As Beth prepares to leave for Meadowlands, Nina arrives and asks to talk over tea in the garden. Nina immediately questions Beth about the journalist who visited Gabriel’s house and presses Beth to explain why Beth was there alone during the day. Beth wants to confide in Nina but cannot, so when Nina describes the young reporter asking about Gabriel, learning Beth was at Meadowlands, and wanting to find her, Beth quickly invents a safer explanation.

To protect the affair, Beth tells Nina that Gabriel’s new novel reworks an old teenage idea and that Beth has only been helping him brainstorm the story because they used to talk about writing. Nina does not seem convinced. She then reveals a more dangerous development: the journalist returned to the pub that evening, asked more questions, and mentioned Beth by name while Frank and Jimmy were present.

Nina says Frank reacted with unusual fury, telling the journalist to leave Beth alone and threatening to report her for trespassing if she came to the farm. Because Frank is usually gentle and controlled, Nina’s account alarms Beth more than the journalist’s curiosity itself. After Nina leaves, Beth paces the kitchen and concludes that Frank may already suspect the truth about her and Gabriel, which makes her fear both the end of the affair and the collapse of her marriage.

Beth telephones Gabriel and repeats Nina’s warning. Beth decides she cannot safely go to Meadowlands until she has spoken to Frank, and Frank’s avoidance the previous night now seems like further proof that he knows. On the call, Beth says she is less afraid of Frank’s anger than of the pain Frank must be feeling and of losing Gabriel. Gabriel answers that he loves Beth, will accept whatever she decides, but now fully understands that he was a fool to let her go before and still hopes they can have a second chance together.