60 pages • 2 hours read
Patti Callahan HenryA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides that feature detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, quotes, and essay topics.
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Following the explosion, Lilly witnesses brutal injuries and wonders where Augusta and the rest of her family are. As she rushes with Priscilla to a partly filled lifeboat, she notices that the starboard side of the Pulaski is damaged, and the ship is listing dangerously.
Just then, the ship shifts, forcing Priscilla and Lilly to cling to a mast. Lilly notes how desperately people are trying to find something to hold on to. Two men fight over a wooden settee, and an enslaved man is tying together a gin barrel and boards for his enslaver. The ship continues to groan and shudder as Priscilla wonders where Adam is. Lilly prays he doesn’t find them. A mast falls, crushing a man beneath it. Lilly realizes that whatever their race, class, or background, everyone is equal when facing death. Priscilla begins to pray in her heritage language.
Everly hopes she didn’t say anything too personal, worried she crossed a line at dinner. She wants to be more careful about whom she trusts with her feelings of grief and loss. She thinks how ridiculous it is to believe there is a reason she lived when Mora died. It was chance, not fate.
Oliver calls. Everly relates that Maddox was testing her during dinner.
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