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Summary

Chapters 4-5

Chapter 4 

The convent stands at the top of the hill overlooking the town. It shares a wall with St. Margaret’s, where Furlong’s daughters attend school. The Good Shepherd nuns run the convent, a place meant to reform troubled girls of “low character”. It’s rumored that these girls are overworked, underfed, cruelly punished, and separated from their illegitimate children, who are then sent to wealthy families in America, Australia, and other countries. Furlong refuses to believe these rumors.  Attempting to take a pear from the convent garden, he’s scared off by geese. Furlong walks into the convent, where he finds shoeless girls scrubbing the floor on their hands and knees. One desperate girl approaches Furlong, begging him to help her escape and even offering to work for him. He says he can’t help, and she tells him she wants to drown herself. A nun approaches Furlong, and Furlong asks for Sister Carmel to approve his coal delivery. He considers asking about the begging girl, but he doesn’t. The nun writes out the receipt, and he leaves.  

Driving away in the lorry, Furlong panics, overwhelmed by the girls’ conditions and the padlock inside the convent door, which keeps the girls trapped inside. Furlong is distracted while he drives and ends up getting lost. He finds an old man with a billhook and asks where the road will take him.  

That evening, Furlong tells Eileen about his experience at the convent. She questions why he’s even thinking about it and tells him that it’s not their problem. The two begin to argue. Eileen tells him that overthinking won’t help, that he’s sensitive, and that he should ignore it. She reminds him he knows what it’s like to witness young girls suffer, given his mother’s experience of being a teen mom. She insists that they should mind their own business and focus on raising their girls right. Furlong challenges her, asking how she’d feel if it was one of their daughters in the convent. Eileen reminds him that their girls are not there and that he needs to stay grounded in reality. Furlong replies that it’s a good thing Mrs. Wilson was not as ignorant as she is, otherwise his mother would have ended up in a place like the convent. Eileen tells him that Mrs. Wilson had different priorities because she was privileged and free. 

Chapter 5 

In the days before Christmas, Furlong is inundated with delivery requests due to a snow forecast. He checks in with Kathleen, who helps him run the office while he makes out-of-town deliveries. Furlong tells Kathleen he’ll need to work early Sunday. Sensing something’s wrong, he asks if the men at the yard are bothering her, but she reassures him that they aren’t. She just wants to shop with friends but has a dentist appointment. 

The next morning, Furlong wakes before dawn for deliveries. Watching Eileen sleep peacefully, he wishes he could stay at home. He checks in on the girls and finds that Loretta is awake. She asks him if he really has to leave, and he says he must. When Furlong arrives at the coal yard, he realizes the padlock is frozen and goes to ask a neighbor for hot water to unfreeze the lock. After he returns the kettle to the woman, he imagines for a moment what it would be like to be her husband. She offers him a cup of tea, but he tells her he needs to get back to the yard. He offers her a small kindness—a free bag of logs, as a thank-you—but she rejects the offer, wishing him a Happy Christmas. 

At the yard, Furlong checks the lorry, reviews the orders, and leaves a note for a bag of logs to be left at the neighbor’s house across the street. Returning to the convent, Furlong struggles to open the coal shed’s stiff lock and discovers a young girl shivering inside. He gives her his jacket and helps her stand. She’s cold, weak, and asks about her fourteen-week-old baby, whom she has not seen since his birth. Desperate, she asks Furlong to ask the nuns about where her baby is. Furlong rings the convent bell, where a nun answers briefly before shutting the door. Eventually, Mother Superior appears, acting surprised at the girl’s situation, and invites them both in. The girl is taken away by another nun for a bath. Furlong says he has to leave for Mass, but Mother Superior insists he stay. 

Walking through the convent, Furlong sees girls skinning turnips and washing heads of cabbages. Mother Superior, condescendingly calling Furlong “Billy”, invites him into a room with a fireplace. The two drink tea while she praises his daughters’ progress in music, and asks if they plan to attend St. Margaret’s despite limited spots. She suggests it must be disappointing not to have a son to carry on the family name. But Furlong, a proud son of a single mother, tells Mother Superior that he has his mother’s name, and it never bothered him. He continues by explaining how he’s proud of his daughters and has nothing against women, noting that everyone comes from a woman.  

The young girl from the coal shed reappears, now wearing a blouse, cardigan, a pleated skirt, and shoes. Her hair, still wet, catches Furlong’s attention; he thinks that the nuns were fast–almost suspiciously fast–in cleaning her up. Mother Superior offers her tea and cake and casually inquires why she was in the coal shed. The girl, clearly afraid of giving the wrong answer, says it was part of a game she was playing with the other girls. In order to convince Furlong that the situation is harmless, Mother Superior tells Sarah it was just “a big nothing,” prompting her to repeat the words aloud and downplay her experience. The girl breaks down crying and is taken to the kitchen with another nun. Now that the girl has left, Furlong notices the nuns want him to leave, too, but he decides to stay, wanting to discover the truth behind the convent’s treatment of the girl. Mother Superior pours him more tea and gives him an envelope with a Christmas card and money, a clear attempt at hush money.  

On his way out, Furlong sees the young girl in the kitchen and offers help. She says her name is Enda, a boy’s name, but when he asks for her real name, she replies that it’s Sarah—the same name as his mother. He tells her his name and where to find him if she needs anything. He leaves, unsettled, and hears the door lock behind him. 

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