I would say my favorite sub-plot would concern that wonderful place that children just adored: Gregory and Minerva Trask's Boarding School. Greg and Minnie were people you just loved to hate. And their super-prig daughter Charity. You just wanted to grab that Bible out of her hand and wallop her so hard on the head that she'd relieve some of the tension she had in that hair bun. There was the hapless Rachel trying to protect the defenseless Jamison and Nora from the harsh disciplinary action. Laura resolves it all to free her children and all the other tormented urchins by turning the whole place into a parking lot. There, Mommie made it all better! The whole thing was so wonderfully, wickedly Dickensian.
I always felt so bad for Jamison and Nora, being so horribly abused in that terrible school that their stupid father sent them to....
In a way all the Trasks of 1897 did get their comeuppance in someway [spoiler]Minerva is murdered (thanks to her "loving" husband), Gregory is sealed up in Quentin's room, and Charity is forever possessed by the spirit of Pansy Faye....come to think of it I think most of us liked Charity a heck of a lot better once she became possessed.
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