The Thirteenth Tale

After meeting Aurelius, Margaret takes a bath and goes to bed. She awakes with a headache and prepares to meet Aurelius at the appointed time and take him to Emmeline. Margaret is feverish, but brings Aurelius to Emmeline’s rooms, using Judith’s keys. Emmeline sees Aurelius, cries out, and falls to the ground. Aurelius holds Emmeline’s hand until he hears Judith at the door, then leaves through the doors to the garden. As Judith enters the room, Margaret passes out. 

When Margaret finally wakes, Vida tells her that she has been very ill, and Dr. Clifton has been to see her. She also says that they did not know it was Margaret’s birthday, but that Margaret said so in her sleep. She asks Margaret to tell her story, and Margaret refuses. Vida comments that stories need to be told in order to live but does not push Margaret.

Margaret recuperates, but still does not eat and seems stuck in depression. She writes to Aurelius to apologize to him. Dr. Clifton comes to examine her and asks her what she is reading. She confirms that it is Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre, among others. He says she is experiencing emotional trauma and that she needs to eat. Additionally, he recommends The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes to help bring her back to health.

Margaret stays in bed for the next two days, reading Sherlock Holmes. Judith asks her if Vida has ever said anything to her about the thirteenth tale. On the third day, Margaret gets out of bed and goes outside to refresh herself. Then she rereads everything she has written about Vida’s story so far, but is unable to answer any of her questions—for example, who killed John-the-dig? When she meets with Vida, Vida asks her to explain what happened the night she fell ill. She tells Vida that the man in the brown suit was Emmeline’s child, and she brought him to see Emmeline. Then she asks Vida why Emmeline is always digging in the garden and whether she thinks that her child is buried there. Vida tells her that the story must unfold in the correct order and asks Margaret if she will visit Emmeline that night.

That night, Margaret goes with Vida to visit Emmeline. Both Vida and Emmeline look as if their health has declined in the past two days. Margaret and Vida discuss the upcoming Christmas holiday, and Vida says that when Margaret comes back, they will be able to finish their work. Margaret understands this to mean that Emmeline will die very soon, and that the story cannot be finished before then. Margaret visits Emmeline’s room every day after that. She reads to Emmeline and Vida, and Dr. Clifton visits often. The night before Margaret leaves for Christmas, Vida gives her the diary from Emmeline’s treasure box. She tells Margaret to read it, and that they will discuss it when she returns.

The diary, it turns out, is Hester’s. It is badly water-damaged and scarcely legible. Margaret is experienced with reading old handwritten texts as a part of her work and is eventually able to make sense of it.

Hester’s diary describes her arrival at Angelfield, and the state of the house and grounds. She wonders why the master of the estate does not hire a younger person to help the Missus. The Missus implies an inappropriate relationship between Isabelle and Charlie, but Hester refuses to believe it. As Hester is writing, she hears the twins coming out of hiding in search of food but does not go out to them. That night, Hester eats dinner with the Missus and Dr. Maudsley, who explains why she has been brought there.

In the next entries, Hester discusses her impressions of the children. Emmeline has responded to her methods already, but she does not understand Adeline, who seems to destroy things just for the sake of it. She also sees a young boy working out in the gardens and decides to speak to John-the-dig about it. In later entries, she continues to discuss Adeline as problematic, but also sees in her signs of intelligence and understanding, as when she is telling them the story of Jane Eyre.

The selection of Hester’s entries covers a variety of topics, among them her newfound love of Dr. Maudsley, and his reciprocation. The next time she sees the boy in the garden, she goes to John and tells him that the boy should be in school. John says that he does not know what child she is talking about, and that he has not seen anyone in the garden.

While reading Hester’s diary on the train, Margaret makes the decision to not return home for Christmas, but to go to Angelfield instead. She is intent on finding out what happened to Hester.

Margaret goes to Aurelius’s cottage, and, not finding him there, continues on to Angelfield. There is unusual activity going on there when she arrives because a body has been found in the rubble of the library. Margaret believes it may be Hester. She sees the two young children again, and their mother, Karen. She then refers to her son by his full name, Thomas Ambrose Proctor. Karen tells Margaret that Ambrose Proctor, the boy who had been employed by John-the-dig, is her father. They go to Karen’s house, and Margaret gives her the photo she had taken of her son, Tom. Karen shows her a photograph of Ambrose Proctor and tells Margaret that he joined the army and married in his forties. She had always believed that maybe there had been another love in his past. In the photo, Margaret sees Ambrose’s game bag, and recognizes it as the bag in which Aurelius has been found in as a baby.

Margaret travels to Mr. Lomax’s office in Banbury. She informs him that they have found a body at Angelfield, and the police will be notifying Vida soon. She suggests that he delay the police’s notification until she can return to Vida’s house and help to cushion the blow. He agrees and drives her to the train station. While traveling, they discuss Aurelius, and their shared knowledge that Vida and Adeline are the same woman. He confesses that he told Aurelius years ago and asks Margaret if Vida would be angry. Margaret knows that Vida must have realized who he was when Aurelius visited her as the man in the brown suit.

On her return trip to Vida’s house, Margaret finishes reading Hester’s diary. Hester has been seeing strange things in the house, including seeing a girl when she knows that both of the twins are elsewhere. She attributes it to her mind making connections and turning nothing into something. Hester speaks of her desire to do original research and write a book about the twins and manipulates the doctor into participating. She is still having trouble with the Missus, who always opens doors and moves books, even though she has asked her not to.

Hester also writes about executing her research plan and separating the twins. She feels that it was cruel, but worth it for what good will come of it. She also meets with the schoolmistress and speaks with her about the boy in the garden, but she cannot describe the child, and so the schoolmistress cannot help her. She is writing in her diary less, as she is writing daily progress reports about Emmeline. She and the doctor discuss Emmeline’s progress, and Hester writes about their work together, and how fulfilling it is.

In one entry, she mentions that she has not written in the diary for a week because it disappeared. Emmeline denies that she stole it, but Hester believes that it could not be anyone else. After she punishes Emmeline by locking her in her room for several consecutive days, the diary reappears in her room. Hester, uneasy that her words have been read and are no longer private, decides to stop writing in her diary.