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Chapter XLIII–Chapter XLV

Summary: Chapter XLIII

Madam continues to strike Isabel, demanding the note that she knows she is hiding. Earlier, a town gossip reported seeing Isabel with Captain Farrar and humiliated Madam with the news. Isabel finds the inner strength to toss the note into the fire rather than give it to Madam, which infuriates Madam even more. The hairdresser arrives, and Madam orders Hannah to lock Isabel in the potato bin in the cellar. As Madam fumes, she lets it slip that she did not sell Ruth but instead she sent her to Charleston to work. Hannah brings Isabel a blanket, a chamber pot, and water but will not release her. As Isabel lies alone in the dark, the buzzing bees in her head return, but so does a roar that she cannot identify at first. The sound is a roar of recognition in her heart that Ruth is alive and closer than she had thought. The thought gives her courage and insight. Isabel eventually kicks part of the bin apart and escapes. She goes to the drawing room and pulls out a map that shows the long distance to Charleston. When Isabel catches a glimpse of herself in a mirror, she is startled to recognize both her mother’s and father’s features. When she traces the “I” on her cheek, she thinks it stands for “Isabel” and feels the connection to her father and his scars. Isabel finds blank passes in Lockton’s desk and writes one for herself, pausing over what name to use. She recalls her home in Rhode Island, with the sights and smells of outdoors, and writes “Isabel Gardener.” She is reborn with a new name and identity, and she shares a birthday with the queen.

Summary: Chapter XLIV

Isabel leaves with all her clothes, some food, the seeds she’s saved, the piece of the lead statue, and Common Sense, along with a map and her pass. Before she leaves, she builds up the fire for Lady Seymour and then remembers her coin purse. As she takes it, Lady Seymour revives a bit and gives her permission to take it. She manages to say one word to Isabel: “Run!”

Isabel cannot leave Curzon behind, so she goes to the prison and exchanges some of her food with the guard for access to cleaning the cells, which is a lie. He warns her that prisoners have been dying of fever. Isabel fills a wheelbarrow with unspeakable filth and returns to fetch Curzon. She tells his cellmates that he’s dead and loads him into the wheelbarrow, covering him with a blanket she steals from a corpse. Shaking with fear, Isabel hauls Curzon outside.

Summary: Chapter XLV

Isabel heads to the water, where she plans to steal a boat. On the way, she sees British soldiers and a dog around a fire. She and Curzon must take twenty steps to get around the group, so she tries to rouse Curzon, who is very weak. She holds most of his weight as they silently step across a street in the shadows. The dog spots them and begins to bark, just as fireworks light up the midnight sky, distracting the soldiers. Isabel and Curzon make it into a rowboat, and Isabel thanks her Momma for saving them. Isabel rows until her hands bleed and freeze as more fireworks explode, lighting the way and hiding her from everyone’s gaze.

Isabel wakes with the boat pulled off to shore, far from New York. Curzon wakes, too, and asks where they are. She answers that they just crossed the metaphorical River Jordan. The novel ends with a wanted poster for two runaways whose tale will be continued in a “forthcoming volume” called Forge.

Analysis: Chapter XLIII–Chapter XLV

These culminating chapters are full of action, passion, fireworks, and resolution. Isabel has gone too far by humiliating Madam on this auspicious day, and when she throws Captain Farrar’s note into the fire in a singular act of defiance, her action breaks the relationship entirely. Again, Isabel overcomes despair and uses her ingenuity and resolve to break out of a prison, this time the potato bin in the cellar, while the buzzing in her head returns to give her incentive. She acts quickly and efficiently as she grabs a map, checks the tide schedule, and writes herself a pass. Isabel is the strong one now. When she renames herself “Isabel Gardener,” she comes fully into her own power, reborn and resurrected. The final movement of the novel is hers and hers alone.

In Chapter XLIV, Isabel makes her peace with Lady Seymour by accepting her coins and heeding her murmured advice to “Run!” However, she does not run alone. In keeping with her newly found generous nature, Isabel goes to the prison with an elaborate and courageous plan to help Curzon escape with her, a plan that requires her to push through and overcome her fear of maggots and filth, which she does. At the water, fate steps in to help, although Isabel credits her Momma with what happens. Just as Isabel and Curzon need to sneak past some British soldiers, the fireworks burst in the sky. It is a perfect moment in which time nearly stands still. Only a barking dog knows the two are there.

Isabel’s strength and bravery seem almost superhuman in this final scene. She’s already had to carry Curzon from the wheelbarrow to the boat in the way she had to carry Lady Seymour from the fire. Not only does Isabel manage that feat, but she rows against the tides for what seems like hours while the fireworks continue to light their path. The river is similar to the biblical and metaphorical River Jordan that Grandfather predicted she would cross. Somehow, Isabel and Curzon make it across the river alive and intact.

The conclusion is not a happily-ever-after ending at all. Although Isabel and Curzon seem to have escaped, there is a long road ahead of them. During her final fight with Madam, Isabel learns that Ruth has not been sold. In fact, Ruth is still owned by the Locktons and lives at their Charleston property. This reality gives Isabel great hope and fuels her resolve to escape. She and Curzon will journey to Charleston together in what will be the next part of their story, a tale told in an upcoming novel. Just as Anderson ends many chapters with a feeling of anticipation, the novel itself ends on such a note. What will happen next to Isabel now that she has found her strength? What will happen to her friendship with Curzon? What will happen in the war? The novel ends with as many questions as answers.

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