The Cliffs

For the next two weeks, Jane delves into the history of Genevieve’s house. She not only needs the money but is fascinated by the history of the house that figured so largely in her life. It was built in 1843 by Captain Samuel Littleton on land that his grandfather Ephraim, one of Awadapquit’s town founders, gave him. She’s surprised to learn that Samuel drowned the year before the Civil War began; the 1860 census lists his wife, Hannah, as head of household, and a maid, Eliza Green, as living with the family. Hannah lived in the house until her death at age 80 and had five children, three of whom died as children. Hannah never remarried, and Jane imagines that she never got over Samuel’s death.

Jane researches Samuel’s death on his ship, the Providence. She’s surprised to learn that it sank just offshore, returning from a three-year voyage. The town’s residents watched, powerless, from the shore. Jane is amazed that she’s never heard the story and gets more information from the Maine Maritime Museum, including a letter Samuel wrote to Hannah during the trip in which he envisioned Hannah and their children joining him on his next journey. As she walks Walter along the shore that night, she thinks about what Hannah must have felt, watching the ship go down, her heart breaking.

Next, Jane learns more about the couple that sold the house to Genevieve: Herbert and Marilyn Martinson. Although Herbert died, Marilyn is still alive. She was a successful painter but stopped working years ago—no one knows why. Jane gets her contact information and leaves messages but never hears back.

After doing all the research she can, Jane goes to her local sources for information. She visits Abe on his lobster boat, but he only vaguely recalls hearing about the Providence shipwreck. He tells her to visit Lydia Beazley, who runs the local historical society. Jane didn’t know the town had one, but Abe explains that it’s in the room behind Lydia’s toy store.

At the toy store, Lydia leads Jane to the back room, which has rows of filing cabinets, documents, and photographs. In Lydia, Jane feels a kindred spirit, someone who understands the power of history. Jane tells Lydia about the Providence wreck and about looking into Genevieve’s house. She asks if Lydia knows anything about Herbert and Marilyn Martinson, but Lydia says they rarely engaged with the town’s residents.

Lydia offers Jane a local history book by Ethel Troy, a descendant of Samuel Littleton. It contains things she already knew, like that the town’s name, Awadapquit, means “where the beautiful cliffs meet the sea” in the Abenaki language (150). The book waxes romantic about Ephraim Littleton, who was granted 100 acres to build a homestead and a sawmill, and the other men who built sawmills along the river, laying the foundations for the town. She reads that Ephraim died when local Indigenous people burned his mill and home.

The book also notes that Archibald Pembroke, a British explorer, “discovered” the area in 1605. Jane recognizes the name from a local legend about St. George’s Island. The book mentions captive Indigenous men who were taken back to England to tell Pembroke’s patron more about the area. In all the times Jane heard Pembroke’s story, she never heard anything about captives. She reflects on the language the book uses (“redmen,” and “savages”) and how it illustrates the prejudices of that time. The book mentions other local historical events and always presents the Indigenous populations as the villains, but Jane knows the book doesn’t tell the whole story.

Lydia gives Jane a pamphlet about local historical houses, and she reads about the history of Genevieve’s house, learning that Ethel Troy (the history book’s author) and her sister (Honey) inherited the house after Hannah’s death and ran it as a boardinghouse called Lake Grove Inn for many years. The name reminds Jane of the girl named D, and she asks Lydia if she knows of any deaths at the inn, but she doesn’t. Jane wants to solve this mystery and to believe what Clementine said about D because it would mean that her mother and grandmother are still with her.

Afterward, Jane emails a friend from grad school who works at the Maine Historical Society, Evan. He responds minutes later, inviting her to visit to look for information on the Littletons. Jane is nervous that Evan might have heard about what happened with her job, but when she visits the next day, she’s relieved that he appears not to know. Evan tells her about an upcoming exhibit, “Indigenous Mainers,” focusing on the Wabanaki culture and people.

Before she leaves, Jane walks through the new Wabanaki exhibit. It’s illuminating and disturbing, tracing the erasure of Indigenous culture, history, and people over the last several hundred years and telling the other side of the history that Jane just read about in Ethel Troy’s book. Feeling inspired, Jane takes down the names of the Indigenous people the exhibit features.

Afterward, Evan shows her a book containing a letter that a man on Pembroke’s ship wrote. It details how the crew tricked four Indigenous men into coming aboard and then abducted them. Jane knows this story is important but doesn’t yet know what she’ll do with it. Evan introduces her to Naomi Miller, the director of a Wabanaki museum in Bar Harbor. Jane takes her contact information and, after visiting the gift shop and buying several books connected to the exhibit, leaves the museum.

As she drives home, she thinks about how Awadapquit needs the same sort of perspective shift. She emails Melissa about Naomi Miller. When she doesn’t get an email by the time she gets home, she realizes that she was so excited she forgot what happened.

That night, Marilyn Martinson finally calls Jane back. She’s abrupt and rude, but when Jane asks about the Littletons and Genevieve’s house, she opens up a little. She says she has some items of Hannah’s: letters, a bonnet, and a photograph. Marilyn tells Jane that she abandoned the house after her divorce: She didn’t want to live there but didn’t want to sell it either. When Jane asks if a girl whose name started with D ever lived there, however, Marilyn abruptly hangs up.

Marilyn hasn’t painted in years, even though she wanted to: Her arthritis won’t let her. Her neighbor Caitlin, however, recently convinced her to show a retrospective of her work. Over the last two years, Marilyn shared more of her history with Caitlin than anyone else. When Jane Flanagan calls with questions about Lake Grove, Marilyn finally tells Caitlin “the whole story”: When she married Herbert, they were both painters, but she wasn’t as immediately popular as him. Herbert got a faculty position in Albany, and soon after they moved to Albany, Marilyn discovered she was pregnant. She didn’t know then that Herbert had begun the first of several affairs. After Daisy’s birth, Marilyn felt a burst of creativity, and her work became stronger and more popular. She began to “pull ahead” of Herbert in the professional realm. The quality of his work declined, and he was let go from his faculty position.

After Daisy’s first birthday, they bought the house in Maine “on a whim” (145). They had visited Awadapquit on a friend’s recommendation and overheard a conversation about two local women, sisters, who died recently and left their large home to a distant relative. Marilyn and Herbert tracked down a realtor and bought the home.

Marilyn learned about Herbert’s affairs and ended their relationship, but they stayed married for Daisy’s sake. At Daisy’s request, Herbert painted the house purple, and the family reached a happy status quo. Their friends were fascinated with the house and St. George’s Island. One told them that she saw a woman standing on the cliff, staring out at the island.

Marilyn did her best work during those summers at the house. She became fascinated by glass and light and collected glass bottles from the local junk shop. She found a jar full of glass marbles at the shop. When she brought it home, Daisy wanted to play with them, but Marilyn put the jar on a high pantry shelf.

One day, Herbert discovered a hidden room, and Daisy immediately wanted it for her bedroom. In the room, she found letters between Hannah Littleton and her brother, a silk bonnet, a photo of Samuel and Hannah Littleton, a ring with a lock of hair, and the engraving “Not Lost But Gone Before” (192). Marilyn and Daisy buried the ring in the cemetery between Samuel and Hannah’s graves. Marilyn kept the letters, bonnet, and photograph, intending to give them to the local historical society.

Marilyn and Daisy spent many hours at the cemetery. They wondered about a rough stone on which the inscription said only “Sister Eliza.” Several years after they bought the house, a local woman asked if they might like to buy a historic plaque for it. She had much information about Samuel Littleton, but when Daisy asked her about Sister Eliza, she knew nothing.

The summer when Daisy was eight years old, Herbert told Marilyn he had met a local widow who cleaned houses and suggested they hire her. Marilyn agreed but, upon meeting Mary Flanagan, saw that the woman was young and attractive. Mary was terribly sad, still grieving her husband, and confided to Marilyn that she had a daughter of her own.

When Marilyn was offered a residency at the MacDowell colony, she was initially reluctant to leave Daisy for five weeks. However, Herbert encouraged her, pointing out that Mary could babysit. When Marilyn called home a few days after arriving at MacDowell, Mary and her daughter, Shirley, were there. Marilyn felt uneasy, suddenly thinking that she shouldn’t have left. She felt guilty about being apart from Daisy and being so consumed by her work.

Marilyn thrived at MacDowell and spoke to Daisy every day. When she talked to Herbert, he talked about Mary and her daughter, but she couldn’t make herself care. On Daisy’s eighth birthday, Marilyn drove home from MacDowell early in the morning, arriving with a cake and candles. She lit the candles and woke up Daisy, who was thrilled. Herbert was surprised, and when Marilyn found two wine glasses, she wondered if Mary was sleeping there but didn’t ask. That night, Marilyn kissed Daisy and returned to MacDowell.

Two nights later, Marilyn got an emergency phone call at MacDowell. Herbert told her that Daisy wanted to play with Marilyn’s jar of marbles, but he refused. That night, Daisy snuck down to the kitchen and got the marbles. She was taking them to her room upstairs when she tripped and dropped the jar. It shattered, and the marbles rolled everywhere. Mary was in Herbert’s room and ran into the hallway to see what was happening. She called to Daisy, but Daisy, confused, ran into the balcony railing. It collapsed, and Daisy fell and broke her neck. After Daisy’s death, Marilyn never returned to the house.

Jane Flanagan call was a shock. Mary Flanagan wrote to Marilyn once, a few years after Daisy’s death. She told Marilyn that she was in recovery and wanted to make amends. The letter only made Marilyn hate Mary more.

When Marilyn finally decided to return Jane Flanagan’s call, she was surprised that Mary’s name didn’t even come up. Jane’s focus was on the house and the Littletons. Marilyn began to open up, but when Jane asked about someone whose name started with D, Marilyn hung up.

Marilyn and Herbert divorced, but she soon discovered that Herbert had borrowed against the house and used the money to buy a house for Mary Flanagan, forging Marilyn’s name on the papers. Herbert agreed to give Lake Grove to Marilyn and pay off the loan against it.

A year after Daisy’s death, Marilyn returned to the house. Daisy was burned in the family cemetery there, and Marilyn planned to die by suicide. She wrote a note saying that she wanted to be buried with Daisy, took sleeping pills, and sat in her running car in the barn at Lake Grove. She didn’t expect to wake up, but she did: She felt it as a force waking her up.

After that, Marilyn slowly healed, making friends and teaching art, but was alone until, at age 73, she met Lionel. They fell in love and traveled, and Marilyn began painting again. After Lionel died, she became increasingly isolated until she met Caitlin. She finally sold the house and planned to give the money to Caitlin.

Jane dresses up to go to Genevieve’s house but is more excited about the house than Genevieve. When she arrives, however, Jane finds Genevieve’s changes disappointing: The modern addition clashes, and the rest of the house and property seem “tamed.” She doesn’t understand why someone would buy a historic house and then modernize it.

When Genevieve shows her the house, Benjamin points out the hidden door that leads to his bedroom. Jane is excited to realize that even after all the time she spent in the house, there are still secrets to discover. As she goes out to the deck to talk to Genevieve, she sees an Abenaki basket, which is beautiful and makes her want to learn more about the maker. When she asks Genevieve about it, however, Genevieve only talks about how much it cost and the local dealer she bought it from, Thomas Crosby.

They talk about Jane’s research. When Genevieve offers her wine, Jane says for the first time that she doesn’t drink. Genevieve goes inside to get her a glass of water. Jane notices the infinity pool and comments on it to Benjamin, but he tells her they don’t swim in it because “[i]t’s not safe” (216). Jane looks out at St. George’s Island, which seems different now that she knows the story about the captive Indigenous men.

When Genevieve returns, Jane shows her the photo of Hannah and Samuel Littleton that Marilyn texted to her even though she still refused to communicate. When Genevieve asks about Eliza, Jane tells her that a woman named Eliza lived with the family but wasn’t related. Genevieve says she hoped for a photograph of Eliza to show Benjamin but doesn’t explain.

Genevieve asks Jane to stay for dinner, and throughout the night, every time Jane starts to leave, Genevieve convinces her to stay. When she asks Jane about her connection to the house, Jane tells her how she used to visit it, first alone and later with her husband. She tells Genevieve that they’re separated, and Genevieve is sympathetic.

Jane reflects on how with some distance, she better understands their separation. She traces her drinking, which got worse after her mother died, to the point when she missed work and lashed out at David. He suggested therapy, but she refused, knowing that he would never leave her.

Genevieve interrupts her thoughts with the startling statement that she thinks the house is haunted. She tells Jane that she finds marbles throughout the house, even though it was professionally cleaned before they moved in, and that Benjamin has spoken to a ghost she believes is Sister Eliza. Benjamin told Genevieve that the ghost isn’t scary—she wants to find her mother. Jane tells Genevieve about the young girl whose name started with D and her connection to the house. They decide that Jane should call Clementine the next day and see if she can speak to them.

At home, Jane looks up Thomas Crosby, the dealer who sold Genevieve the basket. She texts Allison, who doesn’t recognize the name, and Jane thinks about how Betty would’ve known, but Betty’s dementia robbed them of history. Online, she discovers that Crosby’s business is at the center of various legal disputes concerning his sales of Indigenous artifacts. She thinks about representation and finds the paper on which she wrote the names of the abducted Indigenous men. She emails Naomi Miller about it.

Naomi returns her call the next day, explaining that she wants to learn more about the men, but it isn’t her area of expertise. She tells Jane that many names were misspelled because they were translated phonetically. She points out that though locals say Awadapquit means “where the beautiful cliffs meet the sea” (231), it isn’t even an Abenaki word. Naomi looks it up and realizes that it’s an incorrect transcription of Sawadapskw’i, which means “of the jutting-out rock” (231). She tells Jane that the area would have been named because it was an important sacred or ceremonial place. Before they end the call, they arrange to have lunch and talk more about their various projects. Jane receives a text from Genevieve, who asks if she has contacted Clementine about visiting her at Camp Mira.