In Episode 14, Emmeline imagines her life as a famous quilt columnist and plays matchmaker for Florence.
I’m aware that people have mixed feelings about her, but I love writing the Emmeline chapters. She’s self-centered, sure, but she’s not cruel, and occasionally she can see beyond her own concerns to try to help others. I find her comical most of the time, and no more so than in this chapter, which begins with Emmeline at the breakfast table with her children. As a mother of teenagers myself, I totally sympathize with Emmeline’s desire to make her daughter see her more as just a boring old mom. Good luck with that, honey.
In Episode 14, Emmeline decides to drive herself over to the mill; she finds she likes the feeling of power that driving a car gives her. While writing this chapter I did research on women and driving during the 1930s. Women did drive, despite the concerns that they weren’t mechanically apt enough to control a vehicle, and once they got behind the wheel they had little interest in relinquishing it. In the early days, you had to hand-crank your engine to start it, but by the twenties most cars utilized an electrical starter, so being strong enough to turn the crank was no longer an issue.
For those of you who have mixed feelings about Arthur Purefoy re-entering Florence’s life, hold onto your hats because in this episode we meet a new potential love interest (not that Florence sees it that way, but Emmeline sure does). I have absolutely no idea what’s going to happen. It’s possible that Florence will reject all potential suitors to live the life of a businesswoman. Stay tuned to find out!
