Summary

The next section of the novel begins the harrowing fight for Judith’s life. In Chapter 5, Agnes returns home at last, only to find her son “stock-still, his face white…a swelling, a cut on his brow” (87). Hamnet wordlessly leads Agnes upstairs to Judith’s room.

Fifteen years earlier, Eliza prepares to share her room with Agnes until the wedding. Agnes becomes a surrogate sister for Eliza, “an Agnes instead of an Anne” (88). Eliza offers to make a flower crown for Agnes. In return, Agnes mediates for the spirits of Eliza’s late sisters, soothing Eliza’s worry that her late namesake is upset that Eliza shares her name: “Your sister is happy for you to have her name, for you to carry it on. Remember that” (91).

Agnes and the Latin tutor marry in a secret ceremony attended only by family, including...