The bus-driver notices the dark circles under Margot’s eyes and questions her about her home life again. He wonders if Margot looks tired because she watches too much TV. 

Margot tells him she has been busy reinforcing a hex she once made to wish her father back. She shows the driver the hex: a square of twigs bound by rope. The driver tells Margot not to get mixed up in such business. He lost his father when he was a young boy and still misses him; nevertheless, he does not allow the grief and anger of loss to consume him and lead him astray. He says that Margot must keep herself “on the straight and narrow” (126).

Abbie and Margot talk at the end of the school day, with Abbie recounting how her mother has taken to screaming and crying with loneliness. Margot gives Abbie the hex, saying it might help bring her father back. Margot has twined the gamekeeper’s laces under the rope binding the sticks. Abbie hugs Margot.

In the evening, Margot plucks Abbie’s hair off her jumper and swallows it, happy that a bit of Abbie is now resting with her father in Margot’s belly.

The meat from the gamekeeper is running out, and the rabbit traps are empty. Margot is sick with hunger. Eden asks her to distract herself by going to the nearby beck (stream) while Eden whips up something for tea. Margot crosses the beck and wanders into the woods. She hears a voice call out to her and spots a wounded woman lying against a tree. The woman whispers that she fell on a branch while hiking and is now bleeding out near her stomach. Margot assures the woman that she can get her help at her home. She assists the woman walk to the homestead, excited about bringing in her first stray. Margot doesn’t feel guilty about the woman’s fate as the woman doesn’t have long to live in any case.

When Ruth spots the woman, she is overjoyed. She and Eden bring her in and weave daisies in her hair so she dies happy. The woman whimpers that she needs help.

Later, Eden congratulates Margot for finding them a stray. Ruth is in the strays’ room, prepping the carcass. Margot wants to know if the stray died happy. Eden replies that she was as happy as she could be. Sensing Margot’s mixed feelings about killing the stray, Eden tells her to be proud of herself for feeding them all. She sends Margot to help Ruth.

It has been ages since Margot entered the strays’ room. She can see Ruth has covered the floor with a thick plastic sheet. Suspended from a hook in the ceiling by its feet is the woman’s carcass, blood dripping into a bucket. Her body has been stripped of skin. When Margot offers to help, Ruth directs her to clean the blood-splattered plastic with warm soapy water. As Margot scrubs the tarp, she touches the meat of the woman and assures her that she didn’t die for nothing.

Eden, Margot, and Ruth have a good dinner. When Margot asks Eden about her past, Eden tells her and Ruth a story. Eden was born to Elaine, a poor woman who cleaned floors for a living. Elaine was thrown out by her employer while in the throes of labor. Forced to give birth to Eden on a pavement, Elaine died shortly thereafter. Eden was brought up by her father. Eden grew up to hate the man as well, though he taught her the valuable lesson that one does not always need to love one’s blood. 

Ruth tells Eden that she believes the same thing, as she did not love her mother either. Her mother was wicked, forcing her to get married and have a child. The only good thing about her mother’s insistence was that Ruth got Margot, her Little One, in the bargain. Margot, she says, is all hers. Eden says that the three of them belong to each other, and Margot will always be the Little One of their family.

The couch being too uncomfortable to sleep, Margot goes to Ruth and Eden’s bedroom, watching them sleep. Eden wakes up and chats with Margot, calling her a special little girl. 

Margot wonders if Eden came looking for her and Ruth, since she found the newspaper in Eden’s car. Eden tells Margot that when she saw the newspaper article, she had the strongest feeling she would find a kindred spirit near the moors. Unlike Ruth, Eden believes there is a design to everything. Humans cannot comprehend it as they too are animals.

Margot thinks there is something cold about Eden’s words. She thinks of Abbie and the kind bus driver, both of whom are more than animals. Meanwhile, Eden promises to always protect Margot and Ruth.

During lunchtime at school, Abbie asks Margot if she can come over for tea at Margot’s. Margot tells Abbie that she is not allowed to have people over. However, Margot can visit Abbie. Abbie tells Margot that is not possible, as her mother found Margot’s hex and has deemed Margot weird. 

Margot feels angry at Abbie’s mother, but Abbie assures her that her mother will be less strict when her father returns. Margot hugs Abbie, nervous that Abbie will never stop looking for her father. Ruth made a huge mistake by killing someone who was not a stray.

After the bus drops Margot at her stop, she visits the beck, where she runs into Ruth, collecting hemlock roots. Ruth tells Margot she wants to build a hex to bind Eden to her. Margot thinks Ruth does not need a hex, since Eden clearly loves her very much. Ruth wonders aloud if Eden loves her or merely desires her. People fall out of love quite quickly, like Margot’s father fell out of love with Ruth.

Later that night, they eat more of the stray. Margot thinks she can taste the pain of the woman’s dying moments. She also worries that the plot in which they bury the belongings of the strays is filling up. It might spit up its secrets soon.

On the weekend, Eden takes Ruth and Margot for a picnic by the river. As Eden and Ruth take a dip, Ruth asks Margot to stay within her eyeline on the riverbanks. Margot is struck by Eden and Ruth’s wild, feminine beauty, wondering if she will look the same one day. 

Ruth tells Eden she wants to hunt another stray soon, but Eden cautions Ruth against drawing too much attention to their little family. Too many disappearances might alert people to the truth, and then they would take Margot away from Ruth and Eden. Ruth hugs Eden, forgetting their argument.

The bus driver sings songs in his croaky, smoker’s voice as he drives the children home. Margot wonders if he knows every song in existence. The bus driver tells her that this is impossible, as many songs are lost and forgotten, just like people. Margot promises to herself to never forget the bus driver, and to remember every wrinkle and freckle of his kind face. 

The driver asks about home, once again, and Margot evasively replies that she is fine, except she is always hungry. The bus driver tells her that there is something odd about the cottage in which Margot lives with Ruth. He has been watching people inhabit and desert it over 20 years.

Eden and Ruth argue over looking for strays. Ruth feels Eden is denying her the chase of the hunt, which comes naturally to Ruth. Eden replies she only wants to keep Ruth safe. 

Margot speaks up, telling Ruth that Eden is right. The gamekeeper’s disappearance has already created danger for their family, as Abbie is looking for her father. Ruth is shocked that Margot knows so much about Abbie. Her clear instructions have been that Margot is not to talk to anyone at school. 

When Margot stresses that Abbie is her friend, Ruth slaps Margot on the cheek. Margot expects Eden to come to her rescue, but Eden consoles Ruth instead, hugging her. Soon Ruth and Eden forget about Margot. Margot slips out of the cottage, only to discover a rabbit has been caught in the trap.

Eden makes a rabbit pie for dinner, serving Margot an equal portion for the first time. She tells Margot she deserves a big portion since it was her trap that caught a rabbit. Overwhelmed, Margot tells Eden she always wants to be the Little One to her and Ruth. She apologizes to Ruth for not being careful at school. Ruth tells Margot she is forgiven, but Ruth’s tone is stiff.

Eden tells Margot that tasty as the female rabbit was, kits are even tastier. The mention of the kits fills Margot with guilt. Though Marcus took the fall for the rabbit incident at school, it is Margot who killed the baby rabbits and hung them in the coat closet to scare the boys on the bus. Margot’s plan backfired, as the cruel boys only reveled in the blood and gore. 

Meanwhile, Eden resumes the story of the rabbit woman and the flour she made from the bones. The woman used the flour to make cakes, selling them in the market. People came from all over to sample her cakes, unaware that what they were eating was made from the bones of their own kin. Eden laughs at her own story. 

Later that night, Margot confesses to Eden that she often dreams of the gamekeeper and Abbie. Eden playfully tells Margot that if she keeps dreaming of Abbie, Eden might make a stew out of Margot’s friend. Bidding Margot goodnight, Eden moves to her room with Ruth. Margot can hear Eden whisper something to Margot’s mother.

It rains the next day, the gloomy weather making Margot think of Abbie’s grief. Ruth senses as much and pulls Margot’s hair. Margot promises not to talk to Abbie, though it hurts to try to forget Abbie. Ruth tells Margot that she understands, since she too has buried a heartbreak. Margot assumes Ruth is talking about Margot’s father. 

Eden joins Margot and Ruth. Ruth once again expresses her wish to find a stray. Eden promises her that they will have a stray soon. That night, Margot dreams of Abbie again, wondering what she would taste like.

It continues to rain through Monday. Margot notices Abbie has started to look disheveled, though she stoically never cries about her father. Abbie tells Margot that she imagines the two of them together, as boys and girls in love are supposed to be. Margot too has imagined holding hands with Abbie and kissing her on the cheek. She promises to herself she will never let Ruth convert Abbie to a stray. Margot grips Abbie’s hand, wondering if Abbie will ever know Margot ate the fingers of Abbie’s father.

As the bus driver closes in on Margot’s stop, he asks her if he can come up to the homestead and speak to a parent. Margot senses the bus driver has noticed the bruise on her cheek from Ruth’s slap. She tells the driver her mother wouldn’t like for him to come in, as their house is untidy. She insists that things are fine at home, and he need not worry. The bus driver agrees not to go up to the house, extracting a promise that Margot will tell him if she is in trouble. He spots Eden outside the door and wonders if she is Margot’s mother. Margot tells him Eden is her mother’s lover.

When Eden asks Margot what she and the bus driver were discussing, she tells him the driver was helping her with poetry homework. Margot is afraid telling Eden may lure the driver as a stray.