Randolph Henry Ash Timeline and Summary

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• In June 1848, Randolph Henry Ash meets Christabel LaMotte at a breakfast party thrown by Crabb Robinson.
• Randolph drafts a letter to Christabel and eventually works up the nerve to send it to her, and the two of them begin to correspond regularly.
• Over the course of several months, Randolph and Christabel send letters flying back and forth.
• One day, while horseback riding with a group of friends, Randolph rides through a wooded area not far from where Christabel LaMotte and Blanche Glover live. He writes a letter to Christabel describing the experience and weaves in a few not-so-subtle metaphors about the hunter who came across the goddess Diana bathing in her woodland pool.
• When Christabel writes back to tell him that they should maybe stop corresponding, Randolph is surprised.
• Randolph tries to convince Christabel that there isn't anything wrong with what they're doing, but soon his letters stop getting any replies.
• Eventually, Randolph gets a letter from Christabel explaining that a number of his letters to her had been stolen before she saw them. She asks him to meet her in person so that she can apologize face-to-face.
• Randolph and Christabel meet and part as friends.
• Randolph and Christabel soon meet again, and this time, Randolph plants a big wet one on her.
• Randolph and Christabel strike up a second round of correspondence, and their letters are now chock-full of expressions of love and passion.
• Randolph eventually invites Christabel to join him on an expedition to North Yorkshire that he's planning to take in June, and she agrees.
• Randolph and Christabel travel to North Yorkshire together, where sexy times ensue. They agree that their love affair will end as soon as the trip is over.
• At some unspecified point, Randolph gets wind of the fact that Christabel has given birth to a child. He travels to Brittany to find her but discovers that none of her family members know what happened to the child.
• At some point later in 1860 or in 1861, Randolph attends a séance. He expects that Christabel will be there, and he isn't disappointed.
• At the séance, Randolph confronts Christabel and demands to know where their child is. She tells him that he has "made a murderess of [her]" (25.148), and Randolph takes this to mean that Christabel may have killed their child.
• In the spring of 1868, Randolph decides to take another shot at reconciling with Christabel. He takes a long walk over to Seal Court, and as he nears the manor, he comes across his daughter, Maia Thomasine Bailey, playing in a nearby field.
• Randolph recognizes his child and exchanges a crown of flowers for a lock of her hair. He also asks her to take a message to her "aunt," to tell her he was there.
• Randolph dies in November 1889, without ever reading Christabel's final letter to him.