The Essex Serpent

Autumn arrives in Aldwinter. The Serpent has been spotted elsewhere on the estuary. Naomi is still missing; it is assumed the Serpent took her. Garrett continues to recover, helped by Spencer. Garrett has memorized Cora’s letter. Martha writes to Spencer asking for updates on the political movements and asks for help for Burton, who is about to be kicked out of his home. The Ransome children have grown “nearly as plump as Charles” (237); one night, Katherine finds the brother’s weeping in their sister’s arms. Cora remains in the hotel she loathes and has been advised not to visit Garrett. Cora is sulking and Martha does not know how to help. Cora reads Will’s letters but does not know how to reply. Cora tries “to turn all her unused affection on Francis” (237) but worries that he is sorry for her or finds her amusing. Martha loses her temper and accuses Cora of wanting courtiers, rather than “friends or lovers” (238). Will is lost for words in front of his congregation, who are beginning to lose trust in their parson. He wavers back and forth between Cora and Stella, lacking direction. Stella’s condition worsens but, “of them all, only Stella is happy” (239). Her love for her family “does not diminish, but grows distant” (239). She is aware that her husband is obsessing over Cora and wonders when Cora will return, writing her thoughts in her blue book.

Burton and Martha attend a speech by Eleanor Marx Aveling at a meeting of the Socialist League. Later, he and Martha eat chips and discuss praxis. She takes him home. Afterward, he writes to her, asking “won’t you marry me?” (244). Martha refuses, as she “can never be done” (245) with Cora, even if Cora is done with her. Though she refuses Burton’s proposal, she offers to be his companion or his comrade. Burton accepts.

A “vile smell” (247) rises off the Blackwater and causes the residents of Aldwinter to vomit. Will assumes he has a dead mouse beneath his floorboards but soon realizes that it is coming from outside. He leaves Stella in the house and investigates. A crowd has gathered on the High Road; they have no explanation for the smell and seem keen to blame the Serpent. He leads the villagers toward the shore to prove that it is not the Serpent, though he has begun to doubt himself. As they near the shore, the crowd thins. Will thinks of Cora and hates himself for doing so. A woman ahead begins to shriek. By the shore, there is the rotting carcass of a great silver fish that has died from tapeworms. Banks tells the others to “leave it” (253) and allow the tide to take the rotting carcass.

Katherine writes to Cora, revealing that “they have found the Essex Serpent” (254); she describes the creature as “20 feet, only not as all bulky. Rather like an eel” (254). She says that the village is “quite transformed” (255); Stella, however, does not believe that the fish was the Essex Serpent. Katherine admonishes Cora for cutting off her connections to her friends and tells her to “have courage” (256). Cora replies, assuring Katherine that her blunt words are welcome. She admits to losing her sense of wonder with the natural world. Cora tries to explain herself and is annoyed at her own self-pity. She finishes by promising to write to everyone and to visit Aldwinter. Cora writes to Will and Stella in the same letter and tells them that she is to return.

Cora arrives at the rectory but only Stella is home. Francis is astonished by Stella’s collecting skills: Everything in the house is blue. Stella has still not seen her children, though they are due to visit soon. She confides in Cora her belief that the Essex Serpent was not the fish and says that she can “hear it whispering in the night” (262). They exchange gossip about mutual acquaintances. When Cora departs, Stella bids farewell to Francis and tells him to “bring me your treasures” (263) the next time he visits so that they can compare.

Cora writes to Will and admits that she lives in a “state of disgrace” (264). Stella, she says, seems to be the only person who is not angry at her. She finishes by asking if she can see Will soon. Will responds, describing the pallor that was lifted from the village on the discovery of the dead fish. He invites her to walk with him. Cora waits on the common for Will. They spot one another, “unable to keep from smiling” (268). They share everything with one another, as though they are right back where they were before the “breach” (269) in their friendship. They talk about the dead fish and Stella’s sickness. Stella says that she is “ready” (271) and “ready to give herself over to God” (271). The pair find themselves alone in the forest as evening arrives. They finally discuss their feelings for one another; Will takes Cora in his arms and their relationship becomes sexual.

That same night, Garrett walks through the Essex countryside and reflects on his failures. He considers himself useless, as well as “a bitter fury and a curious deadening” (277). Evaluating his remaining reasons for living, he finds each to be inadequate. Sitting beneath an oak tree, he contemplates suicide. Banks sits beside Leviathan and keeps watch, convinced that the Essex Serpent has not been caught. He drinks and then spots Francis, watching him. Francis unnerves Banks and asks, “[D]idn’t you see it then? Can’t you hear?” (280). Francis insists that Banks look out at something on the water; he hears “the sound of something moving” (280). Banks sees “the long low curve of something dark, hunched” (280). It groans and clambers up the beach. Banks calls for Francis but the boy has vanished into the fog. Scared, Banks scrambles away and runs home. Francis stays and walks through the fog toward the sound; he sees something. He is relieved, then disappointed, then amused. When he looks again, it is gone. Francis decides that he must tell Stella about what he has discovered. He writes to her and asks to visit.

Garrett selects a branch from which to hang himself. He removes his belt and remembers that it was a gift from Spencer. This gives him pause for thought. He cannot bring himself to inflict the pain of his suicide upon Spencer. This infuriates Garrett. Later, Spencer sees Garrett step out of a cab. Garrett storms past into the hotel and refuses to answer Spencer’s questions. In the room, Garrett strikes Spencer across the temple and says, “[I]f it hadn’t been for you it would all be done with now, it would all be finished” (285). Garrett collapses into a pained heap and Spencer assures his friend that he is “not going to go away” (285).

Stella invites Francis to her home “as soon as possible” (286). Cora writes to Will about their experience in the forest, asking if he feels guilt and revealing that she feels none. She tells Will that “everything which draws me to you is everything that drives me away” (288). She sends the note with Francis, who is visiting Stella. Martha takes Francis to the Ransome home. Francis hands Stella his blue-colored gifts and she is “delighted” (289). Martha goes to find Will, who is outside, and Stella and Francis are left alone. He tells her about his visit to the beach and tells her what he saw; Stella falls to laughter and cannot stop. They decide that they should show the village people the truth about the Essex Serpent. Stella begins to write in her book with Francis beside her. She tells Francis her plan and draws it in her book; Francis is “aware for the first time of being wanted, and not out of duty” (291). they arrange to set their plan in motion the next day, after Stella has seen her children. Martha hands Will the letter and then enters the house, finding Francis “seated astride Stella’s lap, his arms clasped about her neck” (292) in a way he would not allow of anyone else.

Colchester is foggy and “queerly mute” (294). Taylor has taken on a young apprentice, a boy who appeared from nowhere one morning. Charles, Katherine, and the Ransome children pass but do not see Taylor in the fog. Inside the hotel, Charles meets Spencer and Garrett. Charles and Spencer discuss Martha and politics; Charles has heard a rumor that Martha and Burton are to marry and Spencer is shaken by the news. The guests leave and Katherine tells Charles that she worries for Garrett. As they travel to Aldwinter, Joanna thinks about her mother and how much she misses her. Joanna has become used to London, however. When they walk past the ruin, she gasps and runs across to Taylor and his apprentice. She rains blows down on Taylor and demands to know what he has done to Naomi’s hair. The apprentice is actually Naomi, who blames Cora for the villages troubles and her desire to escape. Naomi finally breaks into tears and agrees to go back to Aldwinter.

The children arrive back at the rectory and greet their parents. Will watches the reunion and, though he adores his family, thinks about how he will recount it for Cora. Stella asks that her children “be with me now before I go” (302). In her blue book, Stella writers that “God’s Serpent servant in the blue Blackwater water has come to take our taxes. I shall pay their dues and it will go back whence it came and I shall enter the gates of GLORY” (304). Banks sits beside the quay, “counting out his losses” (305). Naomi approaches and places her hand on his shoulder. She sits down beside him and begins repairing the fishing nets. She apologizes for going away and explains that she was scared.

Stella lays down to sleep with all her children around her. She tells Joanna that she “wouldn’t do without an hour of my suffering” (306) and asks for help in collecting her treasures, as she wants to take them with her. Will finds himself unable to reply to Cora’s letter. He struggles with his actions as “it had not felt like sinning” (307). Across the common, Francis waits. At “five o’clock precisely” (307), he exits the house with Stella’s order in his pocket. Joanna spends time with Naomi they walk through the marshes together. Joanna feels lost and wants to go back but Naomi insists on going further and says that she will “summon it” (309). Naomi points toward Leviathan and they see a “black, snub-nosed” (309) shape with an “ugly lumpish surface” (309). Then, they are right next to the thing, and Naomi tries to read the markings down the side: “[I]t says Gracie” (310). It is “a black boat, small and clinker-built, long sunk in the Blackwater and hick with barnacles which gave it the look of uneven flesh” (310). The wooden hull grinds against the shore. Joanna runs to get her father while Naomi stays with the boat. Francis watches from inside Leviathan.

Will awakes at his desk, still unable to write his letter. Joanna arrives at the rectory and drags her father to see what she has found. Will sees the boat and understands. He takes the two girls home. Francis arrives home and tells Cora that he is afraid that he has done “something wrong” (313). He sits on her lap, cries, and shows his mother Stella’s diagram: It is of a woman “laid out beneath a curling wave” (313) and an exact time. Cora gives Francis to Martha and rushes to leave.

Will and the two girls spot Cora while walking on the High Road. Cora runs to them; she believes that Stella is down by the water. They run to the shore and see the boat, surrounded by the carefully-arranged blue stones. They try to lift the boat and it disintegrates, revealing Stella beneath. Cora and Will shout and beg Stella not to go. Her eyes flutter and she coughs. She had heard the whispers and went down to the river to “make peace with it for Aldwinter’s sake” (316). Will tells her that she bravely “sent it away” (316). They pick her up and carry her. Stella tells Cora that Francis should take all her blue stones and cast them in the water to “turn the Blackwater blue” (316).