- It's epigraph time again.
- Chapter 12 gets underway with a little poem by Christabel LaMotte in which she reflects on the security, and fragility, of houses.
- It's now April 1987, and Roland Mitchell and Maud Bailey have gone to see the cottage where Christabel LaMotte and Blanche Glover once lived.
- As Roland and Maud chat about the cottage, the novel's narrator fills us in on what they've been up to since January, when they read the Ash-LaMotte correspondence together in Seal Court.
- As our trusty narrator explains, Roland believes that Christabel may have travelled to North Yorkshire with Randolph Henry Ash in the summer of 1859. Their letters seem to suggest that she was considering it, but the correspondence ends without making things 100% clear.
- Roland has brought Maud some photocopies of letters that Randolph wrote to his wife, Ellen Ash, during his North Yorkshire trip.
- As they read the letters—with us hovering over their shoulders, natch—Roland and Maud ask each other if Randolph could really have written such natural and loving letters if Christabel had been right there with him.
- Maud tells Roland what little is known about Christabel's movements in the summer of 1859, which is basically nothing. As far as the novel's twentieth-century scholars know, Christabel seems to have dropped off the planet until June 1860, the fateful month when Blanche Glover committed suicide.
- Roland and Maud discuss Blanche's suicide, which has obviously started to take on new meaning in light of Christabel and Randolph's affair.
- Suddenly, the novel's narration shifts, and we readers are listening in on a telephone conversation that has come out of nowhere.
- In it, we eavesdrop as Maud telephones Roland and Val's apartment to let Roland know that she plans to visit Beatrice Nest in London. Unfortunately for Maud, Val picks up the phone and petulantly hangs it up once she realizes who she's talking to.
- From there, the narration shifts again to a conversation between Roland and Val. When Roland asks who was on the phone, Val says resentfully that it was Maud Bailey. From Val's tone of voice, Roland suddenly realizes that Val believes that he and Maud are having an affair.
- Roland is exasperated, and the two of them start to bicker. As they do, Val uses bitter, self-deprecating language that bears an awfully close resemblance to the words that Blanche Glover used in her suicide note…
- Suddenly, the novel's narration shifts again and brings us to the basement of the British Museum, where Maud has gone to visit Beatrice Nest.
- Maud wants to know more about Ellen Ash's diaries and is hoping to find clues that might tell her more about Randolph Henry Ash's trip to North Yorkshire. Like, did Christabel go with him or not?
- Of course, Maud doesn't tell Beatrice Nest exactly what she's looking for. Instead, she chats about Ellen Ash in a roundabout sort of way and tries to learn what she can through subterfuge.
- As they chat, Beatrice tells Maud about her theory that Ellen Ash wrote her journals in a way that would "baffle" their readers (12.108). Beatrice has the distinct impression that Ellen intentionally conceals certain things in her journals, but of course she can't be sure of what.
- Maud eventually asks to see the 1859 journals, and Beatrice gives them to her.
- As Maud looks through a few entries, we readers see the very same words that she studies—a series of seventeen diary entries that stretch throughout the month of June 1859. Amidst all of the comments about housekeeping and migraines, two especially intriguing pieces of information come to light.
- First, one of the household servants—a young woman named Bertha—is suddenly revealed to be pregnant. Over the course of several entries, Ellen Ash tries to figure out what she should do. She eventually decides to arrange a room for Bertha at a "Magdalen Home" (12.153), where unmarried pregnant women can work for room and board. Before Bertha can be sent away, however, she disappears into the night.
- Second, Ellen records receiving a letter from a young woman who asks to come and speak with her about "a matter of great importance" (12.154). After the same young woman appears uninvited at Ellen's door, Ellen agrees to speak with her. She records very little about their meeting and simply writes that "[t]hat matter is now I hope quite at an end and wholly cleared up" (12.160).
- Who might this "importunate visitor" (12.160) have been?
- After reading the diaries, Maud suspects that the visitor may have been Blanche Glover, who, in desperation, might have come to reveal Randolph Henry Ash and Christabel LaMotte's affair.
- Maud asks Beatrice if that mystery letter may have been preserved in Ellen Ash's correspondence, and Beatrice agrees to let her check.
- Sure enough, Maud soon finds a letter from Blanche Glover in Ellen Ash's correspondence, and then she finds another. They make it clear that Blanche did visit Ellen, and that she brought some evidence of Ash and Christabel's affair.
- Beatrice can see that Maud has discovered something exciting, and she agrees to help Maud without informing either James Blackadder or Mortimer Cropper. Maud doesn't tell Beatrice exactly what she's found, but Beatrice decides to trust her all the same.
- When Maud leaves Beatrice's office, she runs into Fergus Wolff. Fergus blocks her way and grabs hold of her arm, and he demands to know what she and Roland have discovered. It isn't until a security guard comes and glares at them for making so much noise that he finally lets her go.
- Roland and Maud meet up again in a couple of days, and catch each other up. Maud tells Roland what she's learned about Blanche Glover's visit to Ellen Ash, and Roland shares some theories that he's been working on in the meantime.
- As Roland shares his ideas, the two of them feel more and more sure that Christabel must have gone to North Yorkshire with Randolph in the summer of 1859.
- By the end of their meeting, Randolph and Maud decide to retrace the poets' journey themselves.