Clear

After dinner, Ivar leaves John and walks down to the water. He thinks that he has nothing to offer for rent, as he produced little during his illness and has been barely scraping by to survive. He fidgets with the pistol but cannot make it fire, as he doesn’t know how to load it. He wonders if part of him always knew that John worked for the Lowries, if that was the reason that he at first didn’t want John to wake up. He doesn’t know how to understand his feelings, but he does know that he’s loved the time he’s spent with John.

Ivar cuts the heather for the roof, then visits the blind cow and describes the appearance of the night to her. Ivar thinks about asking John why he’s there and what will happen now, remembering the strange hand gestures John made when he first woke up, which Ivar ignored because deep down he didn’t want to know why John was there because as soon as John looked at him, Ivar never wanted him to leave.

When John returns from the hermit cell, he tries to make it clear he’s apologetic to Ivar by making him dinner. However, when Ivar returns, he’s quiet and withdrawn. John doesn’t know what to do. Ivar goes out again after dinner and John goes to sleep. When he wakes, Ivar is already gone again. John cleans the house and tries to make it welcoming for Ivar. When Ivar still doesn’t return, John begins going through his notes of Ivar’s language and alphabetizing the terms. He studies the words Ivar has taught him that have double meanings, like the word Ivar used to describe his strong and stout brother Hanus that also means a big wave in the sea.

John studies all the double-meaning words, and when Ivar still doesn’t return, John goes looking for him. John struggles and stumbles across the island, as the natural landscape seems to fight him, the wind even pushing against him. For the first time, he finds the island ugly. John cannot find Ivar, and the rain begins to make his leg hurt. John calls out for Ivar, begging him not to go somewhere John can’t find him. John feels a distance between himself and Ivar, and it hurts.

When John returns to Ivar’s house, Ivar is there, making dinner. Ivar tells John that he was gone for a long time in his own language, but John doesn’t understand. John reads Ivar’s tone and thinks that Ivar also wants to close the distance between them. They eat dinner together hungrily.

After dinner, Ivar starts to hear music within his mind, a snippet of music from a memory. He begins to hum it, and John tries to tell him to stop, especially as Ivar begins dancing. John’s religion prohibits dancing, and though Ivar knows this from his memories of a Lowrie minister visiting the island and sternly lecturing, Ivar grabs John and dances with him. They dance roughly together, and John is thrilled when Ivar picks him up and spins him around. When Ivar stops, John realizes he’s crying. He feels guilty and asks someone to forgive him, but he’s not sure who he’s asking and what for.

John and Ivar have sex. At first, John is timid and still, but as Ivar touches him more, John stops stifling his noises. They do not speak until they’re finished, when Ivar grabs a loose flap of skin on his arm and says, “Look, I am old” (165), before laughing. John does the same.

They lie beside each other in the dying light of the hearth, and John tells Ivar that he must tell him something. John tried to tell Ivar after the dancing, but Ivar placed his hand over John’s mouth and hushed him. Now, again, Ivar hushes him, telling John that he already knows everything, as he visited the Baillie house. John tells Ivar that he doesn’t know everything, not yet.

Ivar rises early and completes his chores before he returns to his chair and watches John sleep and breathe. After John told him the night before about coming to evict Ivar from the island, they both laid in silence beneath the blanket together until Ivar told John he’s afraid of water, and John said he’s afraid of water, too.

Mary lies awake most of the night. Baxter comes early to her cabin and tells her that they’re approaching John’s island. He offers Mary a life vest for the short smaller boat journey to the shore, and Baxter promises to wait for Mary and John before the boat continues to Trondheim. Mary tells Baxter she’s ready.

Operating the pistol is more complicated than Ivar anticipated. He has no plan, but all he can think of is his desire to prevent Strachan’s men from landing and ending his time with John. On a clear day, he would have seen that the boat coming is not the Lily Rose, and he would’ve recognized Mary from the calotype aboard it. However, the day is not clear, and a heavy fog hangs over the shore and the approaching boat.

John had not expected a boat to arrive today; he thought he’d have another week, or at least a few days.

It is difficult to keep the Laura off the rocks, and the crew struggles to approach the island and fight the current. Mary decides to board the small boat and go towards the island. Baxter and Mr. Lane lose sight of the boat in the mist. They see nothing until a cloud of birds takes to the sky after a “mechanical explosion” (173).

John hears the sound of the pistol shot from the house. On the water, Mary’s head snaps back and she watches the bird fly overhead. She hears the birds shriek alongside the shouting of men from the Laura. One of the men even gets out of the boat and splashes to shore to shout at Ivar for shooting at them. Mary watches as John takes the pistol from Ivar’s hands and gently touches his face. When John sees Mary, he calls out to her.

In Ivar’s house, Mary, John, and Ivar sit quietly together and drink warm milk. Mary’s dress is soaked up to the waist, so the men from the Laura agree to wait for her to dry off before they set off again. John apologizes to Mary for Ivar shooting at her, explaining that he meant to shoot at Keane. Ivar is upset about having to leave, and Mary understands that.

Ivar says something in his language to John, and John replies. Mary is shocked that John has learnt the language so quickly and is surprised that Ivar mended John’s coat with red yarn. Mary knows what’s between Ivar and John, but she can’t say how she knows. She wants to say something to establish her own connection to John, but she can’t think of anything to say.

Mary steps outside, and John tries to assure her that he’s happy to see her as she goes out. She stands outside and thinks about a Chinese spoon she once saw in a store and thought she loved, but once the shopkeeper took the spoon out and put it in Mary’s hand, she realized that she only loved the spoon in the context of the shop’s window. She thinks that if John was not in an unfamiliar environment with Ivar, he would not have developed feelings for Ivar.

Mary conceptualizes her life in three parts: when she grew up in Penicuik and was friends with Alice Monk; after her father’s death when she lived on her own; and after the earthquake when she met John. She now wonders if she’s entering a fourth period of her life.

When Mary returns to the house and sits beside John, she tells him that Ivar should go with them, and instead of two, they can be three.

Baxter agrees to take Pegi on the boat in exchange for the profits of the Wedgwood teapot that Ivar plans to sell in Trondheim. It’s difficult to get her on the boat, but they manage. They leave behind the chickens and the blind cow, as Ivar understands that it’s too difficult to transport them. Neither the Fergusons nor Ivar speak much as they board the Laura. Mary thinks that she’ll wait to ask John about his plans for the church, as he’s not mentioned the church since she’s arrived on the island. She knows he’ll talk to her when he’s ready.

The trio lies together in their cramped cabin aboard the Laura. John shows Mary his list of terms in Ivar’s language and begins teaching her. They also add more words for things, like terms for husband and wife and other less tangible notions. John writes until he runs out of ink, and he borrows a bottle of iodine from the ship’s medical kit. Though the words are faint and barely legible, they accompany John, Ivar, and Mary as they journey north towards Trondheim.