The War I Finally Won

Lady Thorton asks Ada if she thinks Jonathan suffered. Ada remembers the pain when she once burned herself while cooking and does not know how to answer. Ada, unsure how to help, wakes Susan. Susan makes tea and sits with Lady Thorton. Lady Thorton sits up through the night, not saying anything. Ada wakes up in the morning with a sudden epiphany that she knows how to help Lady Thorton.

Ada takes her saved money, writes a note for Susan (who is asleep), and walks to the train station. She takes the train to Maggie’s boarding school. Ada arrives at the boarding school and explains to a shocked Maggie that Lady Thorton needs Maggie to come home.

Maggie cannot leave without parental permission, so Ada calls Fred Grimes at the stable back in Kent and carefully asks for “Lady Susan.” Ada hopes the boarding school will not know Lady Thorton’s first name (Elanor) and that they will therefore assume “Lady Susan” is actually Lady Thorton. Fred Grimes plays along, as does Susan. Susan, pretending to be Maggie’s mother to the boarding school headmistress, confirms that she can return home from school.

The girls return to Kent by train, and Susan meets them at the station and hugs Ada hard. Lady Thorton, overwhelmed by Maggie’s unexpected return, hugs her daughter and sobs. Ada climbs into bed with Susan that night, and as they lie together, Ada considers everything she has achieved, and everything and everyone she has lost.

Lady Thorton never criticizes Ada on her decision to bring Maggie home. Lord Thorton visits and brings a can of American spam, a delicacy he used all his month’s meat rations on. Lady Thorton describes it as “the lamb chops all over again” (374).

Lord Thorton tells the household that he has learned more of the atrocities being committed by Hitler; it comforts him to know that Jonathan did not die in vain. Ada tells Maggie more about her Mam, and Maggie tells Ada that she is brave.

Chapter 63 opens in May 1943, over a year later. Ada has just celebrated her 14th birthday, and for her gift, she has a day out planned for herself, Susan, and Jamie. Susan does not know where Ada plans to take them. Led by Ada, they take the train to Becky’s hometown. They visit Becky’s grave at the cemetery. Becky’s mother, a small, gray-haired old woman, arrives at the graves with flowers. Susan and Becky’s mother are shocked to see each other. Becky’s mother admits that she always hoped Susan would come. Susan explains that she was not sure if she was welcome. Becky’s mother admits that her husband would not have welcomed her.

The four of them go to Becky’s mother’s backyard for tea. Ada is excited to learn that Butter was raised by Becky’s family and that Becky’s mother remembers him fondly. Ada, Jamie, and Susan insist that Becky’s mother should visit them in Kent, and she agrees. She says it would be “good to be among family again” (385). Ada reflects that “you can know things all you like, and someday you might believe them” (385).