On April 10, Martha Ballard watches Isaac Foster leave the mill after finally explaining why he and Rebecca missed Joseph North’s trial. Isaac has been in Vassalboro appealing his land dispute to Obadiah Wood, and he has accepted a one-hundred-dollar settlement, only half of what Hallowell originally promised him. The money will still be enough for the Fosters to begin again somewhere else.

Inside the mill, Martha questions Ephraim about North’s acquittal and Rebecca’s absence. Ephraim explains that Rebecca refused to return to court because she could not bear to recount the assault before more men, and Isaac would not force her. Martha bitterly reflects that the jury never truly had to face Rebecca’s condition or testimony in person, and she condemns a system that let every accused rapist go free while harshly punishing a woman for slander.

The conversation turns to North’s broader conduct. Ephraim argues that North fled to Boston because he expected Rebecca’s testimony to lead to a rape charge and believed a jury would find her credible, especially because she is pregnant. Ephraim also reveals that he suspects North later arranged for Cyrus to be charged with Joshua Burgess’s murder as an act of revenge, and he intends to investigate North’s Boston lawyer, Henry Knowland, to help prove it.

Ephraim tells Martha that he will leave the next morning for Boston and may be gone ten days or longer. He has gathered statements from neighbors confirming the Ballards’ long residence on the property, and he will carry those documents along with the letters Martha found in Burgess’s saddlebag to present before the Kennebec Proprietors. After talk of the still-frozen river, the stalled waterwheel, Percy’s raids on the chickens, and Jonathan’s neglected chores, the chapter ends on a private note as Martha checks Ephraim’s traveling gear and the couple share a moment of affection before his departure.