Once Upon a River

Vaughan visits Rita, pays her for her service at the Swan, and asks her to check on The Child weekly. Several days later, Rita arrives at the Buscot Lodge where Helena compliments her nursing. Helena invites her to stay for breakfast and they discuss The Child’s health, as well as the still-missing Alice Armstrong. Robin has visited The Child twice since she moved to the lodge. Helena speculates that he believes that The Child is his.

Helena and The Child walk Rita home, with the girl showing intense interest in the river. She seems to be expecting something but is disappointed when it does not come. Helena asks Rita to recount her first examination of The Child when she could not find sign of life. Helena also says that she and Vaughan are fitting their windows with locks because she thinks someone is spying on them. Helena asks Rita to return the next week. As Rita walks to her cottage, she is grabbed by someone in the underbrush who asks questions about The Child. The man takes her purse and shoves her to the ground before fleeing.

Vaughan shaves as he reflects over the last two months. He is fascinated with The Child but doesn’t really believe she is Amelia. When he expressed this concern to Helena, she said he’d come to realize that The Child is theirs in time. He wants to make himself believe, but Robin’s missing daughter holds him back. He travels to Oxford to meet with his lawyer, Mr. Montgomery. He explains the situation with Robin and his missing daughter. Mr. Montgomery presses Vaughan for confirmation that The Child is Amelia. Vaughan says that Robin visits The Child but does not bring up the issue of her parentage. Mr. Montgomery questions Vaughan some more to prepare for a potential custody battle, uncovering Vaughan’s doubts in the process. Mr. Montgomery comforts Vaughan and explains how the slow pace of the law will protect the Vaughans. Vaughan leaves to the train yard and remembers the last time he was in Oxford and wound up at Mrs. Constantine’s house. At home, he studies the pictures in one of the drawing rooms. When Helena enters the room, he tries to discuss his meeting with Mr. Montgomery, but while doing so realizes that it was Henry Daunt who took their family pictures two years ago. They decide to hire him again and make sure that they have all the old negatives. 

The story of the girl continues to spread, drawing business to the Swan as people increasingly want to see the place where the events happened. The regulars are frequently called upon to share their perspectives, with different focuses depending on the teller. The regulars also debate whether The Child is Amelia Vaughan.

In Oxford, Daunt receives the key to a new boat. He plans to take pictures along the Thames for a collection. Three months after the winter solstice, he is mostly healed. He travels to Rita’s cottage first, where she approves of his progress. He offers to take her picture as another form of repayment, but she claims to be busy with an experiment. He offers to help her if she helps him set up the camera. She agrees and they start with the photograph. He is impressed by her composure. He shows her how to finalize the photograph in his boat and, as the picture settles, he is overwhelmed by attraction towards her. He wants to photograph her again.

Rita describes the assault in the woods and the two ponder the man’s identity. Daunt insists that he didn’t want harm to come to The Child, and Rita admits that everyone who meets her seems to want to claim her. Daunt wants to photograph her again, but Rita tells him about her experiment because she wants to understand how The Child survived. She begins by taking his pulse, then he undresses to his undergarments and they go outside. He walks into the river while she waits on a boat. Submerged, he lets her take his pulse again. Experiment complete, he runs for the warm bath she prepared for him. Rita shares that Daunt’s heartbeat rose in response to the cold water, eliminating one hypothesis about The Child.

Lily wakes as a man enters her cottage and removes money from her secret compartment. He lights a candle and asks Lily what food she has. He accosts her for not having enough money, then demands something sweet for his next visit. Lily internally reveals that this man has been using her barn to sell illegal alcohol, where his clients leave the money in the wood stack. She wonders why the man, Victor, is always impoverished despite his large income. Victor claims to have always done right by Lily and mocks her choice of the surname “White.” He then berates her for not taking The Child from the Swan, claiming they could have used the girl to make money. He pulls the blanket off Lily, then climbs into bed next to her and falls asleep. When he wakes, he takes money from the purse under her pillow and claims that what he does, he does “for us. For the family” (227). He references a scheme before departing, leaving Lily to wonder who “the family” is. She resolves that Victor will not have The Child.

Armstrong paces in his house, frustrated that his granddaughter is being taken care of by other people. He decides to travel to Bampton to find someone who can attest to Alice’s identity. He returns to the boarding house in Bampton to find Mrs. Eavis gone, having left six or seven weeks prior after receiving some money. He asks one of the women about Alice and Mrs. Armstrong but discovers nothing concrete. He learns from a boy that Ben ran away after a beating from his father. At the butcher’s, Armstrong asks after Ben but receives no leads. He eats lunch by the river and wonders why Ben has not yet reached his farm.

He travels to Oxford to visit Robin and is disturbed by his expensive lifestyle. He goes to the servants’ entrance and knocks until a young girl appears. She almost answers his questions, but the housekeeper arrives and sends Armstrong away while denying Robin’s presence in the house. Armstrong waits until he can escort the girl on a walk, then learns that the owner of the house is Mr. Fisher, who takes mail for Mr. Armstrong. When Armstrong presses his desire to keep his son safe and describes him, the girl asserts that Mr. Fisher and Robin share the same description. Armstrong pays her the salary that “Mr. Fisher” has not, then goes to have a drink. He asks about a bar “Mr. Fisher” frequents and learns that in the winter, it is a seedy place. Armstrong goes to the bar and finds Robin playing cards with a group of men, trying to cheat. A guard tries to grab Armstrong but releases him at a gesture from Robin. The two step outside and Armstrong is immediately put off by Robin’s rudeness. Armstrong mentions his experiences in Bampton, and Robin tells him to stay out of his affairs. When Armstrong tries to stop him from leaving, he and Robin end up in an altercation. Robin announces that Armstrong is not his father and walks back into the bar. Armstrong cries in the rain as he starts home. 

The narrator transitions into the past, sharing a private story about the Armstrongs. For Armstrong’s 21st birthday, his father buys him farmland belonging to the May family. Armstrong makes friends with Mr. May and meets his daughter Bessie, who “ought, according to public opinion, to have retreated into the family home” because of her physical disabilities (249), but instead “walked with her head high, smiling” despite her loneliness (250). One night, Bessie is raped, and after several days of contemplation Armstrong proposes to her. The next day, she visits him and removes her eyepatch. Armstrong is struck by a feeling of being examined. When the moment is over, Armstrong assures her that if she is with child because of the assault, he will love it as his own. She agrees to marry him. When it becomes clear that Bessie is pregnant after the wedding, people are so cruel she confines herself to the farm. Robin is born, healthy and beautiful, and the two parents commit to growing their family.

The spring equinox arrives and Vaughan wakes beside his wife. He gets up to help The Child eat breakfast, reflecting on the moments he feels a strengthening connection to her although he still does not believe she is Amelia. He takes her to the drawing room, where they look at the old pictures together. He starts to cry and The Child leads him towards the river, where she looks for something and washes stones in the water. When she leans over the water, Vaughan recognizes her reflection as Amelia’s and wonders if he’s “going mad” (259).

Later, after both Daunt and Rita have arrived, Daunt gives Helena the exposures from their last picture session. The family struggles to get The Child to sit still for a picture until Rita suggests that they put her on a boat to calm her. This works, and Daunt invites Vaughan to watch the photograph develop. The women and The Child go rowing on the river. Rita wonders what to the Child looks for when she stares upriver, then once again warns Helena of the man who attacked her. Their conversation turns to the nursery maid, Ruby, who went on an unexplained walk the night of Amelia’s disappearance and was thus suspected of being involved in the kidnapping. Helena has no doubts that Ruby was not involved, but Rita is privately uncertain.

It starts to rain, and the women row against the current. Rita realizes someone is watching them and sends Helena and The Child back to the house. She rows across the river and finds Lily, who is crying and covered in scratches from the brambles. Lily flees, claiming she meant no harm. After she is clean, Rita allows Daunt to take her home in his boat. They wait in the boat’s shelter for the rain to ease; Daunt asks Rita questions to keep her in his company. He asks if she believes The Child is Helena’s, but Rita is uncertain. She mentions that The Child is sad, which makes Daunt believe that The Child is waiting for her parents. Rita confesses that Robin pretended to faint that night at the Swan. She prepares to leave, and Daunt asks if she ever wanted children. She is short with him and walks into the rain.

Lily worries that the parson will find out she was spying on the Vaughans. She looks into her sow’s eyes while doing chores and realizes that the sow has been lonely. By talking to the pig, she decides to confess her spying to the parson. She walks to the parsonage and imagines The Child with a pet dog. At work, she confesses that she was watching The Child, though edits her story to sound less intentional. The parson assures her that he will communicate that with the Vaughans and reminds her to call The Child “Amelia.” As Lily leaves, she asks the parson to tell Vaughan that The Child would like a puppy.