One week before the wedding, Jimmy and Frank leave for Jimmy’s stag night at the Compasses, where most of the village men have gathered. Beth asks Frank to keep an eye on Jimmy, then stays home alone. Although Beth has plenty of work to do for the wedding and the house, Beth instead lights a fire and sits thinking.

Left by herself, Beth dwells on Louisa’s recent suggestion that Gabriel has always loved Beth and perhaps still does. Beth insists that nothing has happened and nothing will happen because Beth loves Frank, yet Beth admits that she and Gabriel have grown closer over the past weeks. Their evening glasses of wine and conversations about Bobby have become deeply important to Beth, because Gabriel’s questions help Beth recover forgotten details about Bobby, and that recovery feels miraculous. In those quiet hours with Gabriel, Beth feels something close to happiness.

Later, Beth wakes when Frank comes home and immediately senses that something is wrong. Frank explains that Jimmy is asleep in bed, too drunk to stand and certainly unfit for morning work, but Frank is disturbed by more than ordinary drunkenness. On the drive home, Jimmy began crying and said that Jimmy was no good at living and that everyone, including Nina, would be better off without Jimmy. Frank believes Jimmy’s despair goes back to Bobby’s death and admits that Jimmy has never been right since then.

Beth is shaken, especially because Frank rarely speaks so openly about the lasting damage Bobby’s death has done to the family. Beth tries to calm Frank by arguing that Jimmy did not mean what Jimmy said and that the alcohol was speaking for him. Beth reminds Frank that Jimmy and Nina have a future together and reasons to be happy. The chapter ends with Beth and Frank holding each other in bed, not as lovers but as two grieving people seeking comfort, until Frank finally falls asleep.