RATING: VERY GOOD
SPOILERS!!!
The ending is happy for the two main female characters.
In 1901 Isabella is planning and dreaming of the day when she and Xavier will be on their way to America. When she finishes to make the brooches, she travels to Brisbane. On the ferry she meets a wealthy woman, Berenice, who she befriends. Berenice likes Isabella so much that she invites her to stay with her. Isabella goes to the jeweller’s, and even though he likes her brooches, he doesn’t have the money for her jewels, so he suggests she leave the brooches with him and when he gets to sell them, he will contact her. Isabella decides to leave just a couple of items with him, and then to her delight when she shows Berenice the rest of her brooches, the woman thinks that some of her friends will definitely buy them. And she is right.
Isabella returns to Lighthouse Bay with enough money for the passage to America. Yet, she still can’t go because Xavier is in Sydney with his parents. Besides, she promised Berenice that she would return with some more brooches and would attend her party. So when the day comes, she persuades Matthew to come with her. So they stay in Brisbane and enjoy themselves even though Matthew feels like a fish out of water. Matthew is also worried because he knows that Percy is trying to find Isabella and he has even placed an advertisement in the newspaper. Yet, Isabella won’t let his ghost spoil her fun. Yet, when she notices a photographer take pictures at the party, she flees.
Things go from bad to worse when she and Matthew return home. First, when she goes to the beach and sees Xavier, she decides to approach him and his new nanny. To her utter disappointment, Xavier recoils from her and says that he doesn’t know who she is. He has been away for three months, and that length of time is too much for such a young boy. Isabella is heart-broken and wants to die as she feels there is nothing left for her to fight for. Sobbing, she falls onto the sand as rain falls on her, and that is how Matthew finds her.
Then Isabella starts feeling nauseous and sick, and it is a few days later when she discovers that she is pregnant. Even with the news of her pregnancy, Matthew won’t go to America with her, but he knows that he has to let her go. Before going, Isabella decides it is time for her to leave the past behind. Since she was denied the opportunity to attend her baby’s funeral, so she decides to bury the coral bracelet that belonged to her and she has worn ever since. So they put the bracelet in a box and bury it in a copse nearby.
Then Percy sees Isabella’s photograph, and through the jeweller’s, he finds her address, but Isabella was already on alert since Berenice wired her about Percy’s visit. So when Percy turns up at the lighthouse, Matthew denies knowing anything about Isabella. While they are talking, Isabella escapes through the window, and knowing that Percy will see her, Matthew runs after her, and they hide in the forest, and they are able to escape him.
Matthew realises that he can’t let Isabella and their baby go alone. So he decides to finally agree and go with him. They have to reach a town where they will take the ferry to Sydney, but the carriage Matthew had arranged for them is out of the question. So they have to walk all the way to the town. Percy makes enquiries and finds out that Matthew is supposed to borrow a carriage from a local men, but when Matthew fails to turn up, Percy decides to try his luck in the port where they will take the ferry.
It is not easy for Matthew and Isabella to walk all the way to Tewantin, and Matthew even gets bitten by a snake. Then when they reach the town, they notice Percy among the crowd. So Percy tells Isabella to board on her own, and hopefully, he will join her presently. He plans to distract Percy. Isabella gets onto the boat nervously, fearing she might not see Matthew again, and when the ferry departs, in her cabin Isabella is afraid that Matthew has been left behind. Yet, the door opens and there he is. They hug as he explains to Isabella that he tripped Percy up, making him fall. We then later that in the fall Percy hit his head against some logs, and feeling disoriented, he decides to go to his hotel. We know that Percy dies in his hotel room, apparently because of this fall he took.
In the end, Matthew and Isabella arrive in New York. The captain of the ship have married them, so she is now Mrs Seaward, and as the ship arrives in the city, Isabella can see her sister waiting for her. So we understand that here is where she and Matthew make a new life with their baby.
In present time the story between Libby and her sister Juliet also ends up in a happy note. Libby realises that the person who is sneaks around her property is Graeme, the guy who owns the diving company. The police doesn’t believe him, nor does Tristan. Yet, when he tells Damien, he trusts her opinion. Damien tells her that she is staying with her sister in the B&B, and he also confesses to fancying Juliet. Libby advises him to sort out his problems with his ex-girlfriend before he decides to approach Juliet romantically. Damien also gives her a piece of advice: leave the past behind and live in the present.
Libby feels happy with Tristan, but something makes her distrust him. When she calls his home phone number, a woman answers, and when she asks him, he claims that the woman is a flatmate. Libby knows he is lying, and some days later he eventually admits that he has been living with this woman for four years, but now things aren’t easy, and she is as good as a simple flatmate. Libby thinks he can’t judge him as she was in a adulterous relationship for twelve years. Yet, some days later she realises that he can’t trust Tristan, and if he was able to lie about his personal life, how can she know he is honest about the plans for the cottage? So she decides to dump him and refuse to sell the cottage.
After her decision she goes to talk to Juliet, and they finally talk about their outstanding past issues. Libby tells her about her decision not to sell the cottage, and then she says how sorry she is for her part in Andy’s death, and Juliet forgives her. The two sisters cry as they hug. Then Libby tells her about Andy’s crush on her, and they decide to start afresh and make up for the lost time.
When Damien returns, he brings the other notebooks from Matthew Seaward. From Emily, Mark’s wife, Libby had learnt that apart from the captain’s wife, there was another woman aboard: Isabella Winterbourne, who had lost a baby, and had a hard life. So now Libby knows that the “I” in Matthew’s journals refers to Isabella, and Damien thinks that they were in love, or that is what he gets from the way Matthew wrote about her. There is an entry about a treasure buried fifty metres from the lighthouse, and Libby realises that this is what Graeme has been trying to find, hoping to find the lost mace. Libby and Damien then decide to see if there is any truth in it, and when they find a rock with a little bird, they know that this is the name Matthew had for Isabella, so they start digging, and they find a box. Inside the box there is not the mace they expected to find, but a child’s bracelet, and Libby realises that this is a much more precious treasure for Isabella than the mace.
After that Damien goes to find Juliet, and as soon as she sees him, she throws her arms around him, and we understand that despite her misgivings, she takes up with him from then. The last chapter takes place in 2012. Libby has decided to stay in Australia after all the turmoil with the cottage, and as she calls on her sister, we know that the cracks in their relationship have been repaired. Then we also learn that Juliet is now the proud mother of a baby girl, so her relationship with Damien is secure and firm. Libby comes to Juliet with a present. It is Isabella’s coral necklace, which she puts on her niece. Such a lovely end, joining past and present.
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