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Chapter XXXIX–Chapter XLII

Summary: Chapter XXXIX

Isabel goes shopping with Sarah for chowder fish. In the crowd, they are separated for a few moments, and Captain Morse grabs Isabel’s arm and says he must speak with her. Terrified to be caught speaking to a rebel officer in public, Isabel agrees to come to the tavern later in the day. On the way home, Isabel asks Sarah if Madam speaks about her. Sarah says that Madam doesn’t want Isabel to go to the Tea Water Pump each morning but that she doesn't care what Madam says. Isabel is grateful for the chore, and Sarah is grateful for the help. At the house, Isabel overturns a pitcher of water and offers to go fetch more, her excuse to meet Morse. At the tavern, Morse hands Isabel a loaf of bread for Dibdin with a note inside saying that Washington has defeated the British in Trenton. At first, she refuses to deliver the bread, fearing the action will land her in jail, but Morse explains that she need not know about the note. He claims that the men in jail need to see his own signature to know that the news is real. After Isabel delivers the loaf, she hears a huge roar of celebration from inside the prison. The news of the rebel victory spreads through the city quickly.

Summary: Chapter XL

Another rebel victory in Princeton forces Lockton to go to England to explain the loss. After Isabel drops food to Curzon one morning, she is approached by the British guard she first met in the prison. He asks if her master might hire her out to clean prison cells, and Isabel says she will check, hoping doing so might get her out of the house while Lockton is away. The British guard also says that if she brings him a little food, too, he’ll keep an eye on her “brother” Curzon. Sarah has her baby and names him George. Sarah shares with Isabel that she and her husband may just stay in New York after the war. Lady Seymour’s health is failing, and she asks Isabel to sit with her. Lady Seymour tells Isabel that she wanted to buy her but that Madam would not allow it. She asks for Isabel’s forgiveness, but Isabel cannot find the words. They are interrupted by a call from Colonel Hawkins, who demands a warmer room. Isabel chooses green wood that does not burn well so he leaves the house. Madam is away playing cards. Isabel reads Common Sense, pleased to encounter its revolutionary ideas.

Summary: Chapter XLI

The next morning, Madam calls for hot scones and a seamstress. She will attend a ball in honor of the queen and needs new clothes. Hannah, who has taken over the kitchen in Sarah’s absence, tells the story of once seeing the queen, and the women laugh about her knowing the queen’s full, long name. When Lady Seymour falls even more gravely ill, they move her downstairs, and Isabel thoroughly cleans the large bedchamber where she has lain. That night, when Madam calls for her sheets to be warmed again and again, Isabel wants to set her bed on fire but holds her temper and her tongue. The next day brings beautiful ice and snow, which makes Isabel miss Ruth terribly. She wonders about freedom and slaves who have won theirs, like the poet Miss Phyllis Wheatley. She wishes she could earn money to buy her own freedom, but she knows that Madam will never allow it.

Summary: Chapter XLII

Preparations are made for the queen’s birthday ball. Dancing will occur from six until midnight when the banquet begins. The doctor visits Lady Seymour twice each day. Isabel finishes Common Sense and agrees it is a dangerous book. When she imagines escape and freedom, all possible paths lead to death or capture. One day, after visiting Curzon, she sees Captain Morse, who asks her to do a small personal favor: to deliver a penny he bet with another captain, Captain Farrar. Morse wagered that the British would not hold the queen’s ball with so many people starving, but he lost. When Isabel delivers the coin, Captain Farrar gives her a note to give to Morse. She takes the note reluctantly, concerned for her own safety, but does not deliver it right away, worried about returning home late. When she returns to the Locktons’, Madam approaches her with a riding crop and slashes it across her face with the words “How dare you?”

Analysis: Chapter XXXIX–Chapter XLII

In many ways, the tide turns in this part of the novel. Fortune and fate turn in favor of the patriot army when they win two battles at Trenton and Princeton, both in New Jersey. Isabel delivers a note stuffed into a loaf of bread with news of the Trenton victory to the prison on behalf of Captain Morse. A few minutes after the men read the note inside the loaf, a huge cheer emerges from behind the prison walls. Amid so much death and destruction, a baby is born, representing hope and the future. Lady Seymour, whose health is failing, apologizes to Isabel for not insisting that Madam sell Isabel to her. For the first time, a white person apologizes to Isabel, marking a significant gesture. Once again, in a small way, Isabel shows her strength when she uses green wood to sabotage Colonel Hawkins’ fire, which drives him from the house. Also, she is strong enough to hold her temper and tongue when Madam asks for a warmer sheet not once but four times in one night. Isabel has come into her own as a young woman who is clever enough, brave enough, and cautious enough to shape her own destiny.

Lady Seymour’s health is now in even more serious decline. It appears that she has suffered strokes, leaving her unable to move or speak. The soldier wives move her downstairs, and a doctor visits her twice each day. Isabel continues to be her primary caregiver. Theirs is now a relationship of peace, nearly of equality, and perhaps of friendship.

The plot of Chapters XLI and XLII is dominated by yet another celebration by the Tories, this time a ball to commemorate Queen Charlotte’s birthday, which Madam will attend accompanied by Hawkins. Preparations and plans are elaborate and include hours of dancing and fireworks at midnight followed by a sumptuous feast. As before, the juxtaposition of the decadent festivities with the plight of the prisoners makes each reality even more dramatic and shocking than it would be in solo.

This section ends with another dramatic punch. This time, Isabel has agreed to carry a note from Captain Farrar to Captain Morse, but she does not deliver it right away and does not even read the message. When Madam returns from an afternoon visit on the day of the ball, she is furious with Isabel. She hits her across the face with a riding crop, recalling the first slap on the day they arrived in New York. The reason for the blow is not yet revealed, but it is another strike from the antagonist to the protagonist. This time, however, the protagonist is poised to hit back in a way that will change everything.

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