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On the busy train back to London, noisy stag and hen parties surround Marnie. She feels angry with herself for pointlessly extending her trip. In London, the bustle of the city feels alien to her. She buys a bunch of daffodils to cheer herself up but reflects that the unopened buds look like “spring onions” in her apartment.

Part 4, Chapter 67 Summary: “Kippers”

“Day Eight, Part One: Richmond to Osmotherley”

Michael has kippers for breakfast in the hotel’s plush dining room. While packing, he drinks the champagne left in the bottom of the bottle. He sets out on the 26-mile walk toward the Hambleton Hills. The view is dreary as he passes housing estates and sewage works. Taking a wrong turn into a farmyard, he sees a dead calf. Michael wishes Marnie was there.

Part 4, Chapter 68 Summary: “Work”

“Day Eight, Part Two: Bedroom to Kitchen to Reception”

Marnie resumes her usual routine in her apartment, immersing herself in Twisted Night. She tries not to think about her sadness and anger and whether Michael is thinking of her.

Part 4, Chapter 69 Summary: “Marching”

Michael continues walking the North Yorkshire Moors in the rain but doesn’t find it pleasurable. He checks into a utilitarian pub room where the Wi-Fi code is “wainwrightc2c.” He ignores Natasha’s messages, checking if he’s okay. Michael wants to contact Marnie but doesn’t know what to say.

Part 4, Chapter 70 Summary: “Feta”

Marnie eats the Feta cheese from her refrigerator, which is past its best. On impulse, she emails Neil, insisting that he arrange to repay the money he owes her. Receiving another text from Conrad asking her out, she agrees to meet the following day.

Part 4, Chapter 71 Summary: “Last Night in Richmond”

In a flashback, Michael recalls Natasha arriving at his Richmond hotel room. He realized that she was pregnant as soon as she took off her coat. Natasha revealed she was now living with Frank, the father of her baby. She explained that she felt she owed it to Michael to tell him in person. Michael told Natasha that he understood how much she wanted a baby and would try to be pleased for her in the future. He agreed with her suggestion to hasten the sale of their house. At the restaurant, both started crying, and they left without ordering. Back in his hotel room, Michael drank the champagne alone.

Part 4, Chapter 72 Summary: “Brains and Hearts”

“Day Nine, Part One: Herne Hill to Battersea”

On her date with Conrad, Marnie notes that he’s still handsome and less brash than she remembered. Nevertheless, she reflects she wouldn’t be pleased to see him on her deathbed. Marnie places the heads of the prawns she has eaten on her finger ends, but Conrad doesn’t notice. When Conrad expresses regret at breaking up with his former fiancée, Marnie suggests that he tell his ex-girlfriend how he feels. They kiss before parting, but Marnie feels no chemistry.

Part 4, Chapter 73 Summary: “Fun on the Moors”

“Day Nine, Part Two: Osmotherley to Blakey Ridge”

As he sets out in the rain, Michael feels that the walk is pointless. He wonders if there’s any way he can repair things with Marnie. Exhausted at the end of the day, he reaches a remote group of houses on the moor’s edge. Michael’s B&B host is Graham, a middle-aged man. Graham explains that he’s renting out his son’s room, who has just joined the Royal Navy. His wife is staying with her sister in Scarborough. The room has a desolate view of the moor, and Michael’s bed has a Middlesborough Football Club cover. Graham announces that he’s microwaving a chicken for dinner, and Michael takes a photograph of the view.

Part 4, Chapter 74 Summary: “Mark Rothko”

Neil replies to Marnie, apologizing and confirming a plan to repay her. She also receives a photograph from Michael of the grey-and-black view from his window. She waits for an explanatory message.

Part 4, Chapter 75 Summary: “The Boy’s Duvet”

Michael agonizes about what message to send following the photograph. He wants to tell Marnie about how he and Graham ate rubbery microwaved chicken in front of the TV and watched Antiques Roadshow. He settles on apologizing, saying he misses her and expressing the hope that he’ll see her again. He stays awake until the early hours but receives no reply.

Part 4, Chapter 76 Summary: “Unpacking”

“The Last Day”

Marnie checks the metadata of Michael’s photograph to find his coordinates. She views his B&B on a street view map. Emptying her rucksack, she keeps the red stone but tears up the landlady’s postcard.

Part 4, Chapter 77 Summary: “The Path”

After a breakfast of microwaved bacon, Michael initially turns down Graham’s offer of a lift to Scarborough. However, concluding that he has no reason to finish the walk, he accepts.

Part 4 Analysis

As Marnie and Michael go their separate ways, the novel returns to the theme of The Pain of Loneliness and the Need for Human Connection. The protagonists experience a new form of loneliness, having enjoyed and then lost a meaningful connection. As Marnie returns to her usual routine, the past-its-prime feta cheese awaiting her and the cactus “in [a] zombie state” are symbolic reminders of the stagnation of her life before the trip (136). Meanwhile, Michael reverts to his former habit of walking alone as the grim weather and landscape reflect his solitude.

Despite the characters returning to their former routines, the novel thematically emphasizes The Transformative Power of Travel and Nature as both are demonstrably altered by their journey together. While Marnie tries to resign herself to reverting to her former state, she’s discontented with her situation. Returning to the apartment that was once a comforting haven from the world feels “like opening a sealed tomb” (281). This macabre simile conveys the protagonist’s realization that life without human connection is a form of spiritual death. Meanwhile, her decision to demand payment of the money Neil owes her indicates a new sense of empowerment and agency. Similarly, as Michael misses Marnie, he can no longer convince himself that walking alone is therapeutic solitude rather than loneliness. The dismal landscape of this section of the route reflects Michael’s loss of hope as traffic noise triggers old anxieties, and a wrong turn leads to his discovery of a dead calf. The section’s epigraph from Shakespeare’s King Lear, “This cold night will turn us all to fools and madmen” (277), further underscores Michael’s inner turmoil. Roaming the moors alone in a storm, like the “mad” King Lear, Michael recognizes he’s a fool in more ways than one. He regrets that his fixation with the past prevented him from moving forward with Marnie and questions the point of continuing the walk: “[H]e might as well have been on a treadmill” (287). This observation echoes Marnie’s thoughts early in the novel.

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Michael’s bleak stay with Graham in the bedroom of a much-missed son only underscores his loneliness. The novel’s portrayal of the middle-aged men’s time together thematically illustrates The Balance of Humor and Melancholy. The unappetizing microwaved chicken that Michael and Graham eat in front of the TV conveys how both feel obsolete as they pine for the presence of significant others. Michael confronts the strength of his feelings for Marnie, sending an emotionally honest message admitting to missing her. The photograph he sends of the grey and black skyline (which the novel compares to the paintings of abstract artist Mark Rothko) is an equally candid expression of his feelings. Michael’s abandoning the walk and accepting a lift for Graham is a conclusive signal of his character’s transformation. In a reversal of his original craving to walk the route alone, he feels that the accomplishment is futile without Marnie’s company.

The protagonists’ relationship has seemingly reached an impasse as Marnie fails to reply to Michael’s apologetic message. However, the novel offers glimmers of hope for their future. Marnie’s purchase of daffodils suggests an effort to maintain the sense of hope and renewal she experienced on the trip, although in the context of her London apartment, they lack the element of the sublime. She also retains the pebble she chose at the beginning of the Coast to Coast Walk. After receiving Michael’s photograph, her impulse to track his location online indicates that she hasn’t entirely abandoned the journey and what it represents. Marnie’s date with Conrad initially seems to threaten any continued romance with Michael. However, her conclusion that she wouldn’t wish to see Conrad on her deathbed implies a new measure of love that only Michael fulfills.