- Ready for another epigraph?
- Chapter 5 get underway with an excerpt from Randolph Henry Ash's poem The Incarcerated Sorceress. As Roland and Maud head toward Seal Court, the manor house where Christabel LaMotte spent the last 20+ years of her life, that incarceration theme may be giving us a hint or two about the Victorian "maiden's" life.
- Roland and Maud drive to Croysant le Wold, the nearest village to Seal Court, where they visit the cemetery where Christabel LaMotte is buried. There, they find the remains of an "opulent" (5.13) bouquet of flowers that was left in the summer by the world's other Christabel LaMotte scholar, the American feminist scholar Leonora Stern.
- Roland and Maud decide to climb a hill that'll give them a good view of Seal Court, and as they near it, Roland spots someone struggling with her wheelchair at the top.
- Roland climbs up to help and soon rescues the elderly woman whose wheelchair was stuck. Maud joins them, and the three head down the hill together to look for the woman's husband.
- As they descend, the woman introduces herself as Joan Bailey—one of the current owners and occupants of Seal Court.
- Soon the woman's husband, Sir George Bailey, finds them on the path, and a second round of introductions is made. Sir George and Lady Joan invite Roland and Maud to come back to Seal Court for tea, and Roland and Maud accept.
- When they reach Seal Court, Roland and Maud see that the building could use a lot of work. It seems pretty clear that Sir George and Lady Joan don't have enough money for the upkeep.
- While Lady Joan makes tea, Maud and Sir George chat about the history of the Bailey family.
- When the conversation turns to poetry, Roland explains that he studies the works of Randolph Henry Ash, and Maud reveals that she studies the works of Christabel LaMotte.
- After making a few remarks on Christabel LaMotte, the Baileys invite Roland and Maud to take a look at the room where she once lived. As Lady Joan explains, Christabel occupied a room in the manor's east wing, which has been shut up for more than fifty years.
- When Sir George brings Roland and Maud to Christabel's room, Roland asks if they can look around.
- Sir George agrees, and as Roland rummages through Christabel's old things, Maud suddenly quotes one of Christabel's poems—a poem that describes a "dolly" who keeps a secret.
- Maud walks over to a cot where three dolls are sitting. She pulls layers of pillows and blankets away from the cot, then lifts away a false bottom and finds a package "wrapped in fine white linen, tied with tape, about and about and about, like a mummy" (5.151).
- What could it be?
- Maud and Roland unwrap the package carefully, and inside they find—surprise, surprise—two bundles of letters. One bundle contains Randolph Henry Ash's letters to Christabel LaMotte, and the other contains Christabel's letters to Randolph.
- Maud and Roland give the letters to Sir George—they're guests in his home, after all—and the three of them traipse back towards the inhabited rooms, where Joan is waiting.
- Together, Sir George, Lady Joan, Roland, and Maud sit around the fireplace and discuss what to do.
- Sir George doesn't quite trust Roland and Maud, and he isn't sure that he should let them read the letters. Lady Joan doesn't see why not, and she reads the poets' first two letters out loud.
- Afterward, Sir George decides to satisfy Roland and Maud's curiosity by having Lady Joan follow up with the last two letters the poets wrote to each other. When she does, everyone realizes that Christabel LaMotte and Randolph Henry Ash had a secret love affair.
- Roland and Maud are stunned—and, of course, desperately curious to read the rest of the letters.
- Unfortunately for them, Sir George wants to take some time to figure out how he should proceed.
- Roland and Maud leave Seal Court and start the drive back to Lincoln. As they drive, they make a pact: if one of them learns anything more about R. H. Ash and Christabel LaMotte's romance, that person will tell the other, "and no one else" (5.238).