Chapter 17

At dawn, Natalie and Maeve return with eggs. While Mary manages the fire and biscuits, Maeve cracks and stirs eggs with practiced efficiency. Natalie, fatigued, sits, but Mary pointedly reminds her that breakfast is an hour away and tells her to work, signaling Mary’s command of the household.

Natalie turns to breadmaking—flour, salt, water, and a well-tended sourdough starter—and finds unexpected calm in the tactile ritual. She kneads carefully, noting the balance and “tension” required, and remains aware she may be observed, performatively patting the dough before setting it to rise.

Old Caleb enters with a heavy bucket of raw milk; Mary wipes away manure smears and decants it with practiced competence. She then insists on changing Natalie’s dressing, overriding Natalie’s reluctance and reasserting practical authority.

Mary unwraps the bandage to reveal Natalie’s grotesquely healing foot, applies ointment, and admonishes her to stay still. Natalie averts her gaze to the sky through the window, feeling like “Frankenstein’s monster,” and clutches the hidden microphone in her pocket.

As Mary finishes, Natalie silently addresses the presumed audience, convinced the watchers are witnessing both her enforced domesticity and her vulnerability, further cementing her belief that this reality is staged and surveilled.