Chapter+Summaries

Mem Gowdie dies 5 days after Anys. The village is now left without its two most skilled natural healers. No one is prosecuted for the killings of Mem and Anys, due to the fear legal authorities possess. They were reluctant to visit plague stricken villagers.
 * Venom in the blood **

Michael Mompellion is determined to introduce a self- imposed quarantine to limit the spread of the plague to surrounding villagers. He preachers a sermon where he warns villagers they are most likely to be unwelcome in other towns and villagers due to there exposure to plague in Eyam. Slowly villagers begin to accept Mompellion’s request making an oath to abide by the conditions. The neighbouring Earl of Chatsworth provide food and basic necessities to the villagers in return for payment from the village. The boundary stone at the edge of Eyam is used for the exchange.

Mompellion = “ Let the boundaries of this village become our whole world. Let none enter and none leave it while this plague lasts’ page 103-104.

Maggie Cantwell is left unemployed by the Bradfords, unaware of Mompellion’s quarantine request leaves the village with Brand. Mompellion attempts to persuade colonel Bradford to stay but fails. Anna assists Elinor as midwife to Randoll Daniels wife. ( Anna remembers memories of her mothers death giving birth) Anna takes opium from Elinor.
 * Wide Green Prison. **

Maggie Cantwell suffers a stroke due to mistreatment from Bakewell village where she was attacked and driven out of the village.. Brand carts her back to Eyam. Anna takes care of Maggie. Anna has unpleasant words wither he father who threatens to scold her with a muzzle. Anna wets herself out of fear. Maggie suffers another stroke and dies.
 * So soon to be dust **

// The Poppies of Lethe  // · Its Autumn, Anna recalls how Sam was in a mining accident and Anys Gowdie’s herbal knowledge helped to heal his shattered ankle. Anys gave Sam poppies to drug him into a peaceful slumber. · On the night of Maggie Cantwell’s death Anna drug herself with the poppies of Lethe she stole from Elinor Mompellion and has happy dreams of her children. · Anna nurses Sally Maston, a 5 year old with the plague, which has already wiped out all of her family. Many villagers are dying. · Anna visits her best friend Lib Hancock’s deathbed. Lib is too ill to speak, and soon dies. · Anna takes the poppies of Lethe again. · Anna visits the blacksmiths house, the Talbots. She discovers that Kate Talbot has resorted to a charm she had bought from a ghost, to try and save her husband from plague. · Looking for more poppies Anna goes to the Gowdie croft only to find Elinor is also there. Anna admits to stealing the poppies. Elinor confides in Anna her deepest secret: when she was younger she ran away from her upper class family with Charles, who deserted her when she fell pregnant with his child. Devastated Elinor gave herself an abortion with a fire iron. Doctors saved Elinor’s life but she could no longer have children. She then married Michael Mompellion who worked in her father’s stables and recently became a rector. · Elinor and Anna collect herbs from the Gowdie’s and burnt the rest of the poppies. // Among Those That Go Down to the Pit  // · Exhausted Michael Mompellion starts digging graves as the town’s sexton, Jon Millstone is dead. · Anna visits Jakob Merril’s death bed, Jakob entrusts Brand to be his children’s guardian. · Anna asks her father to take up the grave digging job. Joss Bont accepts. · Winter comes, Anna delivers Kate Talbot and Lottie Mowbray’s baby. Anna and Elinor mix herbs trying to find medicines for plague. · Mr Mompellion closes the church and moves church services to Cucklett Delf. Bodies can no longer be buried in the church graveyard as it is full. Michael passes out in the church service due to exhaustion. · Elinor and Anna help orphaned Merry Wickford as David Burton is trying to take ownership of the Wickford’s lead mine. Anna resorts to a dangerous method of fire-setting to dig out the lead ore. The walls of the mine collapse due to Anna’s fire-setting technique and Anna is nearly crushed to death but Elinor saves her life. The woman acquire enough lead to save Merry’s mine, and take their diggings to the Miners Tavern where the miners marvel at the women’s success. // The Body of the Mine  // · Anna recovers from her mining injuries with the help of her neighbour, Mary Hadfield. · Anna discovers that the villagers are not happy with Joss Bont’s grave digging as he has succumbed to greed and asks too much for payment, robbing the grieving. Joss Bont grows to dig graves in advance before the sick have passed away and stops attending church services. <span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore;">· Anna and Michael intervene with Joss Bont’s corrupt antics at Christopher Unwin’s house. Christopher is the last surviving member of his household and Joss Bont had already begun digging Chris’ grave when he falls ill, without invitation. Infuriated Michael Mompellion hits Joss Bont, Joss is later kicked out of the Miners Tavern that night for his violent and bad tempered attitude. <span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore;">· Anna is awoken that night by the shouting of an angry mob. Joss Bont had attempted to kill Christopher Unwin himself, and buried Christopher in a shallow grave, robbing him of everything, even the clothes off his back. Christopher survived and demanded justice be brought down upon Joss Bont. <span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore;">· The Barmote Court is held in the Miner’s Tavern and Joss Bont is trialled by his fellow miners and Anna does not defend her father. Joss Bont is sentenced to be nailed by the hands to the wall of the Unwin mine for his crime. <span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore;">· Nobody goes to save Joss Bont and he dies. Aphra didn’t go as three of her children fell victim to plague that same night. Aphra and Anna go to retrieve Joss’ body, making a grave there in the mine for him. As Anna prays at the grave, Aphra chants and makes signs of black magic over her husband’s grave.

The Press of their Ghosts


 * <span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Anna cries over the loss of her father
 * <span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">She tells Elinor about her abusive, neglectful history with her father
 * <span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">More evidence of a ‘witch – the ghost of Anys Gowdie’ giving people spells and advice about how to beat the plague, for a price.
 * <span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Mowbray’s “boil the babe’s hair in piss” to try and save him from the plague
 * <span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Weather gets warmer
 * <span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Flagellants (John Gordon)
 * <span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Mompellion and Anna find Jane Martin and Albion Samweys doing the no pants dance
 * <span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Mompellion says to Albion he has done no wrong, and to go home, but to Jane he calls her a sinner, tells her she has “taken the pure vessel of her body and filled it with corruption”
 * <span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Mompellion asks Anna to refrain from telling Elinor about their nights revelations
 * <span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Anna helps clean Jane up, they then continue on their way to the Gordon’s
 * <span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">John Gordan was not at his house, Mompellion spent a week looking for him, but someone spotted his dead body.
 * <span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Anna sees Mompellion treating Elinor with such grace and care, and becomes jealous.

<span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">A Great Burning

<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msobidifontsize: 9.0pt; msobidifontstyle: italic; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore;">· <span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Anna hears Elinor cough for the first time, thinks the worst, however Elinor orders Anna not to mention it to Mompellion. <span style="font-family: Symbol; font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msobidifontsize: 9.0pt; msobidifontstyle: italic; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore;">· <span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Elinor’s conditioned worsened, she becomes delirious and Mompellion insists Anna leaves her with him <span style="font-family: Symbol; font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msobidifontsize: 9.0pt; msobidifontstyle: italic; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore;">· <span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Her fever breaks, and she recovers. <span style="font-family: Symbol; font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msobidifontsize: 9.0pt; msobidifontstyle: italic; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore;">· <span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Mompellion thinks God showed him what he must do, have a great burning of everyone’s ‘worldly goods’ so as to destroy any remaining plague seeds. <span style="font-family: Symbol; font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msobidifontsize: 9.0pt; msobidifontstyle: italic; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore;">· <span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">The whole town throws their old belonging into a pile and Mompellion then lights it on fire, they then sing the psalm that became common throughout the time of the plague <span style="font-family: Symbol; font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msobidifontsize: 9.0pt; msobidifontstyle: italic; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore;">· <span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">The town discovers that Aphra was the ‘ghost of Anys Gowdie,’ and the town started to abuse her. Mompellion said that this issue was to be dealt with in the morning, so Aphra was kept in a manure pit, which forced her to fight for her life and turned her into a crazy broken woman <span style="font-family: Symbol; font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msobidifontsize: 9.0pt; msobidifontstyle: italic; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore;">· <span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Aphra loses it and insults and ridicules Anna and Elinor when they try and help her <span style="font-family: Symbol; font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msobidifontsize: 9.0pt; msobidifontstyle: italic; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore;">· <span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Aphra is taken back to her house with her daughter Faith <span style="font-family: Symbol; font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msobidifontsize: 9.0pt; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore;">· <span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Aphra goes mad, shaving her hair off, reciting unknown chants, keeping the body of her dead daughters hanging from the rafters, then she locked herself in her house and didn’t let any one in.