The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox

The novel cuts to the past, as Esme remembers her family leaving Bombay by ship for her father’s homeland of Scotland. Esme longs for affection from her mother, who has become thin and more distant since Hugo’s death. She instead embraces Kitty as they watch the port fade away. Two days into the journey, the seas become rough and everyone on board retreats to their cabins except Esme. Unbothered by seasickness or fear, Esme marvels at the power of the sea, and comforts Kitty through the worst of the turbulence. At other times, she amuses herself with games on the deserted ship deck. When the rough seas subside and people begin to reemerge, Esme meets a missionary couple on their way home to Norfolk. They buy her lemonade and listen as she shares her guilt over having survived the typhoid outbreak which killed Jamila and Hugo. The man says she was saved for a purpose, and Esme wonders what it is.

When the journey ends, Esme and Kitty are shocked by the cold temperature and flat, marshy landscape of Tilbury. On the train, the girls’ mother instructs them to wear as many layers as possible to shield them from the chill.