When Mary goes to call the family to let them know Julia is awake, Julia receives her first real lesson in class privilege. The hospital staff hadn’t realized who she was and since Julia had been brought in by tinkers (Scottish gypsies) who found her on a river path they had assumed she was one of them. No one in the family had been expecting her, so when she wasn’t home they hadn’t looked for her till the planned arrival date. Julia has been in hospital for two days with a nasty lump on the back of her head. Her friend, Mary, the town librarian is sitting beside her and is overjoyed when Julia awakens. Her next moment of awareness is to awaken to a pounding headache in a hospital. Then, determined to get a good start on her summer holiday, she heads out to the banks of the River Fearn to lie on some rocks and get some sun. She helps herself to a bath and some left-about clean clothes. Not only is her luggage lost during the trip but no one is at home when she arrives. Of course the surprise turns out to be on her. It will be a great surprise to everyone to have her appear two days early, arriving by means of her own ingenuity and gumption. The maternal ancestral estate is being sold off to pay debts and she will be helping her grandmother, mother and whichever brothers show up pack the last of the belongings, readying some for auction and others to be moved to Craig Castle, where her parents live.
Lady Julia Beaufort-Stuart, fifteen years of age and feeling quite grown up, books her own trip to Strathfearn House. The Pearl Thief is the prequel to that tale, a look at Julia before she became Verity. A breathtaking story about a young Scottish woman taken prisoner for being a spy in Nazi Germany, it was heart wrenching, enlightening, beautiful, and lyrical. Code Name: Verity is one of the most memorable YA novels I have ever read.
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