The Bells of Small Angels: Ritual Summons and the Gonne Family's Bargain

What the Bells Are {#what-the-bells-are} The bells of Small Angels are the church bells hanging in the tower of the small church at the edge of Mockbeggar Woods. They are physical objects—bronze, hanging in the tower—but their significance in the novel is almost entirely ritual. They are not rung for ordinary services or celebrations. They belong, in practice, to one family alone: the Gonnes of Blanch Farm. The novel establishes this through John Pauncefoot's explanation to Chloe when she asks about hiring bell ringers for her wedding. Nobody would touch the bells, he says—they are not for the village. When Chloe presses, he clarifies that it was always the Gonne family's privilege. The word privilege is telling: it sounds like an honor, but the novel gradually reveals it to be a burden, a duty inherited across generations. ## The Gonne Family's Bargain {#the-gonne-familys-bargain} The bells are part of the Gonne family's protective bargain with Harry Child, the ghost of the murdered boy whose story haunts Mockbeggar. When Harry was killed by Fred Hart's dogs at Small Angels church, the villagers brought Fred's wife and baby son back to Blanch Farm, where the family would stay and pay tribute to Harry—lighting beacons and ringing bells. The bells, then, are a form of appeasement, a ritual acknowledgment of the debt the village owes to Harry's ghost. This is why the bells are never rung casually. They are not for weddings or celebrations. They are a summons—a way of calling Harry's attention, or perhaps of acknowledging his presence. Kate remembers hearing them as a child: the bells called across the fields in clear bronze voices, seeming to say here, here, here. Even as a child, she understood what they meant: the Gonnes were calling someone. Who did they think would answer? The answer, the novel suggests, is Harry Child himself. ## The Ten Years of Silence {#the-ten-years-of-silence} The bells have not rung for ten years when the novel's present-day action begins. This silence is significant. It marks the breakdown of the Gonne family's ritual obligations after Elphine's death. The sisters' attempt to destroy the ghost of the Rose House—felling the rose tree and hammering copper coins into the stump—went wrong, and the magic that had kept Harry contained vanished. The family scattered: Ruby and Helena left to live with a relative, and Lucia was turned out by Nan. The silence of the bells is thus a symptom of the family's collapse and the unraveling of the bargain. The village has grown comfortable with the Gonnes handling the danger alone, and when the Gonnes stop, the danger grows. Sam dismisses the traditions as superstition—none of that, and yet Hell hasn't broken loose—but the novel proves him wrong. The silence is not peace; it is neglect. ## The Bells in the Climax {#the-bells-in-the-climax} The bells return at the novel's climax, and their meaning shifts. When Harry Child is about to kill Chloe at the crashed car, the bells ring for the first time in ten years. The sound is described as beautiful and yet it sets Chloe's teeth on edge. It startles Harry—he turns his head sharply, abandons Chloe and Kate, and strides into the trees. Kate immediately understands: it was Lucia, who else could it be? What reckless thing was she doing now, and why? This is the crucial transformation of the symbol. The bells were originally a tribute, a payment. But Lucia rings them deliberately as a way to draw Harry's attention away from Kate and Chloe and toward herself. She uses the family's ritual obligation as a tactical tool. The bells that once appeased Harry now compel his attention. At Small Angels, Lucia insists that she and Sam ring the bells together, with others taking turns. The evidence describes the sound as jangling and haphazardly rung—urgent, unceremonious, a far cry from the ritual ringing of the past. When the bells stop, Lucia listens, then announces that Kate and the others will be safe. She steps outside and takes Harry's hand, leading him into the mist. The bells have summoned him—but this time, the summoner is ready to meet him. ## Character Connections {#character-connections} Lucia Gonne is the central figure in the bells' story. She inherits the family's duty and, in the end, wields it deliberately. Her decision to ring the bells is an act of agency—she chooses to use the family's ritual power to protect others, even at the cost of her own safety. Her final confrontation with Harry, in which she offers herself in exchange for the safety of everyone else, is the culmination of the bells' meaning. Kate Unthank is the witness. Her childhood memory of the bells—hearing them across the fields and wondering who the Gonnes were calling—frames the reader's understanding of the symbol. She recognizes the sound immediately in the climax and knows what Lucia has done. Chloe Day is the outsider who misunderstands the bells. She wants them rung for her wedding, treating them as a charming local custom. John Pauncefoot's refusal teaches her—and the reader—that the bells are not decorative. John Pauncefoot himself is the keeper of the village's knowledge; his explanation of the Gonne privilege establishes the bells' ritual significance. ## Theme Connections {#theme-connections} The bells connect to several of the novel's central themes: - Storytelling as a living force: The bells are part of the ritual story the Gonnes enact. They are a form of communication with the supernatural—a way of speaking to Harry Child across the boundary between the living and the dead. See storytelling as a living force. - The sentient woods: The bells are the Gonnes' answer to Mockbeggar's power. They are a human-made instrument used to interact with the forest's supernatural forces. See the sentient woods. - The burden of memory and the past: The bells are an inherited duty. The Gonne family has rung them for generations, paying a debt incurred two centuries ago. They are a physical reminder that the past is never fully past. See the burden of memory and the past. - Sacrifice and redemption through retelling: Lucia's final ringing of the bells is an act of sacrifice. She uses them to draw Harry to her, offering herself in exchange for the safety of others. The bells become the instrument of her redemptive act. See sacrifice and redemption through retelling. - Secrecy, community, complicity: The village's refusal to touch the bells is a form of complicity. The Gonnes have borne the burden alone, and the community has been content to let them. See secrecy, community, complicity, and shared truth. ## Study Questions {#study-questions} 1. Why does the novel describe the bells as both beautiful and something that sets Chloe's teeth on edge? The description captures the double nature of the bells. They are beautiful—clear, bronze, musical—but they are also a summons to something dangerous. Chloe hears them at the moment of her near-death, when Harry Child is about to kill her. The beauty is the sound itself; the unease is the knowledge of what the sound means. The bells are lovely and terrible at once, like the woods they call across. 2. What does John Pauncefoot mean when he says the bells are not for the village? John means that the bells are not a communal resource. They belong to the Gonne family's ritual obligation—their bargain with Harry Child. The village has ceded responsibility for the supernatural to the Gonnes, and the bells are part of that cession. The statement is both privilege and abdication: the Gonnes alone may ring them, and the village alone is spared the duty. 3. How does the meaning of the bells change from the beginning of the novel to the climax? Initially, the bells are a tribute—a ritual payment to keep Harry Child appeased. They are part of the Gonne family's protective bargain, rung alongside the lighting of beacons. By the climax, Lucia repurposes them as a summons and a tool of protection. She rings them deliberately to draw Harry's attention away from Kate and Chloe, using the family's ritual power to save others. The bells remain a summons, but the summoner's intent changes from appeasement to confrontation. 4. Why is the ten-year silence of the bells significant? The silence marks the breakdown of the Gonne family's ritual obligations. After Elphine's death and the failed attempt to destroy the ghost of the Rose House, the family scattered and the traditions lapsed. The silence is not peace—it is neglect. The novel suggests that the village's comfort with the Gonnes handling the danger alone, and the family's own collapse, allowed Harry Child to grow stronger. The bells' return in the climax signals both the danger and the possibility of redemption. For more context on the novel's broader concerns, see the book overview.