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Chapter X –Chapter XIV

Summary: Chapter X

When the guests leave, Isabel and Ruth eat leftovers, clean up, and go to the basement to bed. Isabel asks Ruth why she was crying and realizes that Madam has beaten her into silence. Ruth wants her doll, but Finch took it, so Isabel sings her to sleep. An hour later, Isabel sneaks out of the house, realizing the huge risk. The city is full of soldiers as she runs blocks toward the water to Curzon’s shed. She tells him everything she has seen and heard—the crate, the money, the plans—and asks when she and Ruth might be freed. Curzon tells her not to tell anyone else and that she has done well.

Summary: Chapter XI

Isabel rises late the next morning and scrambles to get chores done amid Madam’s criticisms and demands. Patriot soldiers, including Bellingham, pound on the door and enter the home, claiming to be looking for lead to make bullets for the army but really looking for the money, evidence of Lockton’s loyalty to the king. Bellingham and his men find the wooden chest upstairs, but they do not find the money hidden in its false bottom. The Locktons protest loudly. The soldiers arrest Lockton for suspicion of aiding the enemy. After the soldiers leave, Madam orders Isabel to deal with the linens and then faints.

Summary: Chapter XII

Becky orders Isabel to fetch Lady Seymour to take care of Madam. Isabel goes to Lady Seymour’s home, is greeted by a pale, Dutch-speaking servant, and meets Lady Seymour who serves her milk and cookies. Isabel tells her everything that happened except for her role in the arrest. Lady Seymour sends her back with a note for the lawyer and another note for Madam. She kindly insists that Isabel finish the milk and cookies.

Summary: Chapter XIII

Isabel returns to the Locktons. As Isabel empties Madam’s chamber pot, Lockton returns from arrest, and it is evident that he does not suspect Isabel as a spy. The Locktons argue upstairs and fight. Madam has a split lip but blames Isabel for spilling candle wax, which is a lie. While waiting on the men who visit, Isabel learns that Lockton suspects one of the men who has since fled the city of being the informant, letting her off the hook. Becky brings conflicting gossip about the British fleet back from the marketplace. Isabel fetches water from the Tea Water Pump every day, a chore she enjoys. There, she converses with Curzon about current conditions and imminent dangers. They get water from an old slave, Grandfather, a name earned as he claims to be everyone’s grandfather, and warns Isabel to be careful. One night, she sneaks outside and plants Momma’s seeds. She also reads Robinson Crusoe from the library shelf.

Summary: Chapter XIV

Madam orders Isabel to serve the men in the library a heavy platter of food, and she obeys. She sees Lockton, the man she has nicknamed Goldbuttons, and the well-dressed mayor of New York. A map is spread on the table she sets the food upon. After listening to the men discuss how the rebels are not easily bought off, Isabel hears them speak of doing violence against the rebels, led by the mayor, and even plotting to kill General Washington. When the mayor requests money to pay off a man close to General Washington, Lockton unlocks his drawer to reveal a large pile of currency. The men toast their plan, and Lockton insists they all write their names to secure his safety. When asked to fetch more wine, Isabel leaves and hears a scream from the kitchen.

Analysis: Chapter X–Chapter XIV

When Madam beats Ruth to keep her silent, it is another significant turning point for Isabel, and she carries her new power out of the house to Curzon’s shed and reports Lockton’s crimes. The next morning, Lockton is arrested, but no one suspects Isabel’s involvement. There is no turning back for Isabel now, as she is actively complicit. The wheels of this plot line are set in motion and will continue to turn until the novel’s conclusion. In Chapter XIV, when Isabel learns about the plot to kill General Washington, she realizes that she may have the power to make an important difference in the war itself.

In these chapters, the relationships and conflicts among the various characters deepen and sharpen. Isabel’s relationship with Lady Seymour unfolds like a flower. When Isabel is sent to ask Lady Seymour to come to the Locktons to help care for her distraught Madam, the wealthy aristocrat kindly offers milk and cookies to Isabel and wins her trust. Lady Seymour will continue to be a trusted ally through the novel. In contrast, tensions between the Locktons become more and more evident and culminate in a fight in which Lockton splits Madam’s lip. They are bound by lawful marriage, but evidently not by love or mutual respect.

By Chapter XIII, the Tea Water Pump has become a central and symbolic setting. Becky gives Isabel the chore of fetching water every day amid other slaves who do the same, including Curzon. There Isabel meets a kind elderly slave whom Curzon calls Grandfather because he’s the grandfather of “everybody and everything.” Throughout the novel, fetching water from the Tea Water Pump is Isabel’s mean of escaping the household, especially when she has clandestine business to do. The water-gathering chore later gathers significance because the pump is located near the prison.

As the novel progresses, it becomes increasingly clear that at her core, Isabel believes in justice. She believes that she has been unjustly denied the freedom that was promised to her in Mary Finch’s will, a document that she was able to read herself. Now, she deserves this freedom, and she is willing to take risks to win it; she feels she owes it to Ruth and to the memory of her dead parents. Just as she believes that white society owes her freedom, the patriots believe that freedom from British monarchy is owed to them. The patriots’ fight is like Isabel’s fight, and they can help each other succeed.

These chapters end with a blood-curdling scream from the kitchen, a plot device Anderson uses well and often. The scream propels the action forward and compels readers to turn the page to discover its reason and source. It also serves as a fulcrum that keeps the novel seesawing between its two major conflicts: the revolution with its intrigues and the Lockton household with its racial and social tensions. At the center of both conflicts is the young Isabel, both powerless and powerful, trapped between forces beyond her control.

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