Chapter 14 Summary

Meggie returns to Drogheda unannounced, on the mail truck. When Fee asks, Meggie explains that Luke did not want either her or his children. "If he doesn't want you, the you were right to come home. We can look after you here." Her mother replies. Meggie rides the Home Paddock, like always, until her pregnancy makes her too big to sit on a horse. When the baby is born, it's a boy, as sunny and calm as Justine was cold and irritable. Meggie's breasts overflow with milk for the baby, who already looks like Ralph de Bricassart.

In Rome, Father Ralph confesses to Cardinal Contini-Verchese, who guesses Ralph's affair is with the same woman who gave him the rose he has kept pressed in his missal all these years. Father Ralph assures the Cardinal that his fall was a single event, and will...