Summary

Chapter two takes place on the same day, August 4th, showing what Emma Borden is doing while the events of the previous chapter occur. The chapter opens on Emma sitting in her friend Helen’s house thinking about her long-deceased mother. Her longing for her mother quickly transforms into a reluctance to return home to her difficult sister.

Lizzie has been sending Emma letters, trying to guilt Emma into returning home early. Emma, happy to finally be free of her sister, relishes her life away from home. Instead of dwelling on the negative, she leaves the house to sketch flowers and other things in the town of Fairhaven.

While she is out, she recalls seeing her father kissing her mother’s body right after death and how it frightened her. She also remembers an afternoon when she returned from a similarly spent day to...