The War That Saved My Life

Margaret Thorton, Lady Thorton’s daughter, unexpectedly jumps her horse into Butter’s field, falling off her horse in the process. She is hurt in her fall, and Ada rushes to her aid. Ada rides Margaret’s horse back to the Thorton estate for her. She is fascinated by Margaret’s horse and easily gets him to jump the wall of Butter’s field.

Margaret, disoriented from her head injury, confesses that her brother is the favorite sibling in her family. Ada commiserates, telling Margaret, “My mam likes my brother better too. She hates me, because of my foot” to which Margaret replies, “Well, that’s a silly reason to hate you” (101). Margaret has heard of clubfoot before and mentions that Fred Grimes, who works in their stables, has fixed a clubfoot in a foal before.

Grimes greets Ada when she arrives at the Thorton estate with Margaret, who has faded in consciousness along the way home. While Grimes takes Margaret inside the house, Ada stays at the stables and cares for the horse. Grimes drives Ada home and thanks her for helping Margaret. He pats Ada’s hand as he lets her out of the car, and Ada returns home from her adventure feeling happy and helpful.

Ada is surprised to find Susan upset with her upon returning home. This is Ada’s first time being left at home alone, and Susan is panic-stricken when she returns to find Ada missing. Ada tells Susan about Margaret’s horse jumping into their field and helping her home, but Susan doesn’t believe the story until Lady Thorton arrives to thank Ada in person. During the visit, Lady Thorton offers to let Ada come over any time to ask Grimes about horses. Ada immediately voices that she doesn’t know how to make Butter go fast, to which Lady Thorton simply replies, “Persistence” (111)—before taking her leave.

After Lady Thorton leaves, Susan apologizes to Ada for not believing her story before. She tries to explain to Ada the difference between lying and being a liar: “If you have to tell lies, or you think you have to, to keep yourself safe—I don’t think that makes you a liar. Liars tell lies when they don’t need to, to make themselves look better” (112). Ada doesn’t want to talk about it and instead diverts the conversation by asking why Margaret goes away for school rather than going to the same school as Jamie. Meanwhile, Jamie hates school and returns home miserable. He snuggles up with Susan to read The Swiss Family Robinson, which only makes Ada angrier at them both

Jamie begins skipping class, but Ada can’t understand why he doesn’t want to go to school. He wets the bed nightly and continues asking to go home, arguing that Mam won’t make him go to school, which Ada agrees is probably true. Mam hasn’t responded to Susan’s letters, though, and Ada and Jamie continue struggling with the question of whether Mam misses them.

Susan sews blackout curtains to keep the home hidden from enemy view at night. Despite the dismal reason for bringing out her sewing machine, which has been put away since Becky’s death, the task reignites Susan’s passion for sewing. She offers to sew new clothing for Ada and Jamie, but Ada refuses the offer. Jamie, however, is eager to accept new clothes sewn by Susan. Ada becomes indignant, questioning whether Susan even wants her and Jamie to live with her at all.

Susan discovers a welt on Jamie’s wrist, and he refuses to explain how he acquired it. Susan takes him to school as usual, then takes Ada out for tea before returning to the school and walking straight into Jamie’s classroom. She sees that Jamie’s left hand is tightly tied to his chair. Jamie is left-handed, and his teacher has tied his left wrist to his chair to prevent him from using it. Susan is appalled and frees Jamie, who at first ducks as though expecting a blow, but quickly falls into Susan’s arms sobbing at having been freed.

Susan insists that being left-handed is not the sign of the devil, and Jamie should not be punished for what comes to him naturally. She insists that Ada’s clubfoot is not the mark of the devil either, and that Ada is not to be blamed or punished for something natural about herself.

Susan takes Ada and Jamie to register for ID cards but doesn’t have their birthdates, so she makes up a birthdate for each child. Ada and Jamie have never experienced a birthday party but have ideas about what they might include. Jamie confesses that when he didn’t know his own birthday at school, his classmates laughed at him. He’s excited to tell his teacher his new birthdate now that Susan has decided upon one for him.

Susan chooses February 15th, her own father’s birthday, for Jamie’s birthday, and April 5th, Becky’s birthday, for Ada. When Ada asks whether she can have a cake on her new birthday, Susan agrees that she may, musing that it will be nice to celebrate that particular day again.