Chapter 26 Summary: Blood on Her Tongue
⚠️ 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
After killing Michael and Arthur, Lucy hears a halting, inhuman noise on the stairs. Not-Sarah emerges, her body twisted and weak from the drugs Arthur and Michael gave her. She rushes to Lucy, checking for injuries. Lucy explains she killed Michael to prevent his plan to have Not-Sarah committed, then killed Arthur when he tried to force Lucy to marry him by blaming her sister. Not-Sarah calmly assesses the scene, dips a finger in Michael’s blood and sucks it with bliss. She proposes to consume Michael entirely—bones included—and dispose of Arthur in the bog, using the same black waters that once hid Marianne. To buy time, they will fetch Katje from Zwartwater and stage a fake elopement between Arthur and Katje. Lucy confesses she was Michael’s mistress. Not-Sarah reveals she already knew, having entered the marriage to avoid being left behind. They reaffirm their sisterhood, and Not-Sarah cleans Lucy’s bloodied hands with her mouth. The chapter closes with a fictional newspaper article reporting the disappearance of the three Schatteleyns and the sister, hinting at speculation about the bog.
Key Events
- Lucy hears Not-Sarah’s unnatural, dragging footsteps on the stairs.
- Not-Sarah emerges, embraces Lucy, and licks Michael’s blood from the floor.
- Lucy admits she killed Michael and Arthur in quick succession.
- Not-Sarah devises a plan: eat Michael, sink Arthur in the bog, retrieve Katje, and stage an elopement to mislead authorities.
- Lucy confesses her affair with Michael; Not-Sarah reveals she already knew and married him out of fear of abandonment.
- Not-Sarah cleans Lucy’s hands with her tongue.
- An in-universe newspaper article details the mysterious disappearance of Lord and Lady Schatteleyn and Miss van der Molen.
Character Development
- Lucy van der Molen: Transforms from a guilt-ridden accomplice to an active killer. Her confession of the affair shows her seeking absolution, but Not-Sarah’s acceptance wipes away that shame. Lucy’s physical shaking and dark laughter at the end signal a permanent break from her former self.
- Not-Sarah Schatteleyn: Reveals layers of cunning and emotional depth. She knew about the affair all along yet chose to stay, motivated by her own insecurity. Her practical ruthlessness (eating Michael, proposing the bog) contrasts with her maternal tenderness toward Lucy. The admission that she married to avoid being left behind humanizes her monstrous nature.
- Michael and Arthur: Remain absent as corpses, their deaths underscoring the sisters’ final break from patriarchal control. Michael’s selfishness and Arthur’s manipulation are rendered meaningless by their violent ends.
Themes, Symbols, or Motifs
- Consumption and Communion: Not-Sarah drinking Michael’s blood and later cleaning Lucy’s fingers echoes both vampiric hunger and intimate care. The act of eating the body literalises the sisters’ bond: they literally incorporate Michael’s remains.
- The Bog as Erasure: Arthur’s planned disposal in the bog mirrors Marianne’s fate. The bog is not just a grave but a place where inconvenient truths sink from memory, enabling the sisters’ disappearance.
- Secrecy and Revelation: The confession of the affair and Not-Sarah’s prior knowledge shift power between the sisters. Secrets no longer divide them; instead, shared knowledge solidifies their alliance.
- Transformation of Identity: Lucy’s hands, once used for domestic tasks, now are stained with murder. She cannot return to the person she was. The newspaper article frames the three women as legends, their humanity subsumed by myth.
Why This Chapter Matters
This chapter is the emotional and plot climax of the novel. Lucy’s double murder and Not-Sarah’s clever plan set the sisters on a path of permanent escape. The confession about the affair resolves a central tension, while Not-Sarah’s acceptance proves that her love transcends human morality. The newspaper coda shows how the outside world will misunderstand the events, cementing the sisters’ story as folklore. Everything that follows will be the consequences of this night.
Study Questions and Answers
1. Why does Not-Sarah choose to eat Michael’s entire body rather than simply hide it?
Not-Sarah’s consumption serves both practical and symbolic purposes. Practically, it eliminates all physical evidence of murder. Symbolically, it reclaims Michael—who tried to commit her—as sustenance, turning the threat into fuel for her survival. It also demonstrates her non-human nature and her deep-seated hunger, which has been starved by captivity.
2. How does Lucy’s confession affect the power dynamics between the sisters?
Lucy admits her betrayal as the weaker party, but Not-Sarah’s revelation that she already knew and married Michael out of her own fear equalises them. Instead of holding guilt over Lucy, the knowledge becomes something they share. Lucy’s later trembling and laughing indicate she has surrendered control of her fate to Not-Sarah, trusting her completely.
3. What does the newspaper article reveal about the way the public will remember these events?
The article frames the disappearance as a tragic accident or an elopement, never suspecting murder. It reduces the sisters’ agency to a medical marvel (catalepsy) and a mystery. This reinforces the theme of erasure: the patriarchal society cannot comprehend the sisters’ actions, so it substitutes plausible but false narratives.