ortun announces the time for mourning is over, as he has a surprise in the parlor. Annaleigh fights with him, as she believes they are disgracing Eulalie’s memory by ending mourning early. The fight escalates until Annaleigh and Ortun decide to go outside, where he admits he never thought he’d find happiness again after Cecilia died, but Morella has brought new light to their lives.

Annaleigh acquiesces and rejoins her sisters, and the room is covered in various materials for dresses. The sisters swoon over the materials, and Morella helps them choose patterns. One of the sisters finds beautiful dancing shoes, which Verity calls fairy shoes. Every sister wants a pair, but they’re expensive. Ortun inspects the shoes, which the cobbler promises are sturdy, comfortable, and long-lasting. He smiles and buys everyone a pair.

Annaleigh sails on a dinghy to a neighboring island; one island builds ships for the king’s naval fleet, another focuses on trade, and another focuses on fishing. Another island hosts a lighthouse called Old Maude, which Annaleigh dreamed of taking care of as a child. The lighthouse keeper, Silas, has an apprentice, Hanna’s son and Annaleigh’s childhood friend, Fisher.

Annaleigh searches the fishing island for clues regarding Eulalie’s strange demise. Though one of the fishermen who found her body is sailing, the other netter, a blind man, remembers Eulalie. The men discovered her body below the cliffs with an inscribed locket that read “I dwelt alone / In a world of moan, / And my soul was a stagnant tide, / Till the fair and gentle Eulalie became my blushing bride” (42). The man grabs Annaleigh’s arm and shouts about falling stars, though she sees none in the clear sky. She hurries away, running into a handsome stranger.

The stranger, Cassius, has brilliant, starry eyes. He helps Annaleigh gather herself and the coins she dropped. She’s immediately attracted to him. Cassius is trying to find his father, a sick captain, whom he’s never met before. Annaleigh helps him find his way to the market for his quest. When the crowd murmurs about her family’s curse and Eulalie’s death, Annaleigh races off, with Cassius calling her name. She hurries to her dinghy, ashamed to be judged in front of Cassius, but refocuses on Eulalie’s death. She now believes Eulalie was murdered by a scorned lover who pushed her from the cliffs.

Annaleigh searches Eulalie’s room for clues. Underneath drop cloths and stacked books, she finds a hidden door behind a plant, which one of her sisters mentioned. Inside the hidden space, she finds risqué books, perfume, trinkets, a pocket watch, and a handkerchief. The pocket watch contains a lock of bright blonde hair, too light to belong to anyone in the family; the handkerchief smells like pipe smoke. Annaleigh is interrupted by Verity, who enters with her sketchbook since the governess let her off from studying today.

Verity says Eulalie wouldn’t like Annaleigh being in her room, and Annaleigh reminds her that Eulalie is gone. Verity comments on no one missing Eulalie in favor of the triplets’ bathroom ball, and Eulalie thinks everyone forgot her. Annaleigh assures her this isn’t true, but Verity speaks on behalf of Eulalie and Elizabeth, saying the living sisters are different now and have forgotten them. Annaleigh tries to clarify Verity’s comments as elaborate memories, but Verity doesn’t explain what she meant. The triplets rush in to announce the dancing shoes have arrived.

Downstairs, the sisters enjoy their slippers, all handcrafted to match their ballgowns and personalities. Morella claims the sisters will soon dance out of Highmoor Manor, as suitors will claim them at future balls. Camille snaps that Highmoor Manor is her inheritance, and Ortun uncomfortably explains to Morella that the eldest child, regardless of gender, inherits their family’s estate. In fact, his grandmother ruled so well that she doubled the islands’ naval fleet; even if he and Morella have a son, Camille will become Duchess. Morella is surprised, as inheritance is handled differently on the mainland. Ortun storms out, saying she is an islander now, not a mainlander.