Chapter 4

Summary

• Hazel finds a book called Whisperwood in March 1960, treating it delicately due to its frailty and hinting at danger.
• The book's story of twin orphans discovering a magical world reminds Hazel of her sister Flora who vanished in 1940 during the Blitz.
• The dedication is to Linda Andrews, which confuses Hazel as the tale should be unknown to others outside her family.
• Missing details suggest that the author of Whisperwood, Peggy Andrews, has some connection to Hazel and Flora's past.
• The backstory reveals that Flora disappeared by the River Thames during WWII while Hazel wasn't paying attention to potential warnings from nature.
• Hazel has spent twenty years looking for her sister, and believes the book Whisperwood might hold a clue to her whereabouts.
• Leaving Hogan’s Rare Book Shoppe with the book and illustrations, Hazel's mind races with possibilities of how her personal story has become published fiction.
• Hazel speculates whether the author might actually be Flora or if someone who knew their story might have retold it in America.
• Back home, Hazel finds the interior familiar and comforting, filled with books and remnants of her and her mother's life.
• Ignoring articles and magazine subscriptions her mother hoped she would be interested in, Hazel focuses on the possibilities unfolding from Whisperwood.
• Hazel reflects on a persistent journalist, Dorothy Bellamy, who has been trying to interview her about Flora as part of a series on lost evacuee children.
• Reading Whisperwood, she finds many elements which are uncannily similar to the stories she invented with Flora, with only a few changes.
• Hazel contemplates how her fictional world of Whisperwood may have continued to evolve even in Flora's absence, yet her fears prevent her from exploring it further.
• Despite the mystery and her reservations, Hazel realizes that the story in the book is indeed their own creation of Whisperwood.
• Hazel considers how to find the author, pondering on calling the publishing house or searching in Massachusetts, although she's aware of the impracticality.
• Hazel acknowledges that by taking the book and illustrations without consent she has committed theft, but rationalizes that the fairy tale belongs to her and Flora.
• The chapter concludes with Hazel's constant search for Flora, interpreting signs and hoping to find something that could lead to her sister.