- Chapter 8 gets a running start with another epigraph from Christabel LaMotte—this one a small poem that contrasts an outdoor winter wonderland with a "snowy creature" who looks out from the indoors.
- Fast-forward to Maud and Roland sitting together in the "bitterly cold" (8.1) library at Seal Court, where they've come to comb through the Ash-LaMotte correspondence together.
- Maud suggests that she should read Christabel LaMotte's letters while Roland reads Randolph Henry Ash's, and Roland eventually agrees. Soon, they get down to work.
- As Roland reads Ash's letters, Possession's narrator muses on the nature of letter-writing and correspondence. Then, we're transported directly into one of Randolph's letters to Christabel—one of the early ones, written before the two poets struck up a more obviously romantic relationship.
- This particular letter contains a reference to "The City of Is," and Roland interrupts Maud's reading to ask if she knows anything about it.
- Maud explains that the City of Is is a Breton legend that bears certain similarities to the Atlantis myth and the biblical narrative of Sodom and Gomorrah. As she tells him, the city "was drowned in the sea for its wickedness" (8.29).
- Maud also tells Roland that Christabel wrote a poem about it, and she gives him a copy of Christabel LaMotte: a Selection of Narrative and Lyric Poems to read. Inside, Roland finds LaMotte's poem The Drowned City, along with an introduction by Leonora Stern.
- Like Roland, we readers now read Leonora's introduction to The Drowned City—or the beginning of it, anyway. Pretty soon, Roland skips ahead to the poem itself.
- Roland and Maud work through the day. In the evening, Maud drives home to Lincoln while Roland stays on at Seal Court.
- As she drives, Maud contemplates the cold, frozen forest that borders the road, and she imagines what it might have looked like in Christabel's time.
- When she reaches her apartment, Maud finds two letters waiting from her: one from Leonora Stern, and the other from Prince Albert College.
- When she opens the letter from Prince Albert College, Maud sees that it's from Fergus Wolff. Fergus's curiosity has obviously been piqued by Maud and Roland's new working relationship, and his letter includes a not entirely jokey warning to Maud, telling her not to eat the younger man.
- Leonora's letter is warm and chatty and raises questions about the nature of their relationship. Is it platonic and professional, or is there a bit of romance between them, too?
- Maud is unsettled by both letters. Leonora's makes her question her decision to keep the Ash-LaMotte correspondence a secret from her sister-feminist and friend, and Fergus's stirs up painful memories of their relationship.
- Because Fergus's letter includes an obscure reference to Jacques Lacan, Maud takes some time to look it up. As she does, she realizes that Fergus seems "to be slightly jealous of Roland," and she doesn't know quite what to make of that (8.70).
- Maud heads back to Seal Court the next morning, but before heading inside, she walks around to the winter garden that lies behind the manor.
- As Maud crouches over a frozen pond to see if there are any fish, a figure looms up behind her and puts its hand on her arm.
- Maud screams but soon realizes that it's only Roland, who has come to check on her. After the two of them make their awkward apologies, they head inside and get to work.
- Maud and Roland spend another morning poring through the Ash-LaMotte correspondence, but, this time, our trusty narrator doesn't tell us what they read.
- It snows steadily all morning, and by lunchtime huge drifts have gathered around the windows. When Sir George suggests that Maud should head back to Lincoln before it gets worse, Lady Joan insists that Maud should spend the night.
- The Baileys make up a bed for Maud after lunch and start to warm it with hot water bottles so that it'll be toasty warm by nightfall.
- Afterwards, Maud and Roland get back to work, and they work steadily through another afternoon.
- After having supper with the Baileys, Maud and Roland head upstairs to their separate rooms.
- Roland decides to wait in his room for a little while before trying to use the bathroom, so as to give Maud a chance to use it first. Later, when he heads towards the bathroom and reaches the heavy oak door, he listens to see if he can hear any activity inside. Not wanting to disturb Maud if she's in there, he bends down to see if any light is visible through the keyhole.
- Just as he bends down to the keyhole, the door swings open in front of him, and Maud nearly trips over him on her way out.
- As she stumbles, Maud puts a hand on Roland's shoulder, and Roland instinctively throws his hand up and clasps her leg. Suddenly Roland feels a powerful electric shock—a "stunning blow like that emitted by the Moray eel from under its boulders to unsuspecting marine explorers" (9.126). He doesn't know if Maud has felt it, too, but something tells him she has.
- After Roland explains that he wasn't actually spying on Maud like a total creep, the two say goodnight. Maud heads toward her bedroom, and Roland heads into the bathroom to get himself washed up.
- After Roland washes up in the bathroom, he heads to bed. In the wee hours of the morning, he wakes from a confusing and surrealist nightmare. Though they may not be clear to him, some of the dream's elements have definitely been inspired by his "electric" encounter with Maud.