Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of alcohol use disorder.

In the present, a fierce July thunderstorm keeps Lara’s family out of the orchard. Joe and Emily work in the barn, while Lara, Nell, and Maisie are in the house. Nell asks Lara when Duke and Pallace began having sex, guessing correctly how the story goes. Lara confirms that she is right. Lara decides to continue the story without Emily since Emily doesn’t want to hear anything bad about Duke.

Lara’s story resumes. As soon as Fools for Love opened, Lara realized that Duke and Pallace were together. It was obvious from their chemistry onstage. Duke never told her himself—because she was essentially housebound, she rarely saw him. After Pallace took over the role of Emily, Lara couldn’t act again. Ripley tried to get her to see a therapist, but she had lost her confidence.

Lara needed to be useful at Tom Lake, so she helped the wardrobe department. Cat, the woman who ran it, brought a basket of mending to the cottage each morning, and picked up the finished mending in the afternoon. All day, Lara sat propped in bed, sewing. Duke was frustrated with Lara because she wouldn’t take Ripley up on his offer.