On the train to Manchester, Lilian rereads the handwritten pages (she has the ones from Orpheus in the Tower, while Harry is guarding the ones from He Sings of His Devotion). Then she reads the novel itself, discovering that it is a pirate adventure story. Confused about why the title does not match the story, she discovers that the title page has been “tipped in” (printed separately and then inserted). Thus, the title page is not part of the original book and is a further step taken to create confusion and disguise.

In Manchester, Lilian goes to a bookshop, hoping to uncover information about Montague and Cliff (the publishers of the Bell novels). The book is well-stocked with novels by Bell, including one published in 1899 (only two years earlier). Lilian chats with the proprietor and a customer, who share rumors that Abel Bell is a local recluse; no one has ever seen him, although he has been publishing for 50 years. The bookshop owner gives Lilian directions to Montague’s office.

Lilian arrives at the address, where she meets Henry Montague, an eccentric elderly man, and his secretary Dotty. When she expresses her interest in Abel Bell, Montague asks if she is an obsessed fan: readers sometimes come seeking information about their favorite author. Lilian shows him the book, and he confirms that it is actually called The Devil’s Destiny. She asks if Bell ever published novels titled A Song for a Knave and He Sings His Devotion. Montague confirms neither title exists.

Dotty explains that years ago, a book collector named Ambrose Fane reached out to them claiming to have a Bell novel with a title “something about singing love or loving arias” (193). The title didn’t match anything Bell had ever published. Fane eventually came to the office, demanding they authenticate his book and became enraged when they insisted it was a not genuine book by Bell. They give Lilian Fane’s address and a threatening letter he sent to them; he lives in Birmingham. Lilina immediately boards a train to travel there, growing afraid Fane may be the employer of the bowler-hatted man.

Lilian arrives at Ambrose Fane’s lavish Birmingham home in the evening. She is surprised when a servant admits her, apparently mistaking her for an expected guest. The house is filled with classical and erotic statuary. Fane is confused but intrigued, especially when she shows him her copy of Orpheus. She explains that “someone created this book on purpose” (202), pairing a new title page with the text of Bell’s novel The Devil’s Destiny. She asks to see his Bell novel, explaining her theory that there are six mistitled Bell novels: she has one, he has one, two have been taken (by the bowler-hatted man) and two are unknown.

Fane tells her he wants to discuss the matter the following day; she admits she has nowhere to stay and he offers her a guest room. Fane sends her up to the room, telling her not to leave no matter what she hears. She wakes to a man’s screams from elsewhere in the house, which cease at midnight and are followed by manic laughter.

In the morning, no one gives Lilian any explanation for the screams. Fane shows her his collection, including erotic and occult volumes. He shows her another book with the same bookbinder’s mark as the Bell volume, explaining that the mark identifies work by Felix Fidelius Gauch (FFG). Gauch was active in the 1840s and 1850s, but Fane is reluctant to attempt to find any information or address for him.

Fane shows Lilian a book by Bell, bound in the matching style to the others: This one is titled Love’s Last Aria and the pinprick code identifies it as the fourth book. She can tell that it also has a fake title page. Hoping to distract Fane, Lilian deliberately stabs her palm on a brass statue; Fane faints at the sight of blood. While Fane is unconscious, she slits open the binding, removes the handwritten papers hidden inside, and reseals the book. Then she calls for help.

Lilian leaves Fane’s home and begins the journey back to Oxford. She is relieved to have the letters but worried because she does not have the actual book, which will be a problem when the bowler hatted man turns up.

On the train home, Lilian reads the new pages. These pages are earlier than the last ones she read; they resume immediately after William and Isabel’s first meeting (before her father discovers the relationship). Isabel recounts the regatta, where she sees William for the second time. She learns more about William’s life, and he shows her an acrostic puzzle he is solving. Swept away by their feelings, William suggests they marry. They find Isabel’s father and William asks for Isabel’s hand in marriage.

Isabel’s father refuses; he does not think William comes from a good enough family. Her cousin Julian (the son of Uncle Silas), encouraged by her father, provokes William and the two of them fight. After Isabel and her father go home, he tells her that she is going to marry Lord Beauchamp in October. Isabel protests but her father is insistent. She and William correspond in secret, using acrostic codes. Eventually they hatch a plan to elope. While her father is in France, Lilian and Willima travel by train to Gretna Green (a Scottish town) and marry in a simple ceremony. They plan to move to America but need to first save money for their passage and new life there. The letter breaks off.

Lilian realizes that the pregnancy Isabel later described was conceived in wedlock; thus, the child could be a legitimate heir to her father’s fortune. She also wonders if Isabel and William’s child could still be alive.

Lilian visits her father at the hospital. His condition remains serious and the doctor recommends trepanning (surgically drilling a hole into the skull) to relieve pressure on his brain; Lilian consents. The next morning, two bailiffs from the Bank arrive, ready to start seizing assets if they don’t receive payment. Harry stays with Lilian as she selects books to satisfy the debt; she inflates the value and gives them books worth only about a third of the debt.

Afterwards, Lilian tells Harry about the books, the handwritten letters, and the man who has been threatening her. When she describes the man with the bowler hat, Harry is startled because he has noticed the same man following him. Lilian receives a letter from Evelyn, the young woman who works at the newspaper archives in London. Evelyn explains she could not find any information about William Heathfield; she has heard vague rumors that around 1851 or so, there was a scandal involving a young man, the daughter of an aristocrat, and a duel, but she doesn’t know any details.

Lilian, Harry, and Caxton visit her father at the hospital. Afterwards, Lilian goes home alone and works on records and accounts in her father’s office. The man in the bowler hat enters the shop and tells her the deadline has changed: He wants the books sooner. She gives him Orpheus but he immediately asks about the other three. When he physically harms her, Lilian admits that Ambrose Fane has one of the Bell books. She promises to find the remaining two, and the man leaves.

Lilian tends to her injuries, with the assault bringing back traumatic memories of her past. She recalls how she and Harry first fell in love; during this time, she began working at the university press and was excited to establish a career as a bookbinder. When Lilian found out she was pregnant, Harry was delighted but she worried about the impact on her career and future. Lilian had an abortion and the relationship ended when she told Harry she was not sure if she would ever want children.

Lilian’s father remains unconscious days after surgery. Caxton forwards her a note from Fane, who is in Oxford and requests a meeting. She goes to his hotel where Fane reveals he found her blood on the loose endpaper in his copy of Love’s Last Aria; he wants to know what she took from within the book’s binding. Lilian protests that this information is dangerous but Fane cooly tells her that the man in the bowler hat has already come to see him. Devlin (the man in the hat) demanded to buy the book and Fane let him have it, reasoning that “the value of the book was already taken from it” (258) after Lilian removed whatever was inside. Fane also tells Lilian that he knows the location of one more Bell book.

Desperate to know about another book, Lilian reveals the secret of the handwritten papers and the story they document. Fane shares that an acquaintance told him of a Bell novel sold years ago at auction to a collector named Fahig Peal, with Edmund Grieves acting as Peal’s agent. Fane confirms Grieves’s lover Percy was killed, likely by Devlin, before the auction. Fane has previously tried to buy the book from Peal and been turned down; he doesn’t have any contact information, as all correspondence went through Grieves. Lilian decides to go to London to ask Grieves for more information but laments that she has very little money. Fane gives her money, asking in exchange to eventually read the handwritten pages.

Lilian travels to London and meets Charlie at Grieves’s bookshop. Since Grieves is unwell at home, she persuades Charlie to give her his home address. She continues to feel conflicted about her desire for Charlie, even though she intends to remain committed to Harry. She goes to Grieves’s flat and tells him that she knows Devlin killed his lover and that her father has been similarly attacked. She asks about Fahig Peal, the auction client. Grieves confirms the name is fake and tells her she already has all the information she needs, hinting that words are tricksters and the name itself contains the answer. He pushes her out of the flat and bolts the door. Lilian stands in the alley trying to puzzle out the anagram, finding nothing.

At a café, Lilian struggles to solve the anagram “Fahig Peal.” A waitress and an elderly customer help; the customer, whose husband is Austrian, recognizes “fahig” as German for “able.” Lilian realizes the name is Abel Bell. She hurriedly writes to Henry Montague and Dotty asking them to forward an enclosed letter to Bell. In the letter to Bell she explains that he might be in danger and pleads to meet with him. She addresses this letter to Fahig Peal, hoping to catch his attention.

Lilian visits Frank Karslake at the Guild of Women Binders to ask about Felix Fidelius Gauch. Karslake says Gauch was technically skilled but derivative, working for unsavory wealthy clients. Gauch was murdered roughly thirty years earlier. Rumors circulate that Gauch completed a bookbinding project commissioned by a woman (the daughter of one of his clients), which she presented under a false name. Either the woman’s father or uncle was enraged with Gauch for completing the commission. The bookbinder was beaten and thrown into the Thames, then shot in the head a week later while recovering. The killer was never identified.

Lilian is convinced that the woman who wrote the letters commissioned Gauch to bind the six Bell books that would hide the documents; she suspects Devlin would have been the one to kill him but wonders why about 20 years elapsed between the letters being written and Gauch being killed.

Lilian’s father dies. She views his body in the mortuary and rushes to Caxton’s workshop, interrupting his interview with a young man for her former position. Caxton comforts her, offers to handle the funeral arrangements, and tells her to find the books and discuss a partnership afterward. Harry collects her in the evening. Returning to the bookshop, Lilian finds the hidden pages gone and a cigar stubbed on her desk: Devlin has been there. She realizes Devlin and his employer want the handwritten documents, not the books.

For days, Lilian drinks heavily and searches for other Bell books. Ambrose Fane visits the bookshop; Lilian tells him Devlin stole the pages and that Fahig Peal is Abel Bell. She is frustrated that there has been no answer to her letter. Ambrose agrees to investigate Bell’s whereabouts. At the funeral of Lilian’s father, Devlin watches from the churchyard edge and tips his hat as Lilian leaves. Caxton handles the arrangements. Lilian remains focused on finding Bell and the remaining books.