The Forgotten Garden

In 1900 London, Eliza watches from upstairs as two charity workers enter the Swindell home. They’ve come to take her away to a workhouse. Eliza refuses to go with them, and a struggle ensues. The charity workers have almost dragged the girl to the door when a man arrives looking for Eliza Makepeace. He identifies himself as Phineas Newton and produces legal papers authorizing him to take her to Lord Mountrachet’s estate in Cornwall. Rather than go to the workhouse, Eliza warily climbs into the coachman’s waiting carriage. Inside is a man wearing a pince-nez. Eliza recognizes him as the Bad Man her mother warned her about. 

The narrative continues to follow Eliza’s journey to Cornwall after she finds herself trapped in a coach with the Bad Man. He introduces himself as Mr. Mansell and explains that he’s been searching for Eliza’s mother and her children for the past 13 years. The carriage slows in a town called Guildford, where Mansell gets out because he has other business. Then, Newton drives Eliza onward alone.

After another day’s travel, Eliza arrives at Blackhurst Manor in the village of Tregenna. She is bustled inside to meet the mistress of the manor. Lady Adeline is attractive but imperious and informs Eliza how lucky the girl is to have been taken in by the family. Eliza is forbidden ever to speak about her mother because Georgiana has brought shame to the Mountrachet name. When Eliza asks about her uncle, she’s told he’ll return from Scotland the following day, but he has little time to be interrupted by children. Lady Adeline then orders the girl to be bathed and fed.

Eliza is placed in the care of the butler and the housekeeper. After being scrubbed raw to remove all the dirt, the girl is clothed and taken to her room where she hungrily eats the meager bowl of soup provided. The huge house and the thunderstorm outside both make her uneasy. Just as she is about to fall asleep, an alarming thought occurs to her: “In all the hurry, with all the drama, she had left [Mother’s brooch] behind. High up in the chimney cavity, in Mr. and Mrs. Swindell’s house, Mother’s treasure waited” (199). 

In 2005 Cornwall, Cassandra has arrived at the Blackhurst Estate, now a hotel. Her thoughts are occupied with memories of her dead husband and their son. A truck collided with their car, and both were taken from her without warning. She grieved for six months until Nell insisted that Cassandra must do something. Nell wanted help in her antique shop. When Cassandra protests that she has nothing to offer, Nell reminds her that she’s a survivor. Cassandra’s thoughts return to the present:

She was in Cornwall, just as Nell had been before her. Rose and Nathaniel and Eliza Makepeace before that. As she whispered their names to herself, she felt an odd tingling beneath her skin. Like tiny threads all being pulled at the same time. She had a purpose here, and it was not to wallow in her own past. ‘Here I am, Nell,’ she said softly. ‘Is this what you wanted me to do?’ (204). 

In 1900 Cornwall, Eliza wakes after her first night at Blackhurst Manor. Feeling less daunted in daylight, she’s ready for an adventure as she eyes the gardens outside her window. When a maid named Mary brings Eliza’s breakfast, she tells the girl stories about the Tregenna pirates and points out a path for Eliza to walk by the sea. Eliza dons her brother’s clothes and sets out to explore the cliffs. She climbs a black crag and spies a black ship with full sails on the horizon, but it quickly disappears.

On her way back to the house, Eliza comes across a gardener named Davies. He tells her about the maze shrubbery that he trims but warns that people can easily get lost inside. The maze leads to Cliff Cottage, a lookout post that was built by Eliza’s great-grandfather. Because the maze is so overgrown and confusing, the only way to access the cottage is via the cliff path. Eliza happens to look up at the house as he’s speaking and notices a young girl at an upstairs window. Davies informs her that this is her cousin Rose who is a sickly child. Eliza thinks that “Rose” is the perfect name for a fairy tale princess.

In 2005, Cassandra arrives at Cliff Cottage. She’s met there by her estate agent, Henry Jameson, and his wife, Robyn. Henry says that his father handled the original sale to Nell in 1975 and apologizes for the cottage’s sorry condition. Nell didn’t want the house repaired until she was there to supervise the process, but she never returned. When Cassandra enters the cottage, “[t]he smell was the first thing to hit her, damp and fecund, and rich with animal droppings. Like the rain forests back home in Australia, whose canopies concealed a separate world of moist fertility. A closed ecosystem, wary of strangers” (221).

They make their way through the first floor. When Cassandra tries to climb the stairs, she finds a tree limb has fallen through the roof. The Jamesons’ offer to find someone to remove the debris, and they decide to postpone the upstairs inspection until another day. As they part, Robyn says that Cassandra has Nell’s eyes. Cassandra is surprised to learn that Robyn met her grandmother. Robyn explains that she used to work at the local museum and that Nell came around asking questions about the Mountrachet family and the Walkers. As Robyn leaves, she invites Cassandra to call anytime.

In 1975, Nell visits the Tregenna Museum of Fishing and Smuggling, where she meets Robyn for the first time. Robyn is a local history buff and is eager to tell Nell about the area. Because Robyn is running late, she invites Nell to accompany her to her grandfather’s house where she’s needed to prepare his supper. Nell meets William Martin at his cottage and is invited to stay for dinner while he regales her with stories from Tregenna’s past. He says the Mountrachets came by their title and fortune dishonestly. They wrecked a ship and murdered her crew for the cargo in 1724. The ship was named the Jacquard, but the locals call it the Black Hearse, after Blackhurst Manor.

As William explains: “The family might’ve sunk that ship but they couldn’t rid themselves of her, not for long. [The phantom ship] still appears sometimes on the horizon […] [h]aunting the descendants of those responsible” (231). William is equally adamant that Cliff Cottage is cursed because of all the misfortune it’s seen, but he won’t give any details. When Nell reveals that she is Ivory Walker and begins to press William for details about Eliza, he abruptly terminates the conversation. As Nell leaves the cottage, she resolves to get William to tell her what he’s hiding.

The scene shifts to Rose’s point of view at Blackhurst Manor in 1900. She’s suffering through yet another doctor’s examination. Rose knows she has a frail constitution and doesn’t expect to live long: “The prospect of an early death […] leads to the formation of a tiny ice flint in the […] heart. Ice that, though at times concealed, never properly melts” (239). Rose’s mother, Adeline, frets about her daughter’s health and the presence of Eliza in their midst. Adeline fears that Eliza doesn’t have the makings of a proper lady, so she puts Rose in charge of Eliza, hoping Rose can make something of her.

The point of view now shifts to Adeline. She thinks about her attempts to maintain propriety at all costs. This is primarily due to her own humble birth. She originally came to Blackhurst as a paid companion for Georgiana. After the girl’s flight, Adeline married the master of the manor, Lord Linus. Linus demonstrated an unnatural attachment to Georgiana and continued his search for 13 years. Adeline fears that Eliza will trigger dangerous associations in her husband’s mind. She intends to keep Linus as far away from Eliza as possible.