Chapter summaries Rock Paper Scissors Alice Feeney

Chapter 48: Robin — 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

Chapter 48 opens in the present, with Robin letting herself back into the cottage and locking the door behind her. She dries the dog—Bob—with a small red towel, wiping snow from his feet, legs, and belly before tending to herself. The dog is affectionate and trusting, and even Oscar the rabbit has warmed to the new house guest. Robin lights a fire and settles on the rug, missing her pipe and instead nibbling jammy dodgers in a slow, deliberate way, saving the jam centre for last.

Her thoughts turn to the weekend visitors. By now, she reasons, they will have discovered that the chapel belonged to Henry and that he is dead. She cleared the snow from his headstone deliberately so they would find it, and she reflects that there is a reason she invited them this weekend and not any other. She wishes she could have seen their faces, but she and Bob were long gone by then.

The chapter then shifts into an extended flashback to the day Henry died. Robin remembers his phone call: he said only that he needed her to come, then added that he was ill, and finally that he was dying—telling her to come or not, but not to tell anyone. She drove to the hospital, where she barely recognised the frail man perched on the bed. His tweed jacket hung loose, his white hair had thinned to a few strands, and he signed himself out against medical advice using a fountain pen. They drove in silence along winding Highland roads back to Blackwater.

Inside the chapel, Henry led her to the library and opened a secret door in the back wall of books, inviting her into his study for the first time. The room was covered in white rabbits—wallpaper, blinds, cushions, even a stained-glass window—and in the corner stood a large cage holding a live rabbit. Henry revealed he had named the rabbit Robin, because she reminded him of her. He then showed her where his will was kept, explained that he wanted to be cremated, and gave her the password to his laptop: Robin. He opened his email with the same password, and showed her a letter from his agent confirming his latest novel had reached number one on the New York Times bestseller list. He told her there were things his agent didn't know about him, and asked her to fetch a bottle of champagne from the crypt to celebrate.

Robin hesitated but went, finding the trapdoor locked and searching the kitchen drawers for the key. In the larder she noticed the freezer, the tools on the wall, and the axe that had always frightened her—Henry used it each summer to chop down trees and carve animal sculptures into the stumps. She descended into the damp crypt, found the champagne, and returned to the study. Henry was still staring at the bestseller clipping, but he was not moving. He had died while she was gone. On the desk sat an empty pill bottle, a list of instructions, and a will. Robin drank the champagne herself, not in celebration but because she needed alcohol.

That night, she buried Henry in the cemetery outside the chapel, wrapping his body in an old bedsheet along with some of his favourite books. She ignored his wish to be cremated and his instruction to tell anyone he had died. The next morning she ordered a headstone online using his bank account and engraved it herself with his tools. Although his will left her a considerable sum, she never spent a penny of his money on herself—the only other use of his bank card was to buy props for the visitors. She sacked his cleaner, knowing no one else ever visited the recluse. She read his unfinished novel out of curiosity and was startled by the rabbit in its cage. She carried the rabbit outside, hoping it would run away, but it refused to leave, sitting by the gothic doors as though waiting to be let back in. She reflects that not everyone wants to be set free.

Key Events

  • Robin returns to the cottage, dries Bob, and reflects that the visitors will have found Henry's headstone, which she cleared of snow deliberately.
  • Flashback: Henry calls Robin, tells her he is dying, and asks her to come without telling anyone.
  • Robin drives Henry home from the hospital against medical advice.
  • Henry shows Robin his study, reveals his pet rabbit named Robin, and shares his will, laptop password, and email.
  • Henry asks to be cremated and sends Robin to the crypt for champagne.
  • Robin returns to find Henry dead, with an empty pill bottle, instructions, and a will on his desk.
  • Robin buries Henry that night in the cemetery, ignoring his cremation wish and his instruction to tell anyone.
  • She orders and engraves a headstone using his bank account, never spending his money on herself.
  • She sacks his cleaner and reads his unfinished novel.
  • She releases the rabbit, but it refuses to leave.

Character Development

Robin is revealed in this chapter as a far more complex figure than the earlier narrative suggested. Her actions are methodical and deliberate: she cleared the snow from the headstone so the visitors would find it, and she invited them for a specific reason. Her grief is complicated by guilt—she feels bewilderment and guilt upon learning Henry used her name for his passwords and his pet. Her decision to bury him rather than cremate him, and to keep his death secret, shows a willingness to override a dying man's wishes when it suits her own purposes. Yet her refusal to spend his money on herself suggests a strange ethical boundary: she will take his body and his secrets, but not his wealth.

Henry, though dead, is fleshed out through memory. He was a recluse who preferred his own company, a writer who maintained an illusion of being technologically inept while secretly using a laptop. He was manipulative in small ways—claiming he ran out of change for the payphone, insisting he wasn't being dramatic—and he chose Robin as the one person to call in his final hours. His study, filled with white rabbits, reveals a man who built elaborate worlds in fiction and in his home, and who named his companion after the woman he trusted most.

Themes, Symbols, or Motifs

White rabbits dominate the chapter as a symbol of identity and captivity. Henry decorated his study with them, kept a live one named after Robin, and carved them from tree stumps. The rabbit's refusal to leave when released mirrors Robin's own entanglement with Henry's legacy—she cannot simply walk away, and neither can the creature. The motif also connects to the idea of illusion versus reality: Henry's stories about ghosts and bodies in the crypt were invented to keep people away, yet the crypt held only damp and champagne.

Secrecy and isolation run through the chapter. Henry's instruction not to tell anyone of his death, Robin's silent compliance, and her burial of him under cover of darkness all reinforce the novel's preoccupation with hidden truths. The line that silence cannot be misquoted—presented as Robin's motto—captures her belief that withholding information is a form of control.

Death rituals and inheritance are explored through Robin's choices. Henry asked for cremation; she buried him. He left her money; she refused it. He wanted his death announced; she kept it secret. Each decision inverts his wishes, suggesting that Robin's loyalty is to her own version of events rather than to his instructions. The headstone she engraved herself becomes a physical marker of her authorship over his story.

Writer's solitude and literary legacy are also central. Henry's bestseller arrived just before his death, and his unfinished novel remains on his laptop. Robin reads it, stepping into his creative world even as she takes control of his physical remains. The chapter suggests that a writer's legacy is not only in published books but in the unfinished work and the secrets kept.

Why This Chapter Matters

This chapter is the emotional and narrative core of the novel's backstory. It answers questions the reader has been building since the beginning: how Henry died, who buried him, why the headstone exists, and what Robin's connection to him truly was. It also reframes Robin's role in the weekend's events—she is not a passive observer but an orchestrator who invited the visitors for a purpose she has not yet fully revealed. The chapter deepens the mystery rather than resolving it, leaving the reader to wonder what Robin's plan is and what the visitors will do with what they have found.

Study Questions and Answers

1. Why does Robin clear the snow from Henry's headstone before the visitors arrive?

She clears it deliberately so the visitors will discover the headstone and learn that the chapel belonged to Henry and that he is dead. She states there is a reason she invited them this weekend and not any other, implying the discovery is part of a larger plan she has not yet disclosed.

2. In what ways does Robin disregard Henry's explicit wishes after his death?

Henry asked to be cremated; Robin buries him instead. He instructed her to tell someone he had died; she tells no one. He left her a considerable sum of money; she never spends any of it on herself. Each choice substitutes her judgment for his stated preferences.

3. What does the rabbit's refusal to leave the chapel symbolise?

Robin carries the rabbit outside expecting it to run free, but it returns and sits by the doors as though waiting to be let in. The chapter closes with the observation that not everyone wants to be set free, suggesting the rabbit represents Robin's own inability to separate from Henry's legacy—and perhaps the idea that captivity can become a form of comfort.

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