Chains Chapter 44 Summary

Saturday, January 18, 1777

  • Isabel must act quickly. She puts on all the clothes she owns and puts her remaining seeds from Momma and her copy of Common Sense in her pocket. 
  • She stops off at Lady Seymour's room to throw some logs on the fire. Afterward, she notices Lady Seymour's coin purse, and decides to steal some money from her. Just as she opens it, though, Lady Seymour wakes up. Oops.
  • Lady Seymour, though, tells her with her eyes and a curve of her mouth that Isabel can keep the money. Her gaze indicates the picture of her husband, and Isabel knows that it's repayment for the kindness she showed her in rescuing Lady Seymour and her husband's picture from the fire. She then forces herself to speak, telling Isabel to run.
  • Isabel plans to steal a boat and cross the river to New Jersey, then walk to Charleston to find Ruth. Something stops her from making a break for it, though: Curzon. He's been her only friend during this hard time without Ruth, and she can't just let him freeze to death in the prison.
  • Upon her return to the prison, Isabel tells Fisher that she's been sent to clean the cells. She finds that a fever is running rampant in the prison and that numerous prisoners, including Dibdin, are dead. 
  • Isabel finally finds Curzon lying dazed and sick on the floor. She tells Fisher that she's found another dead body and asks if she can carry him to the pile of bodies outside. Outside, she loads Curzon into a wheelbarrow and tells him to play dead and be quiet. Then, she makes a run for it.