SPOILER if you have not read the 7th book
In the final book, we are told that the seventh sister has been identified, but its not entirely sure which one of the Mary Mc Dougal it really is. The adopted Mary/Merry or her adopted daughter Mary-Kate?
Is it possible that:
- Mary-Kate is the missing sister and that
- Pa Salt had to find her to find his biological daughter Merry?
We believe Pa Salt is the man Angelina and Isadora meeting in Granada in 1951. In Tiggy’s letter, Pa Salt writes: “If it had not been for one sentence offered by a relation to you many years ago, I would not have been given the gift of all my daughters. She saved me from despair and I can never repay her”. In 1951, Angelina tells him about his daughter. Its then mentioned that he came back a few more times to see her.
Is it possible that Angelina told him about Merry in 1951, and how he could find her if he adopted all of his daughters? Did they together form the outlines of the grand plan? I don’t think Angelina was the one that told him about the imminent arrival of Merry. Because she was born in 1949, so 1951 would be 2 years later. In terms of timelines, it is more feasible that Angelina told him about Mary-Kate in the 1980’s and where he could find her.
Is it possible that Pa Salt tried to adopt Mary-Kate but that Merry beat him to it? This was not a part of the plan, and could explain why he never found her. She was the final piece for him to eventually find Merry.
When the sisters explore the armillary sphere after Pa Salt’s alleged death, the seven band, belonging to Merope (The Missing Sister) is still empty. Later in the book, we find out that Georg added her coordinates only a few weeks after this. But no-one had seen it until right before they were going on the final cruise. Georg gets very upset as this was obviously not a part of the “plan”. He also only then find out that there are actually two Mary’s.
I believe this “Mixup” is important to the plot. What do you think?