Fern Woolbright and Sophie Frobisher are mother and daughter

Fern Woolbright’s relationship with Sophie Frobisher begins with the urgency of childbirth and an unresolved question of paternity. The baby’s birth makes Sophie Fern’s daughter, while the circumstances surrounding her conception leave open whether her biological father is Charlie Treadaway or James Frobisher.

The Birth

At home with her mother, Rosemarie Woolbright, Fern is startled when she stands from the sofa and wets her pants. The physical sign makes her realize that labor has begun; she tells Rosemarie, who puts down the soup pan. At that moment Fern can only imagine that the baby might be a girl or a boy, and that the father might be either Charlie or James.

Sophie and Her Family

Two weeks later, a letter reports that Fern has given birth to a baby girl named Sophie. Rosemarie is besotted with her granddaughter. Fern and Sophie are both living with Rosemarie at Three Paddocks while Fern’s husband, James Frobisher, is on duty in Northern Ireland. The letter describes the new household through Rosemarie’s exhaustion as well as her delight, placing the early mother-daughter bond within a family arrangement that includes three generations under one roof.

Paternity and the Relationship’s Beginning

The birth establishes Sophie as Fern’s daughter but does not resolve the question Fern faced in labor. Her uncertainty between Charlie and James gives Sophie’s arrival a second significance: alongside the beginning of their mother-daughter life is an unresolved question about the child’s biological father. The account identifies Sophie as Fern’s baby girl and records her first home with Fern and Rosemarie, but offers no further detail here about the later development of their relationship.