Reading Rebecca Pt. 9

The final three. Chapters 25-27

The conversation from the last chapter continues. Everyone is puzzled about who this Dr. Baker is and why Rebecca would be going to see him. Mrs. Danvers is especially shocked that Rebecca would dare to keep a secret from her. She's described as "dazed" and "bewildered." After some discussion, it is agreed that they will all go and see this Dr. Baker in person the next day to see if they can unearth the secret that died with Rebecca--to discover why she wrote Favell saying there was something she had to tell him about immediately.

At last the couple are left alone together for the night.

When he had gone [Frank being the 'he'], and shut the door behind him, Maxim came over to me where I was standing by the fireplace. I held out my arms to him and he came to me like a child. I put my arms round him and held him. We did not say anything for a long time. I held him and comforted him as though he were Jasper. As though Jasper had hurt himself in some way and had come to me to take his pain away.

See the transition. She's not Jasper anymore. He is. They've switched roles.

I went and sat down at Maxim's feet. . .The clock on the mantelpiece struck ten o'clock. Maxim put his arms around me and lifted me against him. We began to kiss one another, feverishly, desperately, like guilty lovers who have not kissed before.

Chapter 26

I woke Maxim. He stared at me at first like a puzzled child, and then he held out his arms.

More proof of the role reversal that has occurred.

The beds where we had slept had a terrible emptiness about them.

I know another blogger had mentioned the two separate beds in the master bedroom before. But this struck me as odd. Why would a book that has no problem hinting at the sexuality of Rebecca and scumbags like Favell, be prudish enough to have our properly married couple sleeping separately? Is this common to books of this period????

The chapter then continues on about their trip to London to see Dr. Baker.

For some reason Favell pushes his way through the pleasantries and is the one to make the request.

"The jury brought in a verdict of suicide," said Favell coming forward, "which I say is absolutely out of the question. Mrs. de Winter was my cousin, I knew her intimately. She would never have done such a thing, and what's more she had no motive. What we want to know is what the devil she came to see you about on the very day she died."
"You had better leave this to Julyan and myself," said Maxim quietly. "Doctor Baker has not the faintest idea what you are driving at."

At first it seems to be a dead end. Dr. Baker has no records showing he ever saw a Mrs. de Winter. But then they think about the possibility of her using a false name. The name she used? Mrs. Danvers.

Funny that Favell dislikes the doctor because he didn't offer them drinks.

You want to know if I can suggest any motive why your wife should have taken her life? I think I can. The woman who called herself Mrs. Danvers was very serious ill." He paused. He looked at every one of us in turn. "I remember her perfectly well," he said, and he turned back to the files again.

I remember being shocked the first time I read this back in high school. I had assumed that Rebecca was telling the truth--that she was pregnant--and that the visit would reveal those details. I remembered this time round that she wasn't pregnant, but I didn't remember the details of how it all worked out.

She stood it very well. She did not flinch. She said she had suspected it for some time. Then she paid my fee and went out. I never saw her again. . .The pain was slight as yet but the growth was deep-rooted. . . and in three or four months' time she would have been under morphia. An operation would have been no earthly use at all. I told her that. The thing had got too firm a hold. There is nothing anyone can do in a case like that, except give morphia, and wait.

Chapter 27

Favell's still desperate for a drink.

Favell is making threats that though the law has let Maxim off the hook, he never will.

They make their way back to Manderley (minus Favell of course). They stop off to have dinner.

"I believe," said Maxim, "that Rebecca lied to me on purpose. The last supreme bluff. She wanted me to kill her. She foresaw the whole thing. That's why she laughed. That's why she stood there laughing when she died."

A quick phone call with Frank reveals that Mrs. Danvers has run away from Manderley. Packed up without a word.

They decide not to spend the night in a hotel, but to drive through the night until they reach Manderley.

I want to get home. Something's wrong. I know it is. I want to get home.

The last images of the book are of them being in a car driving towards Manderley in the wee morning hours--after 2AM--and seeing the sky turn red and orange and crimson--as Maxim realizes that Manderley is ablaze.

And the ashes blew towards us with the salt wind from the sea.