When in Rome
- Rose doesn't like Mad Tom, which she announces rather loudly so as not to treat him any differently than the other men she dislikes.
- Mad Tom goes on about losing his mind outside the Alehouse that Briony and Rose wish to go into—Rose for the previously mentioned meats and now some funeral biscuits, and Briony to find out if Tiddy Rex's cough sounds like Rose's.
- All of the mourners and townspeople are at the Alehouse where Eldric has saved Briony and her sister a seat.
- The bad boy competition (and the competition for Briony's heart) is on when Cecil Trumpington meets Eldric. To be more specific, Cecil asks Briony to introduce him to "the new fellow" (8.18). Ooh—burn.
- The boys shake hands, and Briony takes this opportunity to check them both out. Her description seems to favor Eldric as she describes Cecil as "all pale and dead poet-ish" and Eldric as "all electric and alive" (8.20). Really though, who are we to judge Briony's type? Plus Cecil smells like money.
- Cecil insists on calling Briony "milady" (8.21) and counting the days since he last saw her. Briony finds this annoying, but wonders anyway if she should swoon for this handsome rich man who is interested in her.
- As Eldric, Rose, and Cecil talk about hunting funeral biscuits (yes, these people are weird), Briony eavesdrops on people. Highlights from her ear hustle include: Nelly Daws is being accused of being a witch, the Chime Child doesn't want people to be too hasty about accusing and hanging innocent people, the Hangman also does not want to hang someone unnecessarily.
- Here's some more witch trivia for you: What happens to a witch when she dies? If you guessed melt, you're in the wrong story—these witches turn to dust.
- Briony imagines dying and turning to dust, her father finding, to his surprise, that his daughter was a witch all along.
- Eldric and Cecil bring everyone some food. Rose comments on the brown color of the food—she does not like brown any better than black, apparently.
- Rose reveals that Mr. Drury dropped his Bible Ball before going into the swamp, thus sealing his fate, poor fool.
- Eldric and Cecil get into a silly argument about following the customs of a place. Eldric pokes fun at Cecil by pretending he is unaware that he is in Swampsea—he claims to think he's in a place called the "Dragon Constellation" (8.77).
- While Cecil doesn't seem to find this very entertaining, Briony plays along and brings her young friend Tiddy Rex in on the joke by telling him Eldric is an alien from Earth.
- Tiddy Rex greets Eldric from Earth with some more witch knowledge. According to him, they don't like wine and bread from church—based on Bible Balls and this recent revelation, it's probably safe to assume witches aren't church goers.
- They all talk about birthdays. During this conversation, Rose claims that Briony has no birthday. Like the book and the chimes she can't listen to, Rose tells Briony this is a secret.
- The girls' father stands up to play the fiddle. He asks Briony to sing with him, which is something they used to do often, but Briony—holding on tight to the resentment she has toward her father for giving up playing in the first place and not being around for the past three years—refuses to sing.
- After listening to the song Mr. Larkin plays, the teenagers talk more about Old Ones and Briony listens for and wills Tiddy Rex to cough. He doesn't cough however, so she is unable to compare his cough to Rose's.
- Briony's thoughts about Tiddy Rex and the swamp cough reveal the following: Briony adores Tiddy Rex as a friend, and the swamp cough is always fatal even if the symptoms seem mild at first.
- Because she knows she can't tell the villagers to stop draining the swamp without risking revealing herself, Briony comes up with another plan: blood and salt. Doesn't sound very appetizing Briony. She decides that she will offer Boggy Mun her blood and salt and try to negotiate with him. We don't know much about the ways of the wicked, but it sounds like Briony is playing with fire (or swamp water, as the case may be).