comment on theme

The death of Lucy and Francis forces Mab to deal with extreme grief which shows the reader the process of confronting and eventually overcoming one’s pain.

The Coventry raid is the beginning of Mab’s grief after it takes the lives of both her daughter and her husband, leaving her alone and struggling. It is clear that she is not only devastated, but she is also unable to accept their deaths. First, the reader sees her blaming Osla and Beth for the tragedy, even though Mab acknowledges that she is not being entirely logical. When she confronts Beth over not telling her about the raid, Mab thinks, “Perhaps she was being unfair to Beth, who had only tried to keep faith with an uncompromising oath.