Christmas

Christmas is the point at which the Throckmortons’ scholarly absorption briefly gives way to family life. For Theodosia, the holiday means leaving the museum, reuniting with Henry, and spending a country Christmas with her family—though the warmth and excitement come with rain, puzzled parents, and an uncle ready to teach her dangerous new skills.

The Holiday on the Horizon

As Christmas approached, Theodosia’s parents were expected to emerge from their research long enough to celebrate. She anticipated going home the next day, only a few days before the holiday, and Henry’s return from school made that departure more pressing: he disliked the museum and became a pest when kept there for long. The approaching celebration therefore marked both a break from museum life and the family’s return to its ordinary home routine.

Home and a Change of Scene

After collecting Henry from the railway station, the family went straight to their house on Chesterfield Street. The welcome was domestic and comfortable: thick curtains and carpets kept out drafts, fires burned in every room, and Cook prepared steak and kidney pie. Even Henry, usually easily bored, was not much of a nuisance that evening.

Uncle Andrew arrived after dinner. Because the townhouse was too cramped for everyone, Theodosia’s parents made a last-minute decision to go to their home in Surrey. The family packed hurriedly, bundled up, and travelled there by carriage. Theodosia remembered it as the best Christmas she had experienced, with the rain the one qualification to her delight.

Gifts and Lessons

Theodosia gave each parent an amulet intended to protect them at the museum. Their attempt to respond politely could not conceal the puzzled looks they exchanged when they thought she was not watching. The gifts show her bringing her concern about danger at the museum into the family celebration, even as her parents’ reaction suggests they do not share her sense of urgency.

Uncle Andrew added a more unruly kind of instruction to the holiday. That afternoon he taught Theodosia to throw knives without telling her mother. The lesson recalled an earlier occasion when he had taught her to shoot clay pigeons with a shotgun: she had fallen into muddy slush, bruised her right shoulder, and still destroyed the target. Her mother had been angry and considered her too young, while Uncle Andrew maintained that her mother herself was an excellent shot. Together, the episodes make the holiday more than a pause in the plot: family warmth coexists with Theodosia’s impatience to be trusted with adult pursuits, and with the adults’ sharply differing views of what she is ready to do.