We Have Always Lived in the Castle

The girls spend the night in the woods. Merricat wonders if the house will be standing when they get back or if the last six years were merely a dream. Again, she imagines the village as a large board game, one that will soon end. They clean themselves in the creek, then, with apprehension, they make their way up the path to Blackwood Manor. They find it in partial ruin with the entire second floor gone, the first floor ransacked, and the garden covered in ash. Merricat is astonished to think that the rules have changed and that the routine of their lives together are now destroyed. “Nothing was orderly, nothing was planned; it was not like any other day” (115).

Constance immediately finds the untouched cellar storage and prepares a meal, finding the best in a bad situation. Merricat notes that the dry foods had been dumped everywhere. They keep to the kitchen and cellar and postpone looking through the rest of the house for as long as possible. They talk about Uncle Julian’s funeral and decide that Helen Clarke probably won’t be joining them for tea as usual.

When they finally look at the rest of the house, they find every last bit of furniture destroyed. Constance blames herself. She finds an unbroken figurine and determines to put it back in its place while Merricat loosens the long-open shutters and closes them. The two begin to clean the damaged property, setting aside anything unbroken. Constance has a story for everything they salvage from the wreckage. They find the safe unbroken but dragged into the middle of the room. They focus on the kitchen and shut up the rest of the house with the intention of never returning to it.

Soon, Helen and Jim Clarke do come to check on the girls, but the girls hide from them in the cellar. Helen states the girls simply misunderstood the intentions of the villagers and that she wishes they would come home with her, but the girls remain hidden.

When Helen Clarke leaves, Constance asks what will happen next. They have nowhere to sleep and no fresh clothes to wear. Merricat remembers seeing a waterlogged and partially burned mattress. They drag it out to dry in the sun. They imagine planting something in the garden in the place where Uncle Julian used to sit. As they clean, Merricat becomes cheerful, imagining the new, more private routines to come. She covers the windows with cardboard so no one can see in. The kitchen becomes dark and gloomy. Because the mattress is not ready to be slept on, Merricat brings in some leaves for them to sleep on the kitchen floor.

At night, when the house is dark and still, Jim Clarke returns with Doctor Levy. They beg the girls to come with them, to come to Julian’s funeral the next day, or to give them some indication that they are fine medically. They refer to the people of the village as their friends. The girls say nothing until they leave.

Constance apologizes for mentioning the murders. Merricat assures her that the poison went into the sugar. “You never used sugar,” she says (130). That night, they try to get used to sleeping on the floor of the kitchen.

The days go by, and (according to Merricat) the girls are happy in their own company with the exception that children often use their yard to play in and press their faces against the shutters to get a look inside. Merricat believes they are spies for the village and steadfastly ignores them. The path leading to and past the house is no longer considered private, and people often walk along it past the house. Merricat has boarded up the windows and doors surrounding the house, and only the front door is left as a source of light and access. “We are on the moon,” says Merricat (133).

They eat from their preserves and from the fruits and vegetables they grow on the property. Constance decides to wear Uncle Julian’s old clothes, and since Merricat insists that she is not allowed to touch Uncle Julian’s things, Constance concedes and cuts a hole in an old tablecloth for Merricat to wear. At the sight of her sister wearing a tablecloth, Constance shows a brief and rare moment of sadness and laments their situation as if it is her fault. Merricat uses the cord cut from the drapes as a belt. Constance dotes on her sister and tries to make her as feminine as she can with just clean water and a comb. Constance only occasionally shows signs of sadness.

Helen Clarke tries a couple more times to get the girls to open up to her but then gives up. Then, someone else they do not see leaves behind an offering of homemade food on the front stoop of Blackwood Manor and meekly apologizes for breaking a chair during the fracas. This begins a tradition of villagers anonymously leaving food on the front stoop; these visits always happen in the evenings, without contact with the sisters. The girls happily take the food, though Constance will occasionally criticize the crispness of the cookies or the constitution of the beef stew. These presents often come with written apologies for breaking this or that household item.

As vines begin to grow over what remains of the top floor and Merricat perfects her barricades and magical burials, strangers begin to whisper that the house is haunted by a pair of ladies who like to snatch and poison children. One day, Charles arrives with a magazine reporter in tow. Both men are looking for a lucrative story to tell about the Blackwood house, but the girls won’t let him in. As time passes, the house comes to seem more forlorn and haunted. Merricat perceives that the magic protecting her and Constance is working powerfully well.