The shocking suggestion that the dead may still live and the reappearance of Julian place Mercy’s assumed identity in grave danger as meetings and confrontations heighten suspicion and anxiety, Lady Janet wavers between compassion and doubt while Mercy feels the crushing weight of guilt and the fear that her past decision will destroy her present, supposed guardians prove fragile under scrutiny and with the search of the grounds and the arrival of a plain-clothes policeman the private deception becomes a public matter, tightening the circle around Mercy and leaving her increasingly cornered.
