In my book, The Secret of Laurel Oaks, I think the theme is patience pays off. I thought this because in my book Daphne had to wait many hundreds of years before some one found out the truth about what happend. Also when Lila arrived at Laurel Oaks Daphne had to wait a few days before Lila started investigating what happend to her. The theme in the book is unclear to me but thats what i thought it could be.