The Lamb

Eden peels potatoes for the stew Ruth is making for dinner. Potatoes used to be Margot’s job, but Ruth now ignores her. 

As Eden mixes dough in a bowl, she calls Margot to her side and tells her the story of how flour came to be. Once upon a time, women had fur and whiskers and lived in holes in the ground like rabbits, happily foraging the soil for food. One day, a hunter stole a rabbit-woman’s fur. Enraged, the woman straightened on her hind-legs, no longer the crouching creature from before. She lured her mother and sisters out of their burrows and skinned them alive, not wanting to be the only creature without fur. The rabbit woman used their bones to make flour. Finishing the story, Eden playfully dabs a little flour on Margot’s nose.

Margot doesn’t like the story, since the rabbit-woman punished her mother and sisters for no fault of theirs. Eden tells her that the point of the story is that the world is unfair. Margot thinks to herself that if someone stole Ruth or Abbie’s fur, she would punish the hunter, and not the women.

Eden, Ruth, and Margot have Eden’s lamb dumplings and Ruth’s stew for dinner. Eden tells Ruth that one day she will make Ruth the best stew she ever had. The stew has a secret ingredient. 

Before Eden can reveal the ingredient, there is a knock at the door. Ruth opens the door to the gamekeeper, asking him to leave as she has company. The gamekeeper begs to be let inside, telling Ruth that he has finally left his wife for her. Eden wants to leave, but Ruth tells her to stay. Ruth asks Margot to bring the gamekeeper some ale. Margot understands her mother’s secret instructions and adds hemlock root to the ale.

The gamekeeper gulps the ale, and falls asleep on the couch, his pulse slowing. Ruth calls Eden over, knowing she will understand Ruth’s way of life. The women watch the gamekeeper as he stops breathing.

In a rare occurrence, Ruth plays loud music on the stereo. She is filled with energy as she strips and butchers the gamekeeper, inviting Eden to see her work. Eden lovingly holds Ruth’s face at the doorway of the stray-room. Ruth tells her the gamekeeper will taste of adultery, since he was in love with her. 

As Eden and Ruth revel in the moment, Margot can smell the blood. She reminds Ruth to get back to work, since the smell of blood is getting worse. Eden calls Margot to her side and smears the gamekeeper’s blood on Margot’s lips. Ruth puts her arms around Margot and Eden, saying that this is what family feels like. She asks Eden to stay with them forever. Margot wonders if Abbie will be able to smell her father’s blood on Margot on Monday.

The gamekeeper’s murder and butchering bring Ruth and Eden together, as if they have known each other for years. Over the weekend, they prepare meals companionably, crumbing and frying the gamekeeper’s fingers till they are crunchy. Eden gives Margot only one finger, as children need less food than grown-ups. 

As Margot chews on the bone, she keeps picturing the gamekeeper. She has trouble seeing him as a stray. Margot thinks Ruth has been reckless in killing the man, since his family is bound to look for him.

Margot sits alone at the dinner table as Eden and Ruth move to the couch. Margot can now see that before Eden, Ruth was filled with loneliness. Margot had assumed she was enough for Ruth, but that is not true. Lost in each other, Ruth and Eden have not cleaned up the stray-room wall. The scent of the gamekeeper’s blood is getting worse. His clothes and belongings are still strewn across the living room. Eden asks Margot to dispose of the belongings.

Margot takes the gamekeeper’s clothes, wallet, and shoes out of the cottage to a nearby plot. Digging a shallow hole, she drops in his things to join those of the others. Margot can see the gamekeeper’s wife has scribbled his name—Mike Greene—on the inside of his jumper. 

Overcome with pity for the gamekeeper, Margot decides to keep his boots, hiding them in a hedge. The rest she covers with soil. Margot inspects the cockleshell-and-twine hex she placed to keep the plot a secret, and deems it in fine working condition.

The next morning, Margot goes off to explore Eden’s car, parked near the road. Margot thinks Eden should move the car closer to the homestead, so as not to draw attention to it. 

Inside the car Margot finds a newspaper clipping about two teenage women—Alison and Kayley—who went missing during a hike in October. Margot tries to put their names to the faces of strays who landed at their homestead, but fails. If Alison and Kayley ended up as strays, all that would be left of them would be the remnants of bones, since Ruth and Margot farm the strays for every edible bit.

Margot spots Abbie in school on Monday. Abbie looks visibly upset, her usually neat hair disheveled, the green hair clip holding it up lopsided. Abbie tells Margot her father never came home over the weekend. She half fears he has been eaten by the giants who live under the fells (moors), just like in the stories he used to tell. Margot comforts Abbie, wishing she could tell her how sorry she is about what happened to Abbie’s father.

Margot looks at her reflection in the bathroom mirror at home, looking for bits of her father and mother. She still has baby fat on her face, obscuring her true features. She wonders if she will grow up to look like her father, so that he is able to recognize her as his daughter if he ever runs into her. 

Troubled by her thought, Margot distracts herself by applying Ruth’s old lipstick on her mouth. She smiles widely in the mirror, hoping to look like her beautiful mother. However, when she sees that she does resemble Ruth, Margot thinks there is ugliness in her face.

That night Margot dreams that she pulls out all of Ruth’s teeth as Ruth sleeps. Eden appears by her side, telling her that she cannot change anyone’s real nature. Eden then replaces each of Ruth’s teeth in her mouth. 

Margot snaps awake. She can hear Eden and Ruth snoring together through the open door of their bedroom. Margot wonders if Eden sensed her dream and entered it.

The gamekeeper’s boots have started to sink into the ground, weighed down by the rainwater collected in them. Margot goes to the hedge often to speak to the boots, telling the gamekeeper that Abbie misses him. One day, she removes the laces from the boots, so she can keep something of the gamekeeper. 

Eden comes looking for Margot and sees the boots. She gently chides Margot for not burying the objects, reminding her that it is pointless to get attached to strays. However, Margot tells Eden that the gamekeeper was not a stray, he was the father of Margot’s friend, Abbie. An alarmed Eden tells Margot to stop associating with Abbie, lest Margot herself become a stray. Eden sends Margot indoors while she buries the boots herself. Margot is happy Eden did not notice that the laces are missing.

Ruth is sprawled on the armchair, watching an old analog TV and picking her teeth. She looks rested, well-fed, and beautiful. Margot sits on the floor and tries to picture herself as a grown-up, relaxed in the chair just like Ruth. 

The trouble is that though Margot wants to grow up to be like Ruth, her mind tells her she may be different. She doesn’t feel hungry the same way as Ruth, neither is she as clever or determined as her mother. 

Meanwhile, Ruth throws her toothpick on the floor and asks Margot to pick it up. Margot takes the toothpick to the bin, but instead of chucking it, she sucks on it, knowing it will taste of blood.

Late that night, Ruth and Eden dance together to music, as Margot watches them, sitting by the window. Margot wants to join the dance, but not unless she is invited. 

Finally, Ruth holds out her arms to Margot. Ruth hugs Margot to her and dances, but soon, Eden moves Margot aside and gets close to Ruth. Ruth lets go of Margot’s hands. Margot realizes that if she has to remain close to her mother, she has to make Eden like her.

The kind bus-driver is back, Margot taking her usual place next to him. Noticing Margot is preoccupied, the bus-driver asks her if things are okay at home. He tells Margot that his job is not just to drive the bus, but also to keep an eye out for the children in his charge. Margot assures the driver things are fine, promising to tell him if she faces trouble at home.

At home, Eden preps a section from the gamekeeper’s thigh for dinner, basting it with wine and roasting it. Ruth gazes at Eden adoringly, extracting the promise that Eden will never leave her. Ruth tells Eden that Eden makes her feel full the same way her first stray did, sating the ever-present need in her.

When Eden serves dinner, Margot expects her portion to be the worst, as per usual. However, though her portion is smaller, the meat is tender and fatty. Margot relishes it, till guilt about Abbie floods her brain. Abbie will never see her father again, and Margot will always remember how delicious Abbie’s father tasted.

Eden instructs Margot on making a rabbit trap, weaving fishing wire around sticks arranged in a square. When Margot deems the trap too big for a rabbit, Eden shows her how a rabbit cannot escape fishing wire by wrapping the wire around the tip of Margot’s finger till it bleeds. Margot thinks of the rabbit pie Eden will make from the trapped prey, and her stomach begins to growl with hunger. Eden reaches under Margot’s T-shirt and grabs her belly, joking that she needs to keep Margot’s little belly full. 

Ruth appears on the spot, looking peaceful and happy. She refers to Margot and Eden as “her girls.” Ruth tells Eden she plans to sprinkle more nails on the road so they can catch another stray. Eden tells Ruth to plant the nails a little away from home, so as not to draw suspicion.