Summary

The next chapter is titled “Bow, near London, 1599.” Tom walked for three days after his mother's death, eating only some scraps and what he could forage. He was freed after his mother's death but could not stay there after the village united to murder her. He planned to go to London, feeling he would blend in better in a larger city. He found a chaotic fair underway in Bow, just outside the city. He asked a woman for a plum. Seeing he was swaying, she said, “Steady thyself.” Tom collapsed, knocking the woman down. Tom bit into a muddy plum but the woman – Rose Claybrook – took it from him. She noted his nice clothes – a symbol of his life before his father's death – and demanded payment. After learning that he had no money, she demanded his lute. He refused, saying...