Summary

Chapter 20 is titled “The White Birds.” Anne wakes Christmas morning and gives Maeve the Christmas gift she and Thomas bought her. Maeve unwraps it to find a tea service, the same one Maeve used for tea when Anne visited upon her arrival in 2001. Anne predicts Maeve will have a long life and Maeve pledges to never forget Anne. The day passes happily. That evening, dinner is interrupted when Fergus finds a man with a rifle trained toward the house. Everyone assumes the man is there to assassinate Michael, but they discover he is one of Liam' associates and Anne realizes that the man may have been planning to kill her. In Thomas's journal entry, dated December 26, 1921, Thomas recounts the ceremony in which he and Anne married. Thomas feels that other men cannot possibly love their women with the same passion he feels for...