- Here it is, Shmoopers: Possession's final chapter. What mysteries will be revealed? What loose ends will be tied up?
- Chapter 28 gets underway with a description of the Rowan Tree Inn, where Mortimer Cropper and Hildebrand Ash have taken rooms.
- It's now mid-October, and the inn has very, very few visitors.
- Cropper and Hildebrand Ash have been staying in the inn for about week, biding their time and scouting the graveyard they intend to hit. We get to observe them as they take a walk through the graveyard where Randolph Henry Ash is buried.
- As we learn, another couple is visiting the graveyard, too…
- On the evening of October 15, as Cropper and Hildebrand Ash eat in the inn's restaurant, Cropper finds himself observing a young couple that, he figures, must be on their honeymoon. They certainly seem pretty lovey-dovey, as if they only have eyes for each other…
- Later that evening, Cropper and Hildebrand pass the same couple on their way up to their rooms.
- Everyone says goodnight.
- Hours later, at one o'clock in the morning, Cropper and Hildebrand Ash sneak out of the inn and out to the cemetery.
- There, they dig steadily in Randolph Henry Ash's grave.
- As they do, a fierce wind rises.
- Soon, Cropper and Ash are hit with a full-out storm. Wind is lashing, and rain is driving; and though Hildebrand Ash is scurrying around for shelter, Cropper is as stubborn as King Lear. He keeps digging, and he soon hits metal.
- Cropper gets down on his hands and knees, and he soon unearths the specimen box that Ellen Ash had buried with her husband.
- The box is locked, and Cropper decides to carry it back to his car. As he does, the earth begins to shake, and Cropper realizes that several of the trees around him are being uprooted by the extraordinary wind.
- Trees start coming down around Mortimer Cropper's ears, and when the crashing stops, Cropper realizes that his Mercedes has been crushed. Not only that, but the road back to the inn is now blocked.
- Trees continue to fall as Cropper turns around and heads back towards R.H. Ash's grave. Suddenly, as Cropper gets close to Hildebrand, he sees that there's someone else standing beside his fellow grave robber.
- Cropper hears voices talking to one another all around him and starts to realize what's up. He tries to turn back the way he came, but he's soon surrounded by our heroes: Roland, Maud, Leonora, Blackadder, and Beatrice. The jig is up.
- The narrator skips us ahead an hour and a half, and we find everyone sitting together in Mortimer Cropper's room at the Rowan Tree Inn. Exhausted by the storm, and happy that no one was crushed by falling trees, everyone is feeling pretty agreeable.
- Cropper suggests that they open R.H. Ash's specimen box together, and the others agree. He finds the unopened letter from Christabel LaMotte, and while the others debate about who owns it, he quickly slices it open.
- Inside, Cropper finds a photograph with the letter, and he gives the letter to Maud to read aloud.
- As Maud reads Christabel's final letter to Randolph Henry Ash, we finally learn what became of the star-crossed lovers' child. As it turns out, Maud's great-great-grandmother, Maia Thomasine Bailey, wasn't actually Christabel's niece—she was actually Christabel's daughter.
- As Blackadder notes, this means that Maud is the descendent of both Christabel LaMotte and Randolph Henry Ash. Wowzers.
- As everyone takes in the news, Maud asks Roland to help her find a place to sleep, and the group decides that Blackadder should hold on to the specimen box and its contents for the time being.
- Maud and Roland retreat to a bedroom, where they finally have an honest discussion about their feelings for each other. Then, they go to bed.
- And by "go to bed," we mean…