A Poor Exchange
- Meggie goes to Mo's room to sleep and snuggles up with his sweater and the photograph of her mother that he keeps under his pillow.
- She thinks back to the strange answers that Mo used to give her about her mother, who'd disappeared when Meggie was three years old. Meggie doesn't remember her enough to miss her, but now that Mo's gone too, she's extra lonely.
- Meggie wakes up and writes a letter to Elinor explaining that she's going to look after her father. When she sneaks into Elinor's room to leave the letter for her, though, she finds Elinor sleeping with the book on her chest.
- Oh snap. Meggie angrily confronts Elinor about the book, saying it's her fault that Capricorn's men took her father, while Elinor argues that she saved Meggie and the book.
- They start discussing the book, which is called Inkheart and isn't even that old (thiry-eight years, to be exact), and Elinor offers to let Meggie read the book if she thinks there are clues to Mo's kidnapping.
- Then Elinor sees the note Meggie was going to leave her and says it'd be stupid to go off alone—so Elinor will join her. After breakfast, of course.