Sapphire Battersea

Sapphire Battersea - Jacqueline Wilson

After finding out that Ida, the kitchen maid of the Foundling Hospital is her mother, Hetty regularly sneaks into her room at night to bond with her. Hetty dreams of being a successful author, writing stories under her true name, Sapphire Battersea. However, one night, Hetty is followed by another girl, Sheila Mayhew, who often bullies her. Hetty and Ida's relationship is found out and as a result, Ida is fired and is sent away to Bignor-on-Sea (named after Bignor but based on Bognor Regis and Middleton-on-Sea) as a housekeeper to an elderly woman by Miss Sarah Smith, a member of the Board of Governors and a friend of Hetty's. When the time comes for Hetty to be discharged from the Hospital, Miss Smith arranges for Hetty to be sent to Mr. Charles Buchanan, a fellow writer, as a scullery maid in the country side of Kingtown. As Hetty is picked up by Mr. Buchanan's cook, Mrs. Briskett, a young man calls out to her and unsuccessfully tries to chase down the cab she was in. This young man is later to be revealed as Hetty's former foster brother, Jem.

After spending most of her childhood cooped up in the Foundling Hospital, Hetty is often confused, scared and in awe by the outside world. As she settles into her job, Hetty becomes a secretary of sorts to Mr. Buchanan, copying his stories as Mr. Buchanan's handwriting is hard too read and, in return, Mr. Buchanan will help refine Hetty's memoir and supply Hetty with stamps so she can continue to write to her mother. She also finds a potential love interest in Bertie, the local butcher's boy, who takes her out to the fair, on a boatride, and a walk in the park. Among all of this Hetty accompanies the parlourmaid, Sarah, to a seance with Madame Berenice, a medium. During the seance, an apparition of Hetty's long dead foster brother, Saul, appears before Hetty, frightening her. Hetty's new life is soon shattered when she accuses Mr. Buchanan of plagiarising her work when she finds a poorly written manuscript of her memoir in his office under the name Emerald Greenwich. Hetty is immediately fired. Before she leaves, Sarah gives Hetty her suitcase and Mrs. Briskett gives her a jar full of money as well as some food to take with her. Hetty goes to see Bertie for the last time before setting off to Bignor to be with her mother.

On the train to Bignor, Hetty makes friends with the kindly Greenwood family. Hetty reunites with her mother but is shocked to see how sickly she has gotten. She calls for a doctor who diagnoses Ida with consumption. When the doctor breaks the news to, Miss Roberts, the woman Ida was caring for she fires Ida on the spot and refuses to hire Hetty, for fear that both Ida and Hetty will infect her. Ida is admitted to an infirmary while Hetty stays with the Greenwood family for two weeks and almost becomes a part of the family, though she continues to visit Ida. After the Greenwood family leave Bignor, (who previously had offered to take her with them as their new family member, albeit with a negative response) Hetty gets a job at Mr. Clarendon's Seaside Curiosities as "Emerald the Amazing Pocket-Sized Mermaid", making a tail out of a green dress, a bodice of pink gauze and a scallop shell bra. While working here, Hetty makes friends with Freda a female "giant". Ida succumbs to her illness and eventually dies in Hetty's arms. With Freda's help, Hetty holds a funeral for Ida.

Hetty returns to Kingtown and goes to see Madame Berenice for a seance, in the hopes of contacting her now deceased mother. During the seance, Hetty finds out that Madame Berenice and her sister/accomplice are frauds, but decides not to expose them as it provides hope, however fake it may be, for Madame Berenice's other clients. Sarah, who was at the seance, takes Hetty back to Mr. Buchanan's house for slice of rabbit pie. In the kitchen, Hetty meets Mr. Buchanan's new servant girl, Rose-May, who reveals that Bertie is now taken with her. Upon hearing this, Hetty runs to the outhouse and vomits. While lamenting the fact that she's truly an orphan now, she hears Ida's voice informing her that she isn't an orphan- her father is still alive. The book ends with Hetty declaring that she is Sapphire Battersea and her intent to seek out her father.