Blood on Her Tongue – Chapter 10 (Chapter 9) Summary and Analysis

⚠️ Spoiler Warning: This guide contains detailed spoilers for the entire novel. Proceed only if you've finished reading or are comfortable knowing the plot.

Summary

Lucy struggles with the unreality of time and her sister's decay as the funeral approaches. Mrs. van Dijk, Lucy's elderly employer, arrives and makes blunt observations about Sarah's corpse. Lucy confesses she feels maimed and wishes she were dead. Seeking solitude in Sarah's room, Lucy accidentally breaks a mirror and discovers a hidden wad of paper containing Sarah's handwriting. Michael enters, rages at the mirror, then shifts to tenderness; they share an intimate encounter that leaves Lucy consumed with shame and guilt. Afterward, she reads Sarah's diary entry from 22 September, which describes a vivid, disturbing sleepwalking dream involving the bog woman. Horrified, Lucy takes Sarah's treatise on ticks and the diary pages, cuts them apart, and burns them in the library fire, determined to hide the evidence of her sister's "madness." She resolves to bear this burden alone.

Key Events

Lucy sits protectively with Sarah's corpse, warding off visitors' touches with paranoid visions of accidental mutilation.
Mrs. van Dijk visits, comments harshly on Sarah's appearance, and insists Lucy return with her after the funeral.
Lucy admits she feels maimed and numb, and that she wishes she were dead.
In Sarah's room, Lucy breaks a mirror while trying to cover it; Michael finds her and kicks the mirror in anger.
Michael kisses Lucy; she resists at first but then yields, and they have sex in Sarah's bed.
After the encounter, Lucy feels revulsion and self-hatred, willing to punish herself.
Lucy reads Sarah's hidden diary pages, which recount a sleepwalking dream of a sexual encounter with the bog woman, ending with something slithering into her mouth.
Lucy gathers Sarah's final letters and her treatise on ticks, cuts them to pieces, and burns them in the library fire.
She decides that only she will know the true extent of Sarah's madness, and she will shoulder that burden alone.

Character Development

Lucy moves deeper into a state of fractured grief. She simultaneously feels protective of Sarah's body and panicked by her own desires. Her sexual encounter with Michael – one she initiated years earlier after Lucille's death – reopens a well of shame and self-loathing. By destroying Sarah's writings, Lucy forcibly silences her sister's history, choosing control over truth. This action marks a turning point: she becomes the sole keeper of a secret, isolating herself further.

Michael shows volatile shifts between rage and tenderness. His anger at the broken mirror quickly gives way to intimate persuasion, yet his language ("I always want what I shouldn't have") reveals a man who uses desire as a means of possession. After sex, he claims he cares for Lucy more than she knows, but his actions – shoving her, then kissing her – belie a coercive edge.

Mrs. van Dijk provides blunt, unsympathetic outside commentary. Her focus on Lucy's appearance ("black doesn't suit you") and her assumption that Michael bears the worst of the grief exposes the social pressures Lucy faces. She is a reminder of Lucy's subordinate role as companion.

Sarah (through her diary) emerges as a troubled woman whose sleepwalking dream blurs the line between supernatural invasion and psychological disturbance. Her account of the bog woman's kiss and the swallowed "something" prefigures the central mystery of the novel.

Themes, Symbols, or Motifs

Grief and Mutilation: Lucy describes her own emotional state as "maimed" and "mutilated," mirroring the physical decay of Sarah's corpse. The fear of Sarah's body breaking under a touch reflects Lucy's sense of being shattered.
Mirror as Identity and Fragmentation: The shattered mirror – once a wedding gift – symbolizes a fractured self. Lucy's reflection in the broken glass shows her "wan, sickly" appearance; she cannot find Sarah's face in her own. The mirror's destruction coincides with Lucy's concealment of Sarah's secret.
Burning as Purification: Lucy feeds Sarah's writings to the fire, attempting to destroy evidence of madness. Fire becomes a tool of control, but it also parallels the heat of desire and the consuming nature of guilt.
The Bog Woman as Uncontainable Past: Sarah's diary describes a dream in which the bog woman enters her mouth, suggesting possession or contamination. The bog body, preserved from the past, refuses to stay buried – a motif that will likely recur.
Forbidden Desire and Sin: Lucy's use of the word "fornicate" and Michael's talk of "the meat and the madness" link desire with transgression. Their encounter feels like both comfort and betrayal, deeply entangled with Sarah's death.

Why This Chapter Matters

This chapter deepens the psychological horror of the novel by revealing an intimate transgression and a hidden journal that may hold the key to Sarah's mental state. The diary entry introduces the supernatural undertow of the story – the bog woman's influence – and suggests that Sarah's deterioration might not be purely natural. Lucy's decision to burn the evidence reinforces her isolation and sets up a central conflict: she must now live with the truth while silencing it. The chapter also cements the tangled, volatile relationship between Lucy and Michael, hinting at past betrayals and future complications. The mirror breaking is both a physical accident and a portent of further fragmentation.

Study Questions and Answers

1. Why does Lucy destroy Sarah's writings instead of keeping them?
Lucy feels an urgent need to erase any trace of what she considers Sarah's "madness." Having read the diary entry – which describes a disturbing sleepwalking dream involving the bog woman – Lucy fears it will be used to defame her sister or expose a family shame. She chooses to protect Sarah's reputation and spare herself additional pain, but this act also isolates her as the sole keeper of a dangerous secret.

2. What does the encounter between Lucy and Michael reveal about their relationship?
Their sexual encounter is built on a history of grief and forbidden comfort. Lucy admits she originally intended only to comfort Michael after Lucille's death, but desire overtook propriety. In this scene, Michael uses both tenderness and coercion ("I'll be damned if I don't get what I am owed"), while Lucy oscillates between resistance and surrender. The encounter underscores a power imbalance, mutual guilt, and an emotional entanglement that complicates their grief.

3. How does the diary entry of 22 September contribute to the novel's horror?
The diary blurs the line between dream and reality. Sarah describes a vivid, erotic encounter with the bog woman, who spits something into her mouth – something "the size of a child's fist" that she swallows. This tactile, invasive image suggests bodily violation or possession, implying that Sarah's decline may be supernatural. It also deepens the mystery of the bog woman, who appears to have an agency that transcends death.