Sunday’s first trip to London

Sunday’s first trip to London begins as a birthday surprise and becomes more than a week of sightseeing. At fifteen, the former workhouse girl travels beyond the marketplace of her home town for the first time, welcomed into a party, dressed for the capital, and shown places she has previously encountered only in books. The journey enlarges her sense of the world, but its crowds, street poverty, and reminders of Daisy Branning also bring into focus the family she has lost and the family she has made. It further tests her feelings for Jacob: kindness and security matter to Sunday, but she cannot accept them as substitutes for love.

The birthday surprise and departure

When Sunday turns fifteen, Lady Lavinia Huntley explains how the occasion was discovered: she had signed Sunday’s release papers from the workhouse, where her date of birth was recorded. Biddy Spooner has arranged a party, and Sunday is deeply moved that anyone has marked her birthday. She realizes that Annie’s recent errands and efforts to keep her out of the kitchen had been part of preparing the celebration. The attention, rather than the food or presents alone, overwhelms her; she has never before been the recipient of such deliberate kindness.

The gifts make the occasion tangible. Verity Lockett gives Sunday lace-frilled handkerchiefs she has sewn herself; the lodgers provide a fountain pen, a writing set, and a carpet bag; Lady Lavinia gives her a bonnet in a hatbox. Then Biddy announces the final surprise: Sunday will go to London with her and Jacob. The journey is to last a week, travel will be by train, and accommodation at a hotel has already been arranged. The new clothes are for the visit, though Sunday is also expected to help Biddy dress while they are away. Sunday worries about the work left at home, especially for Nell and Mickey, but Biddy has arranged for Annie to supervise the house. The holiday is thus both a gift and a carefully organized departure from the work that ordinarily defines Sunday’s days.

At the station, the scale and noise of the train unsettle Sunday. She follows Jacob and Biddy into an empty carriage apprehensively, then watches the train pull away in smoke. Jacob keeps up a stream of conversation, pointing out places as they pass, while Biddy is soon lulled to sleep by the motion. As fields of sheep and cattle and farmers harvesting replace the familiar town, Sunday’s nerves ease and wonder takes their place: the landscape makes her feel how much of the world she has never seen.

A capital of spectacle and contrast

The arrival at Euston station turns that expanding view into a physical challenge. Smoke hangs beneath the station rafters, porters hurry with trolleys, and passengers call out instructions. Biddy tells Sunday to stay close, and Sunday presses to her side, overwhelmed by a crowd far greater than anything she has known at home. Outside, a large church rises above the road and horse-drawn carriages stream past. Jacob, at ease in the bustle, hails a cab; the three travel with their luggage to their hotel in Westminster.

London’s landmarks give Sunday the encounter with the capital she had imagined from books. Walking beneath gas lamps, she visits Buckingham Palace, then rides on an omnibus. At night, the River Thames seems transformed by the gaslight flickering on its surface, while stars appear above it. Jacob suggests that they visit Westminster Abbey and St Paul’s Cathedral the next day, and Sunday welcomes the prospect. Later, from the steps of St Paul’s, she feeds pigeons with birdseed Jacob has bought from an old woman selling it. Another elderly woman sells violets; Jacob buys flowers for Biddy and Sunday. Sunday has never been given a bunch of flowers before, and she wishes they could last. She plans to press some between the pages of a book and place them on Daisy Branning’s grave when she returns home. The pleasure of the city is already bound up with remembrance.

A boat trip on the River Thames takes them down to the Tower of London. Sunday thinks of the young queens imprisoned there and finds the sight sad, even as she recognizes the excursion as one of the highlights of her holiday. The history of confinement prompts her to weigh wealth and fame against the conditions that make a life secure. She understands that good family and friends, a safe home, and people to love matter more. By then she has accepted that her mother will not come looking for her. Biddy Spooner and the people at Whittleford Lodge, Sunday realizes, are probably the closest thing she will have to a family of her own. Biddy answers her unspoken grief by squeezing her hand; Sunday soon regains her smile, though the brief gesture cannot undo the loss behind it.

The contrast between celebrated sights and exposed hardship also unsettles the holiday’s pleasures. Walking back to the hotel, Sunday sees ragged beggars sleeping together in alleyways for warmth. She recognizes that people who might have been in the workhouse at home are living on the streets here. When a blind man asks her for a penny, she immediately searches her reticule, but Jacob hurries her onward. London is not only palaces, churches, and illuminated water: its scale also makes destitution visible in a different form.

Theatre, courtship, and a choice Sunday cannot make

Biddy encourages Sunday and Jacob to go to the theatre while she rests. Jacob obtains tickets to see Lillie Langtry in The School for Scandal at the Prince’s Theatre, near Piccadilly Circus and Leicester Square. He notes that Chinatown is nearby but says they will not visit because, in his view, it is full of opium dens. Biddy trusts Jacob to behave as a gentleman, although she knows she should have chaperoned Sunday. For Sunday, who has never attended a theatre, the evening is an occasion for careful preparation: a maid arranges her hair in an elaborate style associated with Queen Victoria, and Sunday wears her new lilac gown. In the mirror she sees not the workhouse girl but an elegant young woman, and thinks of how Daisy Branning and Tommy Branning would have liked to see her transformed.

The outing also brings the question of Jacob’s affection into the open. Sunday is flattered by his attention and recognizes his kindness and good looks. He could offer the love and security she has long wanted, but she understands that she cannot accept his feelings without being able to love him in return. She tactfully withdraws her hand and tucks it beneath her shawl. Jacob senses that she needs time and remains quiet for the rest of the journey. The moment does not turn the trip into a romance resolved; instead, it reveals a boundary in Sunday’s understanding of what she needs. Security matters, but it is not enough by itself.

Gifts, return, and what the journey leaves behind

On the final day, Biddy takes Sunday shopping at Liberty in Regent Street. The enormous shop seems to contain everything a woman might want. Biddy tries several perfumes, while Sunday sees the abundance of shoes, hats, scarves, gloves, and jewellery around her. Biddy buys Jacob a leather wallet and insists on buying Sunday a warm winter coat as her treat. After trying on several, Sunday chooses one in a colour like the burgundy crinoline given to her for her birthday. It feels warm and snug, but Sunday is conscious of its expense. Biddy also intends to buy a gift for Annie. The purchases extend the birthday’s generosity beyond a single celebration, equipping Sunday for the winter as well as for her brief appearance in the capital.

As the holiday ends, Sunday is sorry to leave, though she has enjoyed it immensely. In London she has not needed to keep glancing over her shoulder for Albert Pinnegar, whose taunts trouble her at home. His distance has given her temporary relief, but the return means facing the prospect that the harassment will begin again. At the same time, she misses Nell, Annie, and Mickey and is eager to tell them about the places she has seen. The journey has offered escape without making escape permanent.

The train brings the travelers back to the Trent Valley railway station at Nuneaton, where Jacob finds a cab and the porter gathers their luggage and packages. Biddy is glad to be home after realizing she is getting old for so much travel. The return closes the holiday’s circuit: Sunday comes back with new clothes, memories of the capital, flowers intended for Daisy’s grave, and a clearer sense of the bonds that constitute home. Her first London trip joins outward discovery to inward recognition, widening her world without displacing the people and losses that give it meaning.