Summary

Helen had lied to Aaron about the remaining papers being too damaged for study; the final letter was dated June 8, 1691, the week before Ester’s death, and she wanted to read it alone. It was Ester’s writing, “but even in the dim light of the pub, she’d been able to see that the familiar hand had been shaking” (527). Alone in her apartment, Helen thinks, “she had devoted her life to remembering,” yet “somewhere across the years, [had] forgotten what she’d once understood … that desire was the only truth worth following” (528).

Ester seeks to honor the rabbi, by telling the truth: “though my heart feels no remorse, my deeds would confess themselves to paper now, as the least of tributes to him whom I once betrayed” (528). “My death calls and I answer, and through pain make confession, though it shall not...