Did he, as neighbors report, die during the last outbreak of the plague? If so, why does the magician's assistant, that she sees at the theater one day, look so much like him? Most of all, having finally found him again, can she escape a second calamity, when a terrible fire begins to move through the city.? Some things have changed, however, from missing neighbors to buildings that still bear the dread mark of the plague, and as Hannah and Anne begin to set their sweetmeat shop, The Sugared Plum, to rights, Hannah searches for her friend Tom, an apothecary's apprentice who stayed behind in London, when she and Sarah escaped.
Accompanied this time by her younger sister Anne - Sarah having elected to stay behind at the family home in Chertsey - Hannah finds London mostly as it was before the terrible events of the previous year, with its bustling crowds and its gay pageantry once more to be seen. Having survived the terrible Plague of 1665, escaping with her older sister Sarah from the horrors of London at the conclusion of At the Sign of the Sugared Plum, Hannah returns once again to the great metropolis in this second story devoted to her (mis)adventures. A great read for children and adults alike. Her descriptions are excellent and one can almost feel the heat and fear of the terrible events of 1666.
Once again Hooper writes in a way that captivates the reader and draws them in. This was as good as, if not better than, At the Sign of the Sugared Plum. As the Londoners try in vain to contain the fire, Hannah and Anne find themselves in grave danger, and Hannah once again risks losing all that is dear to her. However, disaster strikes when a fire takes hold in the city, and starts to spread. After visiting their family in Chertsey, it is decided that Sarah will stay on to help her mother who is expecting a baby, and so Hannah persuades her mother and father to let her take her younger sister, Anne, to help out in the shop. But Hannah has left behind her sweetheart Tom and can’t wait to get back to London. Sarah and Hannah have fled from London by using a health certificate belonging to a dying woman and her servant, taking with them a baby girl in order to deliver her to her Aunt’s house in far away Dorchester after her family have perished in the plague.
I thoroughly enjoyed the prequel to this book and this picks up where that left off.
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