Year of Wonders

Anna grieves her father and shares his backstory with Elinor, hoping it will help her understand why he became such a horrible man. Josiah joined the navy at a young age and spent much of his childhood aboard ships, where he was sexually abused by the older sailors and regularly whipped by the boatswain. After escaping once and fleeing to land, a press gang captured him and forced him back into naval service. Once he ran away again, he lived in constant fear of being recaptured, and alcohol was the only thing that brought him solace. After sharing her story, Anna feels like a tremendous burden has been lifted. Elinor explains that she always wondered why a man like Josiah bothered honoring the Sunday Oath, but Anna says she thinks that he felt God was protecting him somehow.

Anna tells Elinor about Aphra’s strange behavior at Josiah’s grave, and Elinor produces a piece of cloth she got from Margaret Livesedge with a spell written on it. Margaret claimed she purchased the spell from someone claiming to be Anys Gowdie’s ghost. They both agree that they must tell Mr. Mompellion so that he may address the growing problem in his sermons.

Mr. Mompellion says that he found the Rileys passing their baby through the bramble bushes to “protect him from invasion by the Plague seeds” (212), and the baby was covered in scratches. He sends Anna with a salve for the baby’s wounds. At the Riley cottage, Lottie is boiling a pot full of the baby’s urine, a recommendation from the witch. Anna scolds Lottie for her foolish ignorance, binds the baby’s wounds with salve and clean bandages, and tosses out the pot of urine. She gives Lottie specific instructions for tending to the baby but is confident that Lottie is still consumed by her fear. As Anna leaves the pitiful scene, she wonders if God cares about the minutiae of her life and contemplates the growing spiritual delusions in the village. She thinks they might be better off studying the plague and finding a cure rather than obsessing over whether it’s God’s divine punishment.

May arrives with chaotic weather patterns and a growing sense of dread in the town as the warm weather increases the casualties. Anna tends to her sheep and the dying, and Mr. Mompellion’s sermons grow dimmer by the week. Anna notes that by June, 104 people are dead. Villagers, including herself, have become increasingly fearful of coming near one another, and the town suffers from losing all their skilled artisans. Some villagers have taken to erratic behavior, such as Andrew Merrick, who withdrew to the woods to live alone, and Jane Martin, Anna’s former babysitter and a devout Puritan, who has now taken to drinking and carousing at the tavern.

The Gordons, who were present at Mem’s lynching, haven’t been seen in town much until Anna stumbles upon an almost unrecognizable John near the well. He is gaunt, wearing only a loincloth, and is whipping himself with a leather scourge embedded with nails. Anna begs him to stop, but he only responds in Latin. Anna immediately alerts Mr. Mompellion, who identifies John as a “Flagellant” (220), or a person who believes that the plague is a punishment from God and tortures themselves to attain forgiveness. Mr. Mompellion explains that the group originated during the first outbreaks of the plague centuries before and is primarily harmless until they form mobs, which have been known to carry out violence against those whom they see as scapegoats for the plague, such as the Jews.

Mr. Mompellion takes Anna to the Gordons’ to investigate, and on the way, they come upon Jane Martin having sex with Albion Samweys in a ditch. They are both visibly drunk, but while he only dismisses Albion to go home, Mr. Mompellion shouts at Jane, demanding that she fall on her knees and repent of her sin. Anna defends the girl, claiming that she cannot understand him in her drunken stupor, and he shouts at Anna that she has forgotten her place. However, Anna doesn’t relent and says that Jane has suffered enough, losing her entire family to the plague. Jane vomits, and Anna helps clean her before they carry her home on horseback. On the way to the Gordons’, Mr. Mompellion apologizes to Anna for his anger and asks that she not tell Elinor.

Urith Gordon says John is missing. Wearing a coarse linen garment and gaunt with starvation, she invites Anna and Mr. Mompellion into the frigid, empty house. Urith explains that John forced her to fast for two weeks and that he is gone roaming the moors. The home is strewn with wooden crosses John fashioned as he abandoned his farming duties to make the talismans. Anna gives Urith a basket of food, which she devours, but fears her husband will beat her for breaking her fast. He burned all their furniture and clothing and tried to force her to go naked, but she refused, claiming that it was inappropriate.

Mr. Mompellion searches for John all along the moors with no luck. Brand discovers John’s body a week later at the base of a cliff. Mr. Mompellion holds a memorial service for John and reminds his parishioners not to embrace the lie that they must increase their suffering to appease God. However, when Urith dies from the plague, many villagers assume that John’s flagellation had been protecting them. Soon, Martin Miller and Randoll Daniel don sackcloth and begin beating themselves.

At the rectory, Anna secretly watches Mr. Mompellion and Elinor share a tender moment. Seeing their love at first fills Anna with thankfulness that God has so far spared them from the plague. However, her joy quickly turns bitter as she is lonely. She takes their dinner dishes outside and smashes them in a rage.

Anna and Elinor visit the elderly survivors of the plague who can’t care for themselves and wonder why the plague affects the young and healthy while the elders are left untouched. Elder James Mallion asks Anna why God spared him yet took the young children, and she is so struck with grief that she can’t answer.

Elinor begins coughing, and Anna fears the worst. Elinor demands that she not worry since she feels it is only a cold. Elinor languishes in bed for three days with a high fever. She tells Anna she is proud of the woman she has become, saying, “I wonder if you know how you have changed. It is the one good, perhaps, to come of this terrible year” (234). Anna wants to stay by her bed continually, but Mr. Mompellion often sends her home, and Anna is jealous of their bond.

Elinor’s condition worsens, and she begins to hallucinate and call out for Charles. Mr. Mompellion makes Anna leave, but Elinor’s fever breaks overnight, and the next morning, Anna finds she is alert. Over the next few days, Elinor steadily improves and is soon well enough to walk outside. Mr. Mompellion returns from visiting the Gordons, where he burned all the crosses, and tells Elinor that he’s had an idea, though they don’t share it with Anna.

Mr. Mompellion tells the congregation to burn all their possessions to rid them of the illness. He orders that everyone commit something to the fire and scour their home with boiling water. Anna contributes what she can, but if she had heeded Mr. Viccars’s warning and burned all his garments, they wouldn’t be where they are now. The townsfolk create a large bonfire in the dell where they meet for services, and as Anna watches the flames consume their earthly goods, she sees an image of a skull.

Suddenly, Brand and Robert Snee arrive, dragging Aphra veiled in black. They reveal that Aphra has been posing as a witch, conning people out of money for charms and spells. The crowd grows angry and begins calling for a witch trial, but Mr. Mompellion disperses the crowd, assuring them that Aphra will answer for her crimes the following day. Anna takes Aphra’s young daughter Faith home to her cottage, and the child suffers from terrifying nightmares all night.

Anna blames what happens next on Mr. Mompellion’s failure to act that night. Robert throws Aphra into his manure cistern, where she fights all night to keep from drowning in the mess. The following day, they drag a despondent Aphra to the village green, where the pillory stands for public punishment. Anna admits that she hates the scaffold and is glad Mr. Mompellion discourages it. She and Elinor take Aphra back to her cottage and clean her up. Aphra regains her wits and curses Anna, claiming she is trying to steal Faith from her. Anna worries for the child’s safety and visits Aphra’s cottage every day with food, but Aphra will not let her in and curses her with unintelligible words.

One night, Anna sneaks up to the cottage and sees Aphra performing a ritualistic dance with a snake in front of the fire. Anna breaks into the cottage and sees that Faith has died from the plague: Aphra has painted her face with chalk and grotesquely hung the body from the rafters. When Aphra lunges at Anna with the snake, Anna runs from the cottage to summon the rector for help. However, no one can get inside the cabin, and they give up, claiming that they can’t help Faith and her corpse might spread disease.

Despite her lingering fear over Aphra, Anna takes joy in noticing that the death toll is falling, and everyone begins to have hope that the plague is over. Andrew Merrick’s rooster returns, and he soon follows, which Anna takes as a good sign. Elinor implores Mr. Mompellion to hold a service of thanksgiving and end the quarantine so that the young survivors can travel outside the city and search for family members or start their lives anew. Mr. Mompellion is wary of declaring victory over the plague too soon, but he finally agrees to hold the service in August.

The survivors gather in the dell, and Anna notes that Elinor carries a bouquet and looks resplendent. The spot where they had the great bonfire is turning green with new growth, and Mr. Mompellion sees it as a sign. Just as he begins his sermon, Aphra appears wielding the knife that pinned Joss to the mine and carrying Faith’s badly decomposed body. She rushes at Mr. Mompellion, but he wrestles her to the ground. Just as Elinor reaches to take the knife, Faith’s skull detaches from her body, and Aphra flies into a rage, stabbing Elinor in the neck and then turning the knife on herself. As Elinor lies bleeding, Aphra falls to the ground and touches Faith’s skull to her lips.