A small Inuit delegation—an older leader and two younger hunters—asks to come aboard Erebus. Because Franklin’s expedition has no interpreter, Captain Crozier of Terror translates as best he can, despite not sharing their dialect.

Ten Inuit board the ship. Instead of exploring with curiosity or trading playfully as the crew expects, they remain clustered on the quarterdeck, impassive, while Crozier labors through apologies. Gillies and Des Voeux set out gifts—needles, tobacco, mirrors, buttons—carefully excluding knives.

Crozier returns to Erebus’s officers and quietly tells Graham Gore that the dead man’s wife wants to look at him, adding pointedly that the man had no children. Gore steps forward to face her.

The widow, a small woman with tear-bright cheeks and a veiled, downward-lashed stare, fixes her eyes on Gore. Gore, unable to speak her language, blurts “I’m sorry” in English twice, while his mind spirals into guilt and a sudden, unsettling fantasy of offering himself up or trying to “replace” what he has taken.

After the group leaves with the gifts, the widow’s look remains with Gore as a physical sensation. That night, washing in his cabin, Gore still feels her gaze on his body, as if it has sunk into his skin.