Howl's Moving Castle (novel)/Headscratchers

Headscratchers for Howl's Moving Castle (just the book), so spoilers should be spoilertagged for those who have seen one but not the other. However, fair warning also applies, so Beware Potential Spoilers.

In both the book and the movie, there's a scene in which Sophie pretends to be Howl's elderly mother in order to help him get out of serving in the war. She's supposed to be around 90. In the book, Howl is 28. If Sophie really WERE Howl's mother, she would've been in her 60s when she had him. That's a bit too old to be plausible--considering everyone else seems to have Agedar, doesn't it seem odd to anyone?
- The subtext, in the movie at least, is that Madam Sullivan knows that Sophie isn't really Howl's mother and is only playing along for politeness' sake. Everyone else probably assumes that either age has not been kind to Mrs. Pendragon, or Howl cast some sort of spell on her that backfired.
  - The act doesn't really do that well in the book, either. But it was a desperate plan, and everybody knows those are always quite plausible, right?
- It's also possible that everyone assumed Howl, vain as he is, was magically reversing the effects of age on his body and really much older than he appeared. Of course, Madam Sullivan knows because she taught him, but everyone else...
- In the book, Howl knew Sophie was cursed the whole time. The real reason he sent Sophie to see Mrs. Pentstemmon was to see if she could break the curse, so it didn't matter whether it was plausible. Howl knew Mrs. Pentstemmon would be able to tell Sophie was under a spell straight away.
When did Howl fall in love with Sophie? The book is in Sophie's POV--but it just seemed so sudden.
- Howl fell in love with Sophie when he met her on May Day, back before she was cursed. He was courting Lettie to find out more about Sophie.

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