Chapter Twenty-Seven Summary, Analysis, and Key Themes

⚠️ 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

The chapter opens with the narrator, Isobel, in a state of deep dread. She reflects that she has always feared accusations of witchcraft, and now she believes her mother was right about hiding her colors. She feels that ruin, hunger, heartbreak, death, and disgrace are all coming toward her. She had planned to attend the banquet, show off her dress and shawl, and find customers of her own, but everything has unraveled. She looks at the shawl she embroidered with Adam and Eve and a red apple, and she knows she cannot wear it to the ball when accusations of being an adulteress and temptress are so close. She is not even sure she dares to go to the ball at all.

Isobel reflects on her time in Glasgow, working beside thin, pale girls who were quick with their needles. She remembers that she envied their whispered camaraderie, but she was too young to understand that each girl held her own sadness. Now she understands that there is want everywhere. She has met ladies beloved and ladies bereft, and she has begun to learn how a woman apportions and gathers what she needs to survive. She thinks of Mercy telling her she must learn to move through the city invisible, and she thinks of her mother's similar advice. She also thinks of the washerwoman in the alley by the shop and wonders why she never saw her before. When the evening bells ring, she swears she hears the bean-nighe's tuneless song and the neigh of the kelpies. She feels alone and frightened, having lost her job and perhaps her entire reputation in Salem.

After choking down her first food in days, an old roasted potato, Isobel hears a scratching on her door. She fears it might be Nat, Mercy, or Felicity come to exact vengeance. Instead, a woman named Ginny introduces herself. Ginny admires Isobel's work and says she heard she is talented enough to make most anything. Ginny explains that wives in town sometimes trade food for money or needlework, and she offers Isobel a warm loaf of bread. Ginny's husband George is a clerk who wants to study law and needs an apprenticeship, but he cannot go to the Light Infantry banquet without a proper waistcoat. Ginny's mother used to help her, but she is gone now. Moved by Ginny's grief, Isobel agrees to help. She instructs Ginny to take her coin to Chaise and Harness and pick out the cloth she wants, telling her how many yards she will need and reminding her to get a liner.

The next day, another woman startles Isobel in her garden. She needs a dress because if she goes to the shops, her husband's mother will think her a spendthrift, but it has to be better than anything she can manage herself. The following morning, a mother arrives with her daughter. The girl is poor, with a sallow face and pink, strained eyes from too much time at her needle. She is hunchbacked and asks Isobel to help her make a cape that will hide this. The mother takes in laundry, and her daughter does all the mending for her customers. Isobel bends down to speak to the girl, whose name is Lily, and promises to make her something that will help. They leave her with a length of midnight-blue wool that must have cost them many hours of labor.

Isobel grows accustomed to women coming at strange hours. One early August morning, Nell knocks at her cottage with news that Charlotte's child has been born. Isobel is taken aback, wondering if Charlotte could truly have been so far along. Nell says the boy is tiny but healthy, named Charles for his grandfather, and that Mrs. Silas is on her way to Philadelphia now. Isobel imagines the house where the child was born and the fine pieces she sewed for his cradle and baptism gown. She feels jealous in a way she does not like. Nell tells Isobel that Charlotte asked her to remember her to her, and that she heard what happened at Felicity's shop and wants to know how she can help. Isobel has a moment of crystal clarity and decides she does not need the Cherry Street ladies to go to Philadelphia. Perhaps Charlotte will help her now. She crafts a careful note to Charlotte, asking what styles the ladies in Philadelphia covet for autumn and winter, and offering to gift her a dress made entirely to her desires. She wraps the note around a pair of gloves adorned with wisteria and sends them off with Nell. Then she waits.

Isobel waits for her morning sickness to pass, for the heat to break, for sorrow and bitterness to let go, for Charlotte's reply, and for some word from Nat. All through August, ladies knock at her door—servant girls, tired mothers and wives, poor American and Irish, Scottish, and Black women. They come with requests for dresses, sleeves to hide twisted arms, and garments to conceal conditions so they can go to work. Some bring cloth, others bring coin, and most bring food. Her cottage becomes a crowded workshop filled with cloth, half-done garments, and foodstuffs.

When Mercy sees Isobel's shelf stuffed with food that will soon spoil, she says they will take care of it. She returns the next day to help pile baskets into the cart, then climbs into the seat beside Zeke. Zeke says it is best Isobel stay at home, as they take Mr. Remond's banquet extras to the poor folk out past the pig yards. Isobel says she sees no reason why she should hide from the trials of poverty. Mercy warns they are going far, past the old ironworks in Marblehead and the stables in Lynn behind the shoe factories. Isobel insists on going because she needs to see a cobbler in Lynn to repair her broken boots. Mercy eyes Isobel's waist, where she has left her apron ties loose, but she makes a place for her on the seat.

Seated beside Zeke, Isobel thinks of the day she saw him near the sycamore, the same day Nat taught her to swim. She remembers asking Nat about slave ships in Salem and him telling her that slaves are no worry of his. She wonders for the hundredth time whether Nat is a cruel man or a weak man, perhaps both.

When they reach the almshouse, Mercy tells Isobel she cannot go inside because of sickness, disease, and death. Isobel says she is not afraid, but Mercy insists she stay put. While waiting in the yard, Isobel sees two barefoot children, a man with one leg using a crutch, and a woman carrying two buckets suspended from a pole yoked across her back. An idea comes to her about how to make Lily's cloak work.

In Lynn, they travel the twisted lanes behind the stables. The town stinks of glue and curing leather. Zeke stops the cart in front of a tall wooden building with rows of windows that reminds Isobel of Glasgow factories. Girls her age pour out, their hands stained the color of burnt leaves from the leathering. Behind the shoe lanes are small streets lined with shacks where children run about, some crying, some squabbling, one with a terrible cough. A lone mother stands in a dark doorway holding a babe on her hip. The deeper they go into the squalor, the more worried Isobel becomes, thinking this might be her if she is not careful.

They reach a small cluster of brick homes, and Zeke stops the cart. Mercy takes a bundle of burlap from beneath her seat and goes to the side door of one of the houses. The door opens, the package is exchanged, and Mercy is back in the cart. Isobel remembers the man on the wharf to whom Zeke gave a burlap sack. Mercy nods and says, "We help each other. Food, sometimes a little more."

At the bottom of the hill, Zeke stops the cart beside a cobbler's ten-footer. The shoemaker is a Black man old enough to have seen many hard seasons, perhaps to have been a slave himself. Isobel shows him the cracked soles on her boots, and his work is quick, with thick black tar. Before they settle up, she asks if he can fashion a leather strap to her description. He looks at Mercy and asks why she would want that. Mercy nods at Isobel and says she can tell him best herself. Isobel explains it simply enough, and Zeke lets out a low whistle, saying he believes she is a lady who finds a solution to most anything. Isobel gives them a sly, encouraging look and says she believes she knows what they are doing with their embroidery and the sugar house.

Mercy shocks Isobel by grabbing her wrist and pulling her into a crumbling doorway. She turns with a look on her face like nothing Isobel has ever seen. She says whatever Isobel thinks she knows is wrong, as wrong as Nat calling her a witch, and as dangerous as anything she could ever imagine. If Isobel wants to be her friend, she must never speak of it, never see it, never say it. Ever. Isobel reflects that she has been told to keep silent by women she loves and trusts and by women who care nothing for her fate. She wonders how she can live and be silent, how she can speak and be safe. Mercy asks if she hears her, and Isobel nods, saying nothing more.

Key Events

• Isobel decides she cannot wear her embroidered Adam and Eve shawl to the upcoming ball, fearing accusations of witchcraft and adultery.
• Ginny arrives at Isobel's door seeking help making a waistcoat for her husband George, and Isobel agrees, instructing her on cloth and measurements.
• Over subsequent days, other women come to Isobel for sewing assistance, including a mother with a hunchbacked daughter named Lily who needs a cape to hide her condition.
• Nell brings news that Charlotte has given birth to a boy named Charles and is moving to Philadelphia.
• Isobel writes to Charlotte, offering to make her a dress and asking about Philadelphia fashions, then waits for a reply.
• Throughout August, many women visit Isobel for needlework, bringing food and goods in trade.
• Mercy and Zeke help distribute surplus food to the poor, taking Isobel to an almshouse and then to Lynn, where she sees squalid conditions.
• Isobel has her boots repaired by a cobbler in Lynn and asks him to make a leather strap.
• Mercy warns Isobel harshly to never speak of what she suspects about Mercy and Zeke's activities.

Character Development

Isobel continues to evolve from a frightened, isolated figure into a resourceful and increasingly connected member of the community. Her decision to help Ginny, despite her own fear and hunger, marks a turning point. She moves from being a recipient of charity to a provider of skilled labor, building a network of women who support one another. Her willingness to confront poverty directly by accompanying Mercy and Zeke shows growing courage. However, her curiosity about Mercy and Zeke's activities reveals a lingering recklessness, and Mercy's harsh warning forces her to confront the limits of what she can know and say.

Mercy is revealed to be far more than a simple friend. Her fierce, almost violent reaction to Isobel's suspicion demonstrates that she is involved in something deeply dangerous. Her warning—that Isobel must never speak, see, or say anything about what she suspects—shows the high stakes of her secret work. This moment deepens her character from a supportive ally to a woman living with constant peril.

Zeke is shown to be a man of few words but significant action. His careful handling of the food distribution and his quiet observation of Isobel's request for the leather strap suggest he is a man of experience and caution. His low whistle of admiration for Isobel's resourcefulness shows a growing respect for her.

Themes, Symbols, or Motifs

Concealment and invisibility are central to this chapter. Isobel decides she cannot wear her shawl, hiding her colors as her mother advised. Lily wants a cape to hide her hunchback. Women ask for dresses to conceal their conditions. Mercy tells Isobel she must move through the city invisible. The motif of hiding, both physical and metaphorical, runs throughout.

Women's solidarity is powerfully evidenced. Ginny brings bread and explains that wives in town look out for one another. Women trade food, cloth, and goods for Isobel's needlework. Nell brings news and offers help. Mercy and Zeke distribute food to the poor. This network of mutual support contrasts with Isobel's earlier isolation.

Needlework as livelihood is shown as Isobel's path to survival and connection. Her skill attracts customers, provides her with food and goods, and gives her a purpose. It is also a means of concealment, as she uses it to help others hide their differences.

Poverty and want are vividly depicted in the almshouse and the squalid lanes of Lynn. Isobel reflects that there is want everywhere, and seeing the desperate conditions makes her fear for her own future.

Secrecy and silence are dramatized in Mercy's warning. Isobel is told to keep silent by women she loves and by women who care nothing for her fate. The chapter ends with her anguished question: how can she live and be silent, how can she speak and be safe?

Waiting and uncertainty dominate the chapter. Isobel waits for Charlotte's reply, for word from Nat, for her morning sickness to pass, for the heat to break. This waiting creates a sense of suspended time and anxiety.

Folklore omens appear in Isobel's imagination. She hears the bean-nighe's tuneless song and the neigh of the kelpies, supernatural creatures from Scottish folklore that portend death and disaster. These omens heighten her sense of dread.

The Underground Railroad is strongly implied through Mercy and Zeke's activities. Their distribution of burlap sacks, their secret exchanges at brick homes, and Mercy's desperate warning all point to their involvement in helping enslaved people escape. The leather strap Isobel orders from the cobbler is likely part of this effort.

Why This Chapter Matters

This chapter marks a significant shift in Isobel's trajectory. Her decision to help Ginny and the other women transforms her from a passive victim of circumstance into an active participant in a community of mutual aid. The network of women who come to her for needlework provides her with both sustenance and purpose, offering an alternative to the patronage of the Cherry Street ladies she had previously sought.

The chapter also deepens the novel's engagement with the Underground Railroad. Mercy's fierce warning reveals the gravity of the secret work she and Zeke are doing, and Isobel's request for the leather strap suggests she is beginning to participate, however obliquely, in their dangerous enterprise. This connects Isobel's personal struggles with a larger historical movement for freedom.

Finally, the chapter crystallizes the novel's central tension between speech and silence. Isobel is told to hide her colors, to move invisibly, to never speak of what she suspects. Yet she is also a woman who has found her voice through her needlework and her connections with other women. The question she poses at the end—how can she live and be silent, how can she speak and be safe—captures the impossible position of women in her society and sets up the choices she will face in the chapters to come.

Study Questions and Answers

1. Why does Isobel decide she cannot wear her embroidered shawl to the ball, and what does this decision reveal about her state of mind?

Isobel decides she cannot wear the shawl because she fears that accusations of being an adulteress and temptress are close upon her heels. The shawl, embroidered with Adam and Eve and a red apple, represents temptation and the fall, and wearing it would make her a target for the very accusations she fears. This decision reveals her deep anxiety about her reputation and her growing awareness that she must conceal herself to survive. It also shows her internalization of her mother's warning to hide her colors.

2. How does the arrival of Ginny and the other women change Isobel's situation and outlook?

Ginny's arrival gives Isobel a